Lidl. I thought I shouldn't have, but I did.

[Chris Bacon]

An assortment (always bad news) of HSS (supposedly) twist drill bits. "Parkside". I thought "Oh, that's useful, there are a couple each of the smaller sizes, and most of the range up to 10mm are there, they're probably shitebitsmadeofcheeseforcraplydrilling, but £3.99".

I don't think they're even suitable for drilling into timber. The larger sizes have dents and divots in the cutting lips, the point angles are, erm, variable (and what's much worse is that the angles vary *on the same bit*), and the chisel edges are not very central (he said, politely).

Perhaps I'll have a go at sharpening them, but I have no great hopes. Could have had 3 bottles of their relabelled Westons cider for that, which *is* good.

You have been warned (if you needed to be).

[williamwright]

I went with a group ? a club actually ? on a camping trip, and they all wanted to go to Malton Market. Purely because I didn't want to seem aloof I purchased a few bits and bobs from a tool stall. All were of deplorably poor quality, especially the drills, which were like yours, with the pointed tips off centre. They wouldn't drill steel at all. They were able to make a small dint in aluminium. The holes they drilled in softwood were as tidy as if they'd been made by shrapnel from a 17th century blunderbus.

Bill

[GB]

My wife once made me go to Bicester Shopping Village. It's indescribably awful. Worse, even, than Call The Midwife.

Why do people go there?

[Steve Walker]

I recently bought some titanium coated HSS drills from Amazon, with 5 or so of each size. I started by trying to drill some 3.5mm holes in 3mm thick, mild-steel angle. They were rapidly returned when the first wore to a conical, blunt point without finishing the first hole and the second actually untwisted! Clearly top grade Chineseium.

Similarly, I have just returned some Lumiweld equivalent - when the aluminium melted way before the wire.

[RJH]

I bought a set of the forstner bits. They work, just, but nothing like as well as a couple of no-name bits I already had.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I'd have thought the term not of merchantable quality might be the way to get your money back. A drill should surely do what its supposed to do, and not effectively be a bit of metal that sort of looks like a drill. I had a set of Draper hacksaw blades and two on the trot shed their teeth just sawing a bit of hardboard. I took them back but it was an independent store. Either a faulty batch or counterfeit. Said made in Poland on the pack. Brian

[polygonum_on_google]

I bought a set (well, collection of a wide range of sizes) of TCT Forstner bits from an AliExpress supplier. Somewhat slow to arrive but they work very well indeed - and, for what they are, very inexpensive. Sharp and well finished - they produce smooth holes and cut quickly.

[Chris Green]

However the sets of Silverline hex shank drills I have are pretty good.

Silverline vary from awful to good value on my experience, mostly OK actually, the only total failures I have from them are a pair of hand countersinks.

[Clive Arthur]

Mid 70's I worked in the workshop in an amusement arcade on a pier. We used the twist drills from the bingo prizes for various bodges, never for drilling. You could bend the 1/8" ones between your fingers.

And the bucket of surplus coppers which the manager took every week as a tip was about £70, the bank would give him rather less. The machines which made the real money were the change machines.

[charles]

I used a brand new 5mm Bosch carded drill last week. Gosh, it was sharp.

[nightjar]

I learned long ago not to buy cheap tools. For drills I always used this company:

Not only do they always sell good quality drills, they also have an excellent advice service and sell some really obscure drill types.