Did you buy any cheap tools that surprised you with being actually good?

[M_Chavez]

Narex cabinet scrapers. Bought half a dozen on a visit to Czech Republic a few years ago. From memory, worked out about 60p each.
I've used home-made scrapers from ""good ole saw blades", Lee Nielsen and Veritas - none of which measured up to Bahco scrapers. But Narex are in a different league to all of them. Exceptional.

Have a collection of funny-looking Chinese carbide-tipped forstner bits that are great at about £4 each. Came in 0.5mm size steps, but the guy I used to buy them from has closed his shop.

Why no mention of Quangsheng butt chisels? Got a set of 4 for £45 delivered from China a while ago. Very good quality.

Quangsheng hand planes (when they used to cost £45 for a LA block plane and £85 for a bench plane, good old times huh) are excellent.

When you buy a cheap tool, your expectations are low and you get some good surprises.
I've bought expensive tools that I was severely disappointed in (thankfully, the big brand names made them easy to sell on ebay and recover most of the cost) and I've bought borderline unusable old-timer tools that the likes of Paul Sellers swear by (but let's not start a Saint Paul holy war here), so "cheap" and "cheap Chinese" tools are not on my list of the worst buying decisions.

The main problem with good cheap tools is that they stop being cheap very quickly as the distributors try to cash in on the bargain. QS No 4 seems to be £200 from some UK sellers, and I've seen Narex chisels going for £20 each while I used to buy them for about £8 each on average.
That's 150% "inflation" in less than 10 years.

 

[M_Chavez]

PS that looked like a cracking mitre gauge by the way - well done.
I've got an Incra, but it has cost me nearly 4 times more (even at that price, money well spent).

 

[kinverkid]

Have a collection of funny-looking Chinese carbide-tipped forstner bits that are great at about £4 each. Came in 0.5mm size steps, but the guy I used to buy them from has closed his shop.

It sounds like I have the same set. My intension was to use them on manmade boards and timbers that contain silicon so that I don't blunt my regular set but the quality and the cut impressed me and often use them on regular timbers. Other than they would be difficult to sharpen I would recommend them to anyone.

Gary

 

[Jacob]

Did you buy any cheap tools that surprised you with being actually good?
They've all been OK except one Stanley 7 which had concave sole and one Faithful 10 where the bits and bobs just wouldn't fit together. Both unusable.
OTOH have had a few goes with the alternatives higher end items and have not been particularly impressed. Sold them on as not really value for money, including Clifton 4, LN and LV odds and ends.

 

[diytoolbox]

Bought an old Rapier 500 plane for £12 from eBay. It is same as the standard No 5 plane.
It was rusty and the blade was blunt. Cleaned up and sharpened the blade, set it up.
Wow, it cuts like butter making thin shavings or flattening large hardwood boards very fast depending on the set up.
Quite pleased. Glad didn't pay through the nose for the usual No 5 planes.

 

[M_Chavez]

It sounds like I have the same set.

Mine are "Huhao" brand, which is a Chinese manufacturer of decent quality CNC router bits afaik.
The seller (on Aliexpress) sold exactly the same bits in "standard" and "premium" quality at twice the price. I've bough bits in both grades just to see if he was conning the buyers and while the "standard" quality was very much acceptable (dare I say "good"), the "premium" ones were as good as anything you'd buy here. I suspect he used to just buy a box and pick the good ones out of it to sell at a premium.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Tools don’t necessarily have to be low cost, to be junk!

Through the years, I’ve bought or have been given more than a few items that were to simplify certain tasks but in use, made said task take longer and less accurate.

 

[Fergie 307]

I've been buying lots of stuff from Banggood, most have been tested and recommended via a YouTube guy called Hooked on Wood. Price is relative of course these tools are extremely cheap when compared to American companies like Woodpecker or Kreg, which the Chinese are copying. One example is Banggood's pocket hole jig the upgraded XK-2 which I bought recently which is a third of the cost of the Kreg equivalent. I've also bought some angle clamps, hold down clamps, kerf gauge and a super accurate tee square measuring ruler with a resolution down to half a mm. Most of the rest of my tools are cheap ones, mostly acquired second hand, or gifted to me. The only exceptions to this financially driven regime are costly Japanese saws but those are just a vanity purchase really.
I watch, like a lot of you guess do, lots of YouTube clips of American workshops. I'm always staggered by the value of the equipment they are using in these hobby shops, like you see entire walls with what seems to be Festool's complete range or table saws listed at north of $12,000!

The New Yankee Workshop used to really annoy me. No, " this is how you can do this if you haven't got the correct tool", because he always did have. Was particularly envious of his belt sander, with belts the size of a bedsheet, goodness knows what that must have cost.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

I made peace with TNYW by regarding it as background noise, not as any sort of instruction or design programme.

 

[diytoolbox]

Some Amazon reviews say "You get what you pay for." or "Buy cheap and buy twice". I don't believe that is the case or truths. In fact they just sound total fool's cliches.

It depends on how wise one shops, not how much one pays for the tools. I have seen tools costing mega money, but just same as the cheaper version, sitting doing not much gathering dusts. It also depends on the user of the tools, how wisely and properly one knows about the tools, and make use of them. Price or brands are not the major criteria deciding how good the tools are. I have seen bad Makita and DeWalt tools, and good ones. Also seen bad cheap nasty nameless tools, but also good useable nameless cheap tools.

 

[southendwoodworker]

The New Yankee Workshop used to really annoy me. No, " this is how you can do this if you haven't got the correct tool", because he always did have. Was particularly envious of his belt sander, with belts the size of a bedsheet, goodness knows what that must have cost.

I like the youtubers who use common tools. Over time you see them buying the nice expensive stuff from the money they get from youtube - fair enough, but I think it causes problems once they start using specialist tools.

I like to watch the videos as I get ideas on how to solve problems and do things with the tools i have, and without having to use the fancy tools (like the festool domino for example).

Once they start using videos that use these fancy tools to solve problems - I kind of drop off watching them because its just watching someone make stuff with expensive kit that I won't ever get.

 

[Trafalgar]

I've owned two L-N tools in my life (and a saw, once) and never could get bronzed baby shoes out of my mind. That's what they remind me of.

Good tools, but gilding (actually bronzing) the lily comes to mind.

They seem to be having a harder time that most recovering from pandemic "supply chain" issues. I wonder if having to cast a lot of their tools in bronze has anything to do with it. Probably not, but just a thought that's crossed my mind.

 

[D_W]

I think casting in bronze (not sure about the "rubber bronze" they use) is easier aside from the cost of the material.

They're whacked by two things:
1) limited workforce during covid (something about having to work with lower staff to follow distancing rules).
2) every white collar office worker working from home thinking they'd like to woodwork at lunch

Compounded by a european market that was cut off from their supply even earlier (with a seemingly ravenous appetite for planes - when I sold my last two last year, the bronze 4 brought $550 (!!) and a #62 that I'd bought to see what buffing does for bevel up planes sold for $360 (to some guy in france who paid more in shipping and fees on top of that).

I made some extra stuff for the #4 buyer out of guilt. Those were straight up penny auctions - I was hoping for 80% of new price at best.

Unless something has changed, a third party does their casting, and I could understand if they didn't feel like relaying how fast they were getting castings -reporting slowness seems only to make buyers even more rabid.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I just sold a LN 4-1/2 that I got on trade about a half dozen years. Put it on the “for sale” section of another forum, for $180.00. Sold within minutes. Guess I left money on the table?

By the, I have both a Stanley and Sargent 4-1/2, and did not need the LN.

 

[D_W]

You may have, but I'll give you my mindset - if you have a plane and you're selling it and you just want to sell it, or anything, my thoughts have always been "put it on ebay at a penny auction and it'll sell".

I've had some stuff sell for a fraction of the typical sale like that, but at least when you list it, generally it'll sell without any screwing around on PMs or people disappearing after they say they want something.

 

[Shan]

I purchased a set of 4 Rolson hooks and a bradawl some years back in a local high road shop probably only about £1.00. They've been great. Rubber handles so can get a good grip on them and have never broken or bent them. Have worn down the right angled hook a bit but that was from scrapping out the joints on a large wooden floor! Best bargain ever!

 

[Jameshow]

Did you buy any cheap tools that surprised you with being actually good?
They've all been OK except one Stanley 7 which had concave sole and one Faithful 10 where the bits and bobs just wouldn't fit together. Both unusable.
OTOH have had a few goes with the alternatives higher end items and have not been particularly impressed. Sold them on as not really value for money, including Clifton 4, LN and LV odds and ends.

Happy to take the fsithfull no10 off you!

 

[Awac]

Bought an old Rapier 500 plane for £12 from eBay. It is same as the standard No 5 plane.
It was rusty and the blade was blunt. Cleaned up and sharpened the blade, set it up.
Wow, it cuts like butter making thin shavings or flattening large hardwood boards very fast depending on the set up.
Quite pleased. Glad didn't pay through the nose for the usual No 5 planes.

Don’t tell people rapier planes are any good, they are still cheap! I have Stanley and Record planes but I enjoy the Rapier just as much, perhaps because I don’t feel precious about it, it’s fun? Cuts bloody well!
Have to admit my favourite is W.S. Planes though…akin to a religious experience to me, that brass cap oh my…lol

 

[Awac]

Some cheap Faithful chisels, I was away and bought a set to do a job and I actually quite like them, sharpen well and hold an edge. I quite like the square handle and must try to replicate the shape in wood….

 

[grumpyoldchippy]

Stanley handyman??

Rb10 plane?

I agree most were good quality.

The ubiquitous orange B+D drill for instance...

Still have my orange B/D drill! Must be almost 50 years old but still going strong!