Lidl tools

[Michael Mcneil]

Laser level less than a tenner. Workshoes and boots £20ish, and a pair of handplanes for £3. Anyone tried the laser?

[Ian Stirling]

It's great, cuts through 6" concrete with ease, and under a tenner.

Seriously though.

First impressions: Crap quality, the batteries won't even fit in the battery holder. Second impressions: Don't try to put the batteries in the laser hole.

Reasonable design of tripod, fairly stable when locked. Not perhaps the solidest design, but it is a tenner. I would have considered buying another one for my camera, if I'd been able to have a look at it.

The level bit of it is detachable, can project either a dot in line with the level, a dot at right angles to the end of the level, or a plane of light along the line of the level, and of rotatable axis. This can be attatched either across, or up from the rotatable platform.

It's not especially bright, it may be getting reterofitted with a laser-pointer diode.

[mich]

Not tried the laser. Got a pair of their boots - they were OK.

I got a set of three spanners sometime ago for £3.99. They are fine too. I also got a measuring tape from there which seems OK.

Tools are no better or worse than anyone else's cr*ppy tools!

[Arthur]

Got 2 of the props at 3.99 a piece. lifts to 2.9m (screwfix's lifts to 2.09m for £17.99). One of the supports, screws, bolts and screw storage box.

Also got some clothes pegs for the wife :)

Arthur

[Lurch]

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 23:57:51 GMT, Peter Twydell strung together this:

Lucky bar steward, all I got was another wife that wasn't much better than the original!

[Peter Twydell]

In article , Arthur writes

Not much of an exchange.

I once went to a wife-swapping party and managed to swap mine for a newish SDS drill...

[PJ]

Buy cheap - buy again. When will people learn!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But which made the most noise?

[wanderer]

Nice if you can get 'em. Tried two stores near us for the props, round about mid day Thursday. Neither had stocked them.....

[R Taylor]

I would usually agree 'buy cheap buy twice' however:

laser level - £10 - perfectly adequate for DIY - saving over screwfix £35

props - £2.99ea - again, perfectly adequate - saving over screwfix on 4 - c£59

'stanley' locking screw case £2.48 identical to screwfix's £13.99 offering except the 'stanley' sticker - saving on 2 - £23.02

total saving on items I was going to buy anyway = £117

RT

[Andy Hall]

Are you sure that they are adequate?

I suppose that it does depend on the standard of accuracy and longevity that you are willing to accept.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[R Taylor]

Yes. I've already used them. they all do what they are supposed to do.

I'm not sure what you mean. the props prop, the screw cases hold screws and are (on closer inspection) actually better quality than the stanley screw cases and the laser level is accurate to ~1mm / m. for £9.99

besides, at that price they are almost disposable

RT

[PJ]

I bought a Makita drill 21 years ago. I used it daily for my work and when I changed career I used it for the odd job. I have used it a lot recently because I've been doing loads of work on my house. It cost me £90+ 21 years ago and since then it's had one set of brushes and two replacement chucks (my fault cos I hit them with hammer when I lose the key!). It still works perfectly well. £90+ for a drill 21 years ago was a small fortune. B&D professional drills were around £35. Thing is though that I know when I pick the drill up it will work and it will work well. It's proved to be a damn good investment. I also have a Makita angle grinder and sander which I've had for 15+ years and they've never let me down. I bought quality engineering and reliability. Buy your cheap screwfix Ferm gear or your Lidl similar s**te and you don't get that level of reliability. Like you say, they're disposable but at 9am at night when it packs up half way through a job you may wish you'd bought better.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Also, they're never as nice to use. Poorer balance, less tactile controls, and not as accurate. A bit like comparing cars. All cars will get you from A to B at reasonable comfort, but some are much more pleasant to drive than others.

[IMM]

You did it twice? What a loser!

[IMM]

Or two or three of them and picked one up and used that, and still saved a wedge on Makita's. I have had a B&D for 24 years and that still goes and it was a re-con at the time, and cost only a few quid, well I can't remember the cost as it was so cheap. If it was £90 I would have remembered.

[Michael Mcneil]

I am not interested in buying expensive tools that work well PJ, your posts are masterpieces of logic. It explains how a length of extrusion at £100 a ton can cost £100 or £10 for a 12 inch length depending on who put the bubbles in in a remarkably lucid way.

It doesn't explain why the Japanese could import steel and etc turn it into a motor car and transport it clear across the world and sell it cheaper at a profit than British Leyland could produce and sell Mini at a loss. As for VFM, a 1970's Marina would be worth what in today's money? I would love to have another Datsun Violet.

Being in the trade and using these things regularly I would still like to know why a 4' level costs £44 and a 2' level cost me £17. I admit all a while ago and both fair quality.

I have never bought a cheap level that was worth having, hence the original question.

As for Ferm tools: I was using one this week. The 32V hammer drill -not SDS. After the first day when it went from fully charged but unused to flat in less than a dozen holes into concrete I was able to use it all day.

Not a patch on an SDS but not an SDS. I would never have expected such capabilities from a battery drill that costs £55 a few days ago. I had considered getting a battery SDS but for the occasional use I have for one I'd as soon have two of those. When one packs up or gets stolen I just go and get the other one.

Quality is all very well but today's crop of childen are more likely to be criminals than citizens in 4 or 5 years time and the damage a crack addict can do at the moment is bad enough. So I am not looking to stock my shed with expensive toys for them to get hold of thanks.

[R Taylor]

you're making a lot of assumptions, matey, the main one being that I'm unable to distinguish cheap unusable crap from inexpensive kit which is suitable for the uses to which I'm going to put them.

I bought 4 props, TUV marked and identical to the 'expensive' screwfix ones the 2 screw cases are better quality than the (far) more expensive stanley ones and & the cheap laser level is also TUV marked and solid state.

why would any of these (in your topsy turvy world) "fail at 9am at night" solely because I've bought them at a deep discount from one retailer rather than another ?

using your logic, anything bought 'cheap' at the wholesalers is poorer quality and more prone to failure than the same item bought further down the supply chain at retail.

tell us, does quality 'grow' on an item as it moves down the supply chain ?

you're not making sense.

[PJ]

Christ! I think I need a drink. So negative and pessimistic I just went into immediate depression.

[PJ]

Of course I am. OK, I'll give you the props and the screw cases but things like drills etc. at a tenner just have to be lesser quality than a "proper" make. I also agree that some of the proper makes (Makita being a good example) are over priced but reliability is what some are after - not cheap deals. Laser levels at cheap price are going to be less precision than more expensive ones but I agree it may not matter to the average DIY bod. Personally I'll stick to buying tools that will last me a long long time thanks.