A new low in cheap tools?

I bought a set like that :) It was either KMS or BusyBee, could have been House of Tools, I can't remember. Anyway, 29 reduced-shank brad point bits in a metal box for next to nothing. I figured, I'm drilling softwood, how good does the steel have to be?

Turned out the reduced shanks were somehow cut on an angle to the centre line. The first time I chucked one up, I stood there wondering why the tip was blurry. So, on my $1200 lathe, I chucked them up and reduced the shanks a little more, until they were straight: they work just fine now. Sometimes cheap is okay ;)

David...

I think those are the ones that actually start as nails. When a nail gets stuck in the cold-header machine and they have to grab it with pliers and twist it out, they call that nail a "drill bit" and cut the head off of it.

Ed Huntress

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 06:18:41 GMT, "Ed Huntress" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

Not so funny. I once bought a cheapy set that were not just bent, but bendy. They were far softer than lo-ten fencing wire.

**************************************************** sorry

.........no I'm not! remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Spike....Spike? Hello?

My first set of cheap drill was many moons ago. I was drilling through a piece of steel when the bit broke through and jammed. I did the usual freeing bit and finished drilling the hole OK. Came to put the drill away and it looked sort of funny. It was still straight but had twisted in the middle 1/3rd of the flutes. I had a drill whose flutes started right hand, converted to left hand and then went back to right hand. The edge was still sharp and it still cut OK. Looked really weird though.

John

I did get some cheep drill bits from American Science and Surplus some years back. Wondered why they didn't drill holes. Turns out the cutting ends weren't sharpened -- you machinsts know about leading edges and trailing edges. Well, I had to spend a couple minutes at the grinder, doing the angles that the factory oughta done.

And the "flare nut" wrench set from Pittsburgh tools, imported by Harbor Fright. They were so soft, and so oversized that they wouldn't turn nuts -- flare or otherwise -- they went into the trash.

And the crescent wrench from Dollar Store.... won't do that again.

I bought a set of letter drills on ebay one time for a total of $4.00 and some change. I accepted right from the start they would probably be junk..............but I had that urge for a hopefull bargain. I was totally wrong. They seem to be very good drill bits and I have yet to have one problem out of any of them. They hold an edge fine and mic out to ther proper sizes. Now I wished I bought another set or two, as these were listed in a dutch type auction. Every now and then you stumble on a great deal, rare but still a possibility. Visit my website:

expressed are those of my wifes, I had no input whatsoever. Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Maybe he can use those drills to fix the cast ir**************************************************************************

Hi all,

I recently picked up three large (7") cast iron 3/4" pipe clamps for a buck each. Second hand, but never used, and I think I know why now: the two holes on the threaded side of the clamp don't match up very well. See a pic of the clamp at:

Anyway, I'm thinking that the only way to salvage these is to bore out one side of the non-threaded hole until it is parallel with the threaded hole--removing about 1/4" of material by my estimation. The hole is 1" dia., 3" deep, cast iron.

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Jeff (Celebrating his 68th birthday today!)

Yea, I posted a long time ago about one of MY experiences with dirt cheap drillsets. In this case, I was trying to drill about a

1/8" hole through some oak. It went through, but, was a struggle, and, when I pulled the drill out, I was surprised to find that a chunk of the spiral was reversed! Needless to say they all went in the trash...although now, I kind of regret not keeping the partially reversed one. While there are areas where it is great to save money (clamps, for example) it is a waste of money and time to buy cheap cutting tools. Good drills, etc, will cut more accurately, longer and better, with less force, than cheap. Regards Dave Mundt

Working in machine shops for over 15 years I have found many supposed "good" quality twist drills that were ground off center or had a trailing edge higher than the cutting edge. Always check your grinds.

This is a good point. For "C" clamps, I tend to prefer decent quality ones. The Pittsburgh "F" clamps from HF are not a bad deal, and actually, I discovered a bit ago that HF "C" clamps are not iron...but steel. I hacked a great mod to the deck height adjustment mechanism on my John Deere lawn tractor by cutting out the threaded section of one of their 6" clamps and welding it to the support arm. Probably not the greatest steel in the world, but, it has worked really well for several years now. In general I have found that I would rather buy the best, and only cry once...but "best" can be a flexible concept... Regards Dave Mundt

I found a perfect use for an "El Cheap o" stamped sheet metal wrench. One Saturday morning I bought a document shredder by GBC for $1.00. When I tried to use it, it would shred for about 1/2' then seem to spin it's wheels without doing any work. On examination, I determined that the problem lay in the nylon gear turning on the 7/16 hex shaft. I took a thin, stamped six point box wrench, cut it to fit, carved away enough of the hub and ribs to accommodate the added part, and now I have a positive drive to the shredding mechanism. I suspect that the nylon gear was designed to slip on overload or jam, but with it slipping on a single sheet of copy paper, the designers exceeded their goals considerably. Sure, fixing yard sale junk is not profitable, but at my age, it gets to be fun! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Jeff Wisnia wrote: (Snip)

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

--Winston

I buy a lot from HF, and other purveyors of "quality import" machines and tooling. The quality may not be high, but the price more than makes up for that in most cases. The grinders you mention are a case in point, as is the famous HF bandsaw.

Import cutting tools, though, are a real crap shoot. Some are pretty good, some are downright awful. The problem is, you can't tell which it is going to be until one fails on you, usually in a way that does the maximum amount of damage to your project.

I've gotten drill bits so soft that the flutes literally stripped off of them when I tried to drill a piece of mild steel. I've also gotten bits so hard that they shattered when attempting to drill a piece of pine. The grind angles are often wrong. Bits are crooked. The wrong size. Etc. But every once in a while, one is very good indeed. So the temptation to just give them one more try can be strong.

I try to resist that urge, though. It makes more sense to me to buy good name brand bits, taps, and blades. The cost isn't really that much more in proportion to the cost of the projects on which they're used, and the results are much more uniformly satisfactory.

Gary

Woo Woo! Happy Birthday!

Gunner

The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long

It's a disease. I too am fond of the fix it myself. When my oldest was little, the once loved stores would put on a $0.25/item sale on Saturdays. I would buy several of the same toy to make a working one usually saving over $20.

I too had a broken shredder. It knocks over easily and the switch took a direct hit. Simple matter to put it back together, but there was 1 spring missing. None of the usual shops had a 3 position switch with 8 connections on the bottom, so I hit Apache Reclamation. Boy, they had tons of them. I bought several of each type (5 or so) hoping one would fit. Couple a bucks at the most. I was able to tear one apart and use it's springs as a replacement so I didn't even have to solder!

Lots o fun.

Joel. phx

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 21:21:27 -0800, Winston brought forth from the murky depths:

Yes, HBD, Jeffwy!