Erbauer drills 14.4V vs 18V?

Are you sure you have ever planed wood? Now tell the truth.

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...go away...you don't say.....

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But I thought you bought purely on price?

I got a jump starter pack with built in tyre compressor from them last week for 19.99. Half the price Argos were charging for the same make before Xmas.

Where is Mt Cheese, Himalayas?

They must have changed the colour as they were all red originally, so that gullible people like you would buy them.

Yes, I'd forgotten those.

It seems that you have to go to about £160-170 for a reasonably good

This was the strange one to me too. I can't think of any other power tool where the divide is so great, but it is. For a long time I dismissed jig saws as not worth bothering with.

I went to the Woodworking show at Alexandra Palace.

Once I'd battled through the north London traffic for nearly two hours, I walked around the show for about three hours and looked carefully at a range of tools on the different stands.

I looked for a while at the small number of stands selling tat. There really is a lot of rubbish for sale.

Then I spent some time looking at what Ryobi had to offer. Slightly better, but the same warning bells that many of the products are embellished with useless "features" like misaligned laser guides. Pretty but worthless. I thought that the drills and circular saw were especially shoddy.

Hitachi had some nice circular saws and the jigsaw I saw wasn't too bad, although I wasn't able to see it powered.

DeWalt's stuff was patchy, as ever. Drills seemed OK, but I wasn't impressed with the jigsaw.

Makita had a few new things. The LS1214 mitre saw felt as good and smooth as the LS1013. It's big of course. I suspect that it will wipe out the DW708.

Fein had a few new accessories for the Multimaster that I hadn't seen before so I bought some. That is definitely one of my favourite and most used tools for all kinds of jobs. Very adaptable and well made.

Festool have a very nice new router, the OF1400. Very well balanced and some well thought out adjustment features. They are between £300 and £350, unfortunately, although if I didn't have the DW625, I would certainly consider one of these for mid range work.

All in all, though, I haven't seen anything that alters my opinion of who has good products in which area. None of the major manufacturers have a monopoly on everything that they make being best of breed. Festool come quite close in what they do but the range is limited in comparison to other manufacturers.

Price/performance my dear chappie.

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I don't believe you.

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I've got one of those too. The switch button mechanics do jam due to dirt

- but a quick squirt of cleaning spray sorts it. I've not had trouble finding ordinary discs, but diamond ones don't fit - or at least the ones I've tried. Wouldn't say it's rough, though. Mine is mainly used with those cup brushes for removing paint from metal, etc. I'd say the switch jamming would be a real pain when cutting stone etc and producing a lot of dust. It was exceptional value for money when bought some 15 years ago.

I don't belive this. You can pick up a Ryobi at most B&Qs now and they certainly ouse quality in looks, feels and touch.

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I've only got one Ryobi - a cordless 'Dremel' type, which has been quite superb. Still on the original batteries despite a lot of use, so they must be decent ones - a sign of quality on any cordless tool.

Of course they may have gone downmarket. DeWalt, Bosch and others appear to with at least some of their products. On the other hand, some older B&D tools were very good - I've got a Tradesman vari-speed drill that's had a hard DIY life and is still fine.

If you had to be sure of satisfaction with just one make it would have to be Makita or Metabo, I'd guess, out of the non esoteric brands.

But since you constantly recommend things you haven't tried, how can you be sure of anything other than price?

Anyone can read adverts or catalogues.

Wicks 'own brand' power tools were originally red, and IIRC they were the first shed in the UK to have their own brand. They presumably used Krell because they were originally a German owned company too - and when they started this - over 15 years ago - the Chinese weren't making this sort of tool in any great quantity for export, unlike today.

I don't really care what you believe.

I know what I saw and picked up and examined closely, and sorry to disappoint you but Ryobi underwhelmed me considerably

I still don't believe you.

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Must be getting on for 15 years ago when I bought mine although it's had little use. I had a Red Wickes SDS (also made by Kress) at the same time although that didn't last too long. I now buy Bosch tools if possible apart from one18volt DeWalt SDS drill, as I need them for work and can't afford for them to keep breaking.

That is exactly what you do. Have you put in the cheapest oil available in your engine yet? You must do thins.

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I know that. I don't believe everything else he wrote.

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