Axminster xcaliber router bits

[Wilson joinery]

Evening everyone

I’d like to get your thoughts on the above please. Are they any good? They are on offer on axi website at the minute. Alternatively I’ve been offered some second hand Wealden bits (used so I’m not sure exactly what condition there are in until I try cutting with them). Are the axi ones a good investment or are there better ones for the money? Currently £119 for a set of 12 I believe.

Thanks in advance!

 

[alan895]

I have plenty of Axcaliber bits and find them to be quite good for my needs which is only hobby use, I've not compared them to more expensive brands as I cant justify it to myself paying out a lot of money. They're definitely better quality than those cheap sets you can buy on the likes of eBay etc.

 

[sneggysteve]

I would say from my experience that buying sets means you will not use half of them. Better to buy the individuals you want.

 

[Wilson joinery]

Hi Alan thanks for the reply. It seems like a reasonable price of around £10 per bit and like you it’s for hobby use rather than anything more serious.
Cheers
Pete

 

[user 29368]

I have an Axcaliber 1/4" copy bit and it is excellent, very smooth cut - way better than the yellow specials on ebay.
I'm a weekend DIYer so it's never going to take a hammering.

 

[Ollie78]

I would say the Axminster ones are as good as the Trend craft (green) ones, not as nice as the Trend pro, Titman, Whiteside or Wealdon. However, they are much cheaper than all of those.

I have a good few of them and they are not bad value.
I agree with sneggysteve about buying what you need rather than an arbitrary set.

Check out the CMT ones at Scott and Sargeant sometimes they do them pretty cheap.

Ollie

 

[eribaMotters]

Oh those lovely orange CMT bits, wonderful. If I'm planning a lot of work the CMT and Wealden have usually been my first choice. After that the Axi. They are good value and seem to last fine.

Colin

 

[TRITON]

I would say from my experience that buying sets means you will not use half of them. Better to buy the individuals you want.

A good idea though to buy an initial set. At least there you have a good range to begin with. Plus it usually works out better than buying the same individually, and i agree that likely some wont get used, its nice to have the option.

 

[johnnyb]

I've had the trend beginners set for many years its usually pretty cheap and very useful.

 

[ian33a]

I bought a very cheap set way back, I think it was a low budget 1/4" Aximinster box set. I learned a lot about routing simply by playing with this set on a small hand held router.

What I learned with this allowed me to choose a more useful and robust range of bits for hand held as well as table use - mostly 1/2".

I also rate Axminster bits highly - as good as anything else that I have used and far better than many.

Most of my bits are Axi or from the green Trend range. I actually have relatively few different types of bits. What I have are various sizes of the same type of bit. As others have said, spending a lot of money on a box set isn't necessarily a great investment as many wont be used - certainly at the start.

 

[Spectric]

For me it is Wealdon for general cutters, Infinity for more unique cutters and CMT for anything else, no complaints with any.

 

[clogs]

I started out with 1/2" router bits ....saved alot buy buying a set.....
after 30 years still not used them all but getting there.....
Most cheapo 1/2" bits are Ok for the DIY semi-pro used...
it's the toy 1/4" ones that are the devils spawn.....
but each to their own.....
my 1/4"really never get used....along with the routers....must get rid at some point.....

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've had the trend beginners set for many years its usually pretty cheap and very useful.

People knock them, but I have a set of 1/2" that's 32 years old. A few are now blunt so I bought a new set for something like £24 about a year ago - cheaper than having a few sharpened. I have the 1/4" set as well. I've never subscribed to the "don't buy a set, you won't use some of them" argument - they are so cheap per cutter it really doesn't matter. All my better, more specialised cutters are Wealden (since about 1985) but you don't get many Wealden cutters for £24.

It's horses for courses. I bought a set of four small cutters for £4, it contained one cutter I needed for 300mm of moulding. Fine. I bought a Wealden 1/2" core box that's first job out of the packet was 96 metres at full depth. Fine.

 

[Keith Cocker]

I’ll just join the chorus in favour of Axminster bits. I started with one of the sets ( in a nice wooden box which I’ve repurposed for other storage ) and built up quite a number since then. They do the job well and seem to last.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

I like the Axminster bits I've got. I think I like my Wealden bits even more, but the Axis are perfectly good.