Mine would be the pack of Blackspur screwdriver bits I knew I shoudlnt buy, but was tempted, just the thing for this one job... the first bit managed one screw, and was totally mangled. Maybe they were made of butter cunningly wrapped in tinfoil.
Then there were the B&D drill bits... couldnt even drill a single hole in pine. But, to be fair, regrinding them made them functional, so could be worse.
And those idiot designed screwdriggers. Great idea in principle, useless junk IRL.
Bought a small plastic case of B&D drills when I'd left my set somewhere else. The plastic gripped the bits too tight to get them out by hand, and after levering out with a screwdriver, each bit was bent, which was also a good indication of the crap quality they were.
Bought a wood chisel from Wickes last weekend. Got home and took the protective plastic off the end only to find it wasn't sharpened and had a flat end.
One of the best bargins was a set of 3 450mm masonary bits,
6mm, 8mm, and 10mm IIRC, I bought from a market stall for 99p. I only wanted to drill one hole, and expected to have to chuck them after that, but I've had them for many years now, and they still work brilliantly.
A B&Q battery-powered circular saw, bought to trim three doors and some flooring. Useless after the second battery charge, replaced it and the second one didn't last as long!
By staggering coincidence a Blackspur spokeshave, bearing the tag "Made in China" with a heroic picture of a train crossing over a long embankment with happy workers waving back at the viewer.
The blade was apparently made out of lead and the plastic thumbscrew from the material used to pack meat at Tesco.
Odd, I have one of those, I think it must be the same model (they only do one don't they?) it came in a pack with a drill a sabre saw and a torch. It's been the best circular saw that I have used, lasts for about
32-40 feet of cutting doors, and recharges in an hour. It came with three batteries so there's never any shortage of charged batteries. I was impressed enough to buy their jogsaw using the same battery pack, and hence got another two batteries and another charger. The jogsaw works well, in fact better than the Bosch mains powered jigsaw that I have.
A JCB half-sheet sander (shook itself to bits) Performance Power jigsaw (near useless) Performance Power electric plane (ground it's own base with the rotating blade) Paying for Bosch to refusbish an expensive SDS drill - their repair lasted but something else not covered broke in days.
Mine just *has* to be the B&D GL690 strimmer. Quite expensive for a strimmer - 60 quid or so - but totally unreliable.
Main problem is its spool - which has some cunning ratchet mechanism which is supposed to feed extra line out, as necessary. The spool fits into a sort of cassette - with a plastic pawl on a plasic pivot pin providing the ratchet. Problem is that the pivot pin breaks off - with the result that, depending on where it ends up, it either stops feeding line out or it feeds out miles of the stuff which promptly winds rounds the shaft and jams the whole thing up.
The first time it broke, I took just the cassette (which contains the ratchet) back to Focus and asked for another one under warranty. "We can't give you a new cassette (which they sell as a consumable) - we'll have to send the whole machine back to B&D and let them deal with it - but you can
*buy* a cassette if you want". After reminding them of their obligations under the Sale of Goods Act, and mentioning Trading Standards, they nicked a cassette out of a brand new strimmer, replaced it with my broken one, and sent the lot back to B&D. What a way to run a railway!
Later I bought a another new cassette when I ran out of line, so I now have two - *both* of which broke last time I used the machine. Rather than wasting time taking them back *again*, I've re-manufactured them with much stronger pivots, so time will tell whether that is successful.
In future, I shall avoid B&D strimmers (and probably B&D everything else) like the plague!
I've got another contender. I once had a strange shaped screw to undo, couldnt find anything to fit it anywhere, couldnt even find out what it was called. So I took a steel nail, grinder, file etc and made one to fit. Had it fitting beautifully in about 15 minutes. Ground the nail head to grip it with pliers... I proudly put it in the screw, gave it a turn, and took it out: the thing was thoroughly mangled, and the screw unmoved.
I have several that I'm quite happy with. Some that I'm not.
The 1/2" router is a waste of time. The lock doesn't work. Any slots you route start out deep and get steadily shallower as the thing rises upwards. You need about 20kg of force to prevent this.
The jigsaw is great. Comfortable handle, fast and really effective pendulum action. Much better than the Bosch one I'd borrowed before it. Unfortunately, I appear to have lost it.
The spiral saw was a complete waste of time.
I even have some non Pro Performance Power tools that have seen good service. In particular, my circular saw (once the original blade was replaced) is absolutely great. Smooth, and powerful. I'm also pretty pleased with the twin bar sliding compound mitre saw, although they do several crap models if you're one to get distracted by laser sights instead of going for the twin bar operation, which is far more important. The 1/3 sheet sander was attrocious, though.
I bought a Flymo hedgecutter that seemed very small for its quoted power. After cutting a section of hedge with a few thick bits that stopped the cutters, it wouldn't cut any more - any branch would cause it to jam.
I opened it up and discovered there was no clutch mechanism (or equivalent) - the first jam had stripped all the nylon gears.
Changed it for a big f@ck-off Bosch one - that'd fell a redwood.
I have one of the 1/3 sheet orbital sanders and while not the best tool I have ever used I find it hard to knock something that I paid £25 for and intended to use for only one job. I expected to have to bin it after one job but it's basically as good as new.
To be quite honest I find it a bit strange that people complain about many of these cheap tools. Only a complete Muppet would think that you are going to get top of the range quality from the cheapest tool on the market.
I bought a B&Q value garden fork to dig over a little section of ground (I joked with my partner when I picked it up that it would probably break).
It lasted one, yes just one, fork full before two of the prongs broke off. When we took the thing back the way they accepted it back made me feel like this was a common problem.
Yours was clearly a different model. Mine cost 5.99 and was of even lesser value, in that it was totally useless!
Generally speaking, my experience with cheap power tools is that they are worth a punt, particularly if you take the time (and a little expense) replacing the blades that come with them. Only occasionally has the tool been no good at all. Probably the best bargain was my angle grinder, for
5.99. It works. What more do you need?
Sometimes the tool just isn't up to scratch, but most of the time, you end up with something very useful at a fraction of the cost of the "real" thing. And for some of us, that difference is the difference between having a tool that does the job and having no tool at all, as not everyone can afford 400 quid on a compound mitre saw, or 150 quid on a circ.
hadn't used any Ferm tools before I thought it was worth a shot for =A320. Purchased a set of decent replacement blades, fitted them then went to attack the door.
The thing spun and looked like it was doing something but barely made a scratch on the door. Sat there trying to adjust the depth, allignment etc, then noticed that the drum the blades were attached to was at an angle. Took the thing apart but no way of coaxing it to straighten out.
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