Aldi Router and table compatibility. Can't see how to secure the router properly?

Oct 06, 2005 63 Replies

It depends on where you make it, the design and the type and quality of materials used.

Quite possibly if you buy one of these really cheap ones.

However, a product at this price point is a world apart from a decent SDS drill such as a Bosch, Makita or DeWalt.

Generally it does.

"It is unwise to pay too much, but is is worse to pay too little. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. . . . it can't be done. When you deal with the lowest bidder, it is wise to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better!"- John Ruskin (1819-1900)

There is certainly a level of cost associated with maintaining a brand. However, in the case of the leading power tool manufacturers, it also means getting a good quality product that works properly and safely over a long period of time without being an ergonomic problem to use, and for which proper spares and service are available if ever required.

The photo wiht the user trying to operate the router while wearing a thick pair of gardening gloves says it all.

These kind of products are a joke. I really hope for the sake of the people using them that they don't turn out to be a dangerous joke.

I seem to recall a bunch of British motorcycle manufacturers using similar arguments when the first Japanese bikes came out in the UK. All these cheap unknown brands like Honda, Yammaha etc. They won't last, they won't be reliable etc, etc.

Then we heard the same arguments about cheap Japanese cars. All these cheap unknown brands like Datsun, Toyota etc. They won't last, they won't be reliable etc, etc.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Dave

Matt, I asked for opinions from people who have used one, not your inane ramblings.

Matt, have you used this product?

No you misunderstand. There are no more than £2 of components in an SDS drill even if it is branded Makita or DeWalt.

Yes, but this is a rather different game.

The vendors that you mention do produce quality products and support them properly. Those that I mentioned certainly do manufacture in low cost areas but use quality materials, designs and components.

What we are talking about here is simply volume manufacture and warehouse shifting of cheap junk of poor quality, little or no backup addressing a market for disposable products where people buy only on price.

There's nothing wrong with that as long as people understand that there is no backup apart from a unit replacement, accuracy and ergonomics of use are poor and that there could well be safety issues in some cases.

There's also nothing wrong with buying on price, but it's a nonsense to suggest that the quality is the same as a decent product, that the

3 year warranty is a substitute for proper service and spares and that such a product is equivalent to a quality brand when plainly it isn't.

I don't misunderstand at all. Have you looked inside each type of product and compared?

There is a huge difference.

There is also the issue of development and support which does not come for nothing.

You had better ask Matt that question.

Some of them in the past. Not the Aldi one.

Yes the quality ones use designs that are *cheaper* to make. E.g. tooled for robotic assembly.

No.. that is why they can assemble them using machines.

This about the only thing that costs more. Does it cost 20 times more? How many people are going to use it?

My one, which I bought some time ago, and included a set of bits/chisels in the price, has done loads of heavy work since, and is still going fine. The bits are still OK, too.

As much as I hate to say this but the router table is as exactly the same as what's being offred by Ryobi,MachineMart,Trend ect.

However the tools are a joke but aimed at the once or twice used householder who don't give a toss about its reliability, its cheap it will drill,cut,sand and it will do for the next job is all they are worried about.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

The one I bought has a sort of barrel type motor pointing down, rather than being inline with the bit. It's great. It came with some bits, and a 25mm chisel, and a pointed breaking chisel, too. You could buy two for fifty quid, and either keep one in case of breakdown, or use one in each hand.

Dribble, by that wildly inaccurate comment it can be safely assumed you have never been involved in any manufacturing industry.

Their advert. did say they are compatible. They said "most routers" are. Perhaps the OP just had an off day mounting the router. I've no idea, 'cos they'd sold out by the time I got there.

Router Tables are still available at my local Aldi. ;-)

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

What, have you taken each product apart and compared them? I bet you have not!

The fact that you have no idea how much components costs prove you don't. How do you think they make a profit on £20 SDS drills?

Do you think the price you pay in a shop has any bearing on the manufacturing costs?

Oh, bum. Now you're really rubbing it in. Where, approx.?

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