Worst Tools

[Rick]

Thats the problem, they are not cheep, they are in the middle price bracket. You can get much cheeper.

Rick

[Aidan]

A packet of 3 Wickes jigsaw blades for cutting metal or plastic. Proved to be incapable of cutting or even marking the piece of steel sheet I had been cutting. I put the old blunt blade back in to make sure it wasn't me blaming the tools. And yes, I did start a new cut.

[Mike]

The new replacement model with the Velcro pad is a lot lot better. I'm in real danger of not wearing it out and getting a free replacement before the warranty expires :-)

[Bob Eager]

A tin of twist drills inherited from my late father-in-law. All brand new...probably from some slightly dubious source, knowing him :-)

Broke a 1/16 twist drill a few weeks ago; suddenly remembered 'Pete's tin'. Found a replacement, and fitted it to my hand drill. Didn't seem very sharp, but was starting off gently (only softwood, mind). Pressed a bit harder.

I still have this twist drill; still in one piece. A slight drawback is the 90 degree change of direction halfway down...

[The Natural Philosopher]

All strimmers are crap except te ones that have a fixed lenght of wire or chain ion em. Thats is: don't buy a spoool strimmer unless you just trim the odd daisy.

I reckon I'll use my model aircraft instead. Fire em up and let the prop do the business. Or stick a steel prop on.

[Dave]

What are these velcro padded sanders. I ask, as I went to velcro many years ago, when Sandvic (sp) introduced this system. I am now saddled with a B & D sander that has the Sandvic velcro pad glued to the rubber backing pad on the sander. Can I remove it? Only if I take the rubber pad with it.

I too might be looking for a new sander soon :-(

Dave

[usenet]

Not my experience at all, I've used three strimmers of the years:-

A B&D bought 20 years or so ago which did sterling service around our previous house. It did wear out eventually, the strimmer line simply wore a groove in the hole where it comes out of the spool.

A big McCulloch petrol engined one which we still have (but I'm about to sell). It also doubles as a brush cutter but I've rarely used that facility. Even as a strimmer it will remove just about anything, however it's rather heavy and feeding more strimmer line is a bit of a hassle.

A brand new, very little, B&D GL423 (Focus only) which cost £19.99, works well and the Reflex auto feed has been reliable so far. For the minor edging etc. that we want it for it's ideal, I have other mowers for the heavy stuff that I used to use the big strimmer for.

Using wire or chain on a strimmer partly destroys one of their advantages, they don't do much damage to posts, bricks, trees, etc.

[Nick Atty]

I'd a B&D hedge trimmer which got so hot when cutting a decent sized hedge that the plastic mounting for the gears melted.

And somewhere I've got a very, very cheap cross-head screwdriver that I gave a bit of a twist once, and where there is now a quarter turn between the start and end of the splined bit of the bit.

[Mike]

Why remove it ? Normal sandpaper seems to work happily over it.

[AlexW]

1. Screwdriver bits left behind by a tradesman. He claimed no knowledge of them ... and having tried them out (&binned) I would not want them back either.
2. Various slide compound mitre saws with bent fences and lacking the ability to get to 45 deg angles etc etc! Mainly B&Q PP models BTW - some are much better than others, I think.
3. B&Q PP power planer, died after a few sides of doors.

1. The combination sharpening stone I got from a timber merchant, all lumpy and curved on one side - useless ... could not be arsed taking it back and replaced it with a better one from Poundland! Really.

2. The table saw (Focus/McKeller) I have that won't quite get to 90 deg, OK for sheet work bloody annoying for deeper cuts. I suppose I need to take it back ... but the mitre saw fiasco wore me down a bit!

1. Plasplug silicone sealant/mastic spreader thingy set - can't get them to work proper - maybe its just me!.

Over the years, I have also converted some perfectly good tools to useless ones by misuse (drills, chisels, screwdrivers, paintbrushes ... ).

Alex

[Chris Bacon]

A Flymo Compact Turbo "lawn mower" - winner by a good margin! Various non-hard files, a set of monkey-metal allen keys, etc.

[P.R.Brady]

Draper stud extractors. Had a front brake caliper and the brass bleed nipple sheared off. It had a nice hole down the middle so a perfect candidate for a stud extractor. I was just turning it into the hole and only holding the end of spanner between finger and thumb (definitely no pressure) when the extractor just disintegrated. No chance of drilling it out, so off to the scrap yard for a replacement caliper. Grr!

Phil

[Tony Williams]

Similar experience, except mine was a Dormer stud extractor. Still got the rest in the nice wooden box, not sure I'd ever want to trust them again.