Aldi

[filsgreen]

If anyone is interested Aldi have got some tools on offer at the moment, including a table saw for £70 and digital calipers for £9. Netto also have a pillar drill for £25.

Phil

 

[wizer]

http://aldi.co.uk/sunday_special_buys/start.html

http://www.netto.co.uk/internet/nettog/ ... nt&catid=3

 

[OllyK]

But are they actually any good? I'm looking at buying a table saw ATM as the attachment on the lathe is scaring the c**p out of me. Is it worth spending £70 on this or do I spend £400 on something else?

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Olly

Welcome to the forum.

But are they actually any good? I'm looking at buying a table saw ATM as the attachment on the lathe is scaring the c**p out of me. Is it worth spending £70 on this or do I spend £400 on something else?

For 400'ish I would have thought that you would get something substantially better than the Aldi. Which brands have you been looking at?

Do you actually need a tablesaw or would a bandsaw do the job?

Cheers
Neil

 

[Anonymous]

For 8.99, the vernier is very unlikely to be accurate. Just because the display is digital does not make the actual accuracy any good.

Personally, I would not trust a digital vernier from Aldi to measure anything that mattered

 

[Matt_S]

Been hanging around reading threads for a little while and searching has answered a lot of my questions but thought I should get around to it, register and then I can add my two pennys worth to conversations
(really good forum BTW!)

I have a 2nd hand 10" clarke saw(the one before last not latest model) with no extensions and no stand, didnt pay much for it and am wondering if I should buy the aldi one and sell the clarke one? I know the quality wont be great but I can't afford anymore and the extra table size, stand and the fact I dont have the bit you can put at angles means it would be worth stretching to the aldi one? or should I stick with what i got??

 

[Alf]

Been hanging around reading threads for a little while and searching has answered a lot of my questions but thought I should get around to it, register and then I can add my two pennys worth to conversations

Welcome to the forum, Matt. That's what we like to hear.

I'm not a tablesaw kinda gal, but at a guess I'd have thought the gain of upgrading to the Aldi (if gain at all) would be so small as to make more sense to hold onto your lettuce and keep saving for a real benefit. But I bow to superior knowledge on this one, and have you considered a bandsaw instead...? :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Matt_S]

without wanting to open a can of worms, is a band saw the saw of choice if you can only have one?!

Bit of history I've done lots of woodwork at uni as part of a design course and had all the tools I ever wanted to use! But just starting as a DIY garage workshop guy! And until I came onto this forum I thought a table saw looked like it offered most flexibilty?

 

[Barry Burgess]

Tony you might be surprised with their price / quality. I bought a palm ratchet socket set (metric) for less than £3. I would not have bought the real thing for much less than £20 which I could not justify but at £3 a useful addition to the workshop and is a delight to use.
The £5.99 33 drawer bits and bobs holder could be worth it to hide more of my screws in?

 

[Anonymous]

Tony you might be surprised with their price / quality. I bought a palm ratchet socket set (metric) for less than £3. I would not have bought the real thing for much less than £20 which I could not justify but at £3 a useful addition to the workshop and is a delight to use.
The £5.99 33 drawer bits and bobs holder could be worth it to hide more of my screws in?

Maybe, but I am strongly biased as my area of expertise is instrumentation and measurement and in this field, you always get what you pay for

 

[Alf]

without wanting to open a can of worms, is a band saw the saw of choice if you can only have one?!

Not sure it's actually possible to ask that without finding you already have the tin opener in hand... :lol: Opinion is very much divided on that one; here's what I think, but there's for and against argument in the rest of the thread, and across the archive - if you can find it. But that's not a bad one to get a pretty good idea of what would suit you.

Cheers, Alf

 

[OllyK]

Hi Olly

Welcome to the forum.

But are they actually any good? I'm looking at buying a table saw ATM as the attachment on the lathe is scaring the c**p out of me. Is it worth spending £70 on this or do I spend £400 on something else?

For 400'ish I would have thought that you would get something substantially better than the Aldi. Which brands have you been looking at?

Do you actually need a tablesaw or would a bandsaw do the job?

Cheers
Neil

Been looking at a SIP (been please with my cross cut mitre saw) and after looking on here the Xcalibur looks rather nice.

Planned jobs vary and for some I suspect the bandsaw may be a better tool for others the table saw.

 

[mr]

I have a 2nd hand 10" clarke saw(the one before last not latest model) with no extensions and no stand, didnt pay much for it and am wondering if I should buy the aldi one and sell the clarke one? I know the quality wont be great but I can't afford anymore and the extra table size, stand and the fact I dont have the bit you can put at angles means it would be worth stretching to the aldi one? or should I stick with what i got??

From my own limited experience of cheap table saws it would be a total waste of money. IMHO you would be better off spending same cash on a handsaw. My own table saw cost a bit more than the Aldi one and is close to unusable. With the exception that it features a large spinning lump of metal it has nothing much in common with other table saws. You would be better off making some tables up for the Clarke and spending the rest of the cash on handsaws.

Cheers Mike

 

[filsgreen]

Although I posted this, it is only a heads up. As I've previously mentioned, I bought a SIP TS from Costco for £90ish and am totally disappointed with it. If I could get rid of it I would and save up for a decent one. I take on board what Tony said, normally you get what you pay for, but if £70 is all you can afford, is an Aldi table better than nothing? :? . Plus we can probably count on Niki to come up with some great modifications :wink:

Phil

 

[OllyK]

I currently have a lathe (not the Myford for anybody looking at the other thread) with a table saw attachment, no kerning knife, no guards and the 14" square table is at chest height. For ripping down 4m long flooring joists it's been a damn sight better than doing it by hand, but it did require frequent changes of underwear.

 

[Matt_S]

What makes them unusable, is it the accuracy of fences etc for just cutting straight?

I would have thought cost cutting in quality both appearence and how long it will last are inevitable but would expect them to cut!

Not doubting just want to know why!

BTW I do have some half decent hand saws too

 

[filsgreen]

The problems I had with my cheap SIP TS were:

Banana shaped fence
Lousy adjustment on said fence
Mitre rail very loose
Crap control on setting the mitre

However some would argue what do you want for £90? :?

Phil

 

[engineer one]

tony, whilst i accept that a cheap set of calipers is not really the way to
go for fine engineering, having just bought on colin's behalf the
ones from tchibo, i have a couple of comments.

the calipers appear to have been assembled if not made in
the checz republic, and come with two batteries still in their
plastic packs. there is a decentish multi language and
pages instruction manual. a decent plastic box with foam inner.

i put in a battery, and then zeroed the dial, which is quite sensitive,
ok its a digital display, but old habits die hard.

checked on my metal ruler, and then with the daily mail.
got quite good readings in the low mills, and it also reads
inches too.

i agree tony that you would not want trust your life to it,
but as a knockabout workshop tool for general usage, i think
it is a valuable product.

then once you have obtained knowledge using this product,
then you can think about upgrading.

by the by the Tchibo one has a 3 year warranty.
paul :wink:

 

[Taffy Turner]

I have a 0 -150mm digital vernier caliper that I got from Lidl for (IIRC) £20.

I checked it out over its full range using a set of slip guages from work, and the max error I found was +0.15mm. As we are talking woodworking, (where changes in moisture levels can produce errors of 10 times that magnitude) not precision engineering, I felt that was good enough for me!

Of course the danger is that I may just have got lucky and got a good one, but for £20 you pays your money and you takes your chance!

Regards

Gary