Lidl DIY tools 6th June

[Echo-Star]

My wife ordered two pairs of sandals last year, and received a tacky pair of sunglasses. The vendor said it was the courier's fault, and suggested she give them as a present. Then they offered a 40% refund.
We eventually got a full refund via the visa or amex, I forget which.
However, I have bought a lot of electronic components from China with no problem (as yet).

Same thing happened to me John, with the sandles/sunglasses, though I told the vendor to Ram It "the refund" never crossed my mind to claim refund through paypal though, and still waiting on the sandals

 

[Fergie 307]

I would like a simple welder for simple repairs and the odd join. I've read this forum and still in a quandary. Stick welding seems to fit the 'simple' lable, but its seems to have limitations on metal thickness or rather thinness, needs to be above 3 or near 5mm thick? As its for the occasional join or repair, I don't want to expense and loads of gas bottles etc. I've read that for Tig or mig you need to get a quality set as the cheaper beginners ones are tricky to use. I cant justify £500 or so when the alternative it to drill a set of holes and bolt things together, rivet, or buy a replacement part.
Does anyone find stick welding to offer this versatility? are there ways around the metal thinness issue - ie work arounds?
Thanks Tom

If you want to weld thin stuff then you really need MIG or TIG. Don't be tempted by gasless MIG, absolutely useless. You might be best to find a second hand MIG, most of the cheap new ones aren't much good. For gas bottles you can buy disposable ones at Halfords, use CO2/Argon, gives a much better weld than just CO2. They only last about 20-30 minutes, but if you only use it very occasionally they will do. The other thing you could consider is brazing, depending on what you are doing. You can buy a mini gas welding set for about £100, I use mine all the time. Will braze or weld thin stuff no problem. Brazing is quite easy to learn, basically the same technique as soldering. Gas welding is more of an art to learn. Depends what you are trying to do. For work where you have the pieces on the bench gas will work fine, but hard to limit the spread of heat. So for repairs to a car for example not really suitable as you will probably damage surrounding paint etc, or set it on fire!

 

[stuart little]

05 Jun 2021 13:37	Chelmsford	There is a delay with your parcel from POWERTOOL WORLD
04 Jun 2021 05:00	Chelmsford	Your parcel is at our Chelmsford depot
04 Jun 2021 05:00	Chelmsford	There's a delay with your parcel and we've now sorted it
03 Jun 2021 22:02	Hub 4 - Hinckley	We have your parcel, and it's on its way to our Roche depot
03 Jun 2021 17:29	POWERTOOL WORLD	We've received your order details, but have not yet received your parcel

Funny how it was on its way to Roche (near Bodmin) one day and back in Chelmsford the next. I expect better of DPD, they're usually one of the better ones.

Looks like a Hermes tracking I once had after selling a printer - in out of central hub!!. Makes one wonder if an 'insider' has their eye on it!

 

[sploo]

Looks like a Hermes tracking I once had after selling a printer - in out of central hub!!. Makes one wonder if an 'insider' has their eye on it!

If it makes you feel better - I once had a small tool delivered from the USA (to the UK). It went from a US hub, to Heathrow... then somewhere in New Zealand, then Holland... and finally arrived at my address in the UK

 

[TominDales]

If you want to weld thin stuff then you really need MIG or TIG. Don't be tempted by gasless MIG, absolutely useless. You might be best to find a second hand MIG, most of the cheap new ones aren't much good. For gas bottles you can buy disposable ones at Halfords, use CO2/Argon, gives a much better weld than just CO2. They only last about 20-30 minutes, but if you only use it very occasionally they will do. The other thing you could consider is brazing, depending on what you are doing. You can buy a mini gas welding set for about £100, I use mine all the time. Will braze or weld thin stuff no problem. Brazing is quite easy to learn, basically the same technique as soldering. Gas welding is more of an art to learn. Depends what you are trying to do. For work where you have the pieces on the bench gas will work fine, but hard to limit the spread of heat. So for repairs to a car for example not really suitable as you will probably damage surrounding paint etc, or set it on fire!

Thank you for this reply. I did a bit of welding at school a billion years ago. Some stick, oxyacetylene and some brazing, used it to make a telescope mount as a DT project. I've been wondering about brazing as its quite versatile and probably only needs a simple torch. Although I'm a woodworker, there are those jobs that need welding, I've been removing some leylandii and needed to construct a wigwam/tripod to winch out the roots; welding a few scaffold tubes would have done it. In the end I used a metal ladder and some 4by2, but it is very heath Robinson and much more cumbersome
I'll have a look at brazing - also good for annealing tools.

 

[stuart little]

If it makes you feel better - I once had a small tool delivered from the USA (to the UK). It went from a US hub, to Heathrow... then somewhere in New Zealand, then Holland... and finally arrived at my address in the UK

I had an order for model railroad stuff from the US that went to India, where it spent several days before arriving at my address. RM still add the 'rip-off' fees'. Talking of which, I had another order from the US go the polar route with SAS to Malmö, then on to UK, but the paperwork was in Swedish so customs assumed the value to be in kronor (13 = £1) not $, so my luck was in - no fees!
I know it's nothing to do with woodwork.

 

[robgul]

The plunge saw - @petermillard has just done a quick video today on the 2021 version of the track saw - he still prefers the MacAllister, mainly as the Lidl has proprietary rails.

 

[novocaine]

This really Zilch-Wedlock me off.
"You cant use a gasless mig its useless"
No, what the person who posts this mean is "I can't weld with flux core, because i don't know how"
Treat it like mig and you won't be able to get a good weld.
It isnt MIG. Its flux core, which means slag. When theres slag, you have to drag. Your torch angle has to be steeper else you'll push the pool under the slag and get porosity. Loops only work with a quick back pass. Stick out is critcal on short circuit and don't even attempt to spray. Straight pass on clean surface but drop you amps and slow your pass with a slight weave to push the puddle wider otherwise you'll undercut it and most likely have a tall bead.

There are flux cored machines welding pipelines for god sake. If you step away from the fact it can run on the same machine as MIG, FCAW is a cheap and practical bit of kit to have, if you know how to use it.
I have a small Kennedy set up for fluxcore that gets used more than the very large Kemppi it sits on top of, purely because its there and great for those 5 minute jobs where you'll use more gas priming the line than actually welding something. I'm not a pro welder, but i was taught by one and worked as a welders mate for a short while, where i watched what id consider the true masters of the art work.

 

[danst96]

This really Zilch-Wedlock me off.
"You cant use a gasless mig its useless"
No, what the person who posts this mean is "I can't weld with flux core, because i don't know how"
Treat it like mig and you won't be able to get a good weld.
It isnt MIG. Its flux core, which means slag. When theres slag, you have to drag. Your torch angle has to be steeper else you'll push the pool under the slag and get porosity. Loops only work with a quick back pass. Stick out is critcal on short circuit and don't even attempt to spray. Straight pass on clean surface but drop you amps and slow your pass with a slight weave to push the puddle wider otherwise you'll undercut it and most likely have a tall bead.

There are flux cored machines welding pipelines for god sake. If you step away from the fact it can run on the same machine as MIG, FCAW is a cheap and practical bit of kit to have, if you know how to use it.
I have a small Kennedy set up for fluxcore that gets used more than the very large Kemppi it sits on top of, purely because its there and great for those 5 minute jobs where you'll use more gas priming the line than actually welding something. I'm not a pro welder, but i was taught by one and worked as a welders mate for a short while, where i watched what id consider the true masters of the art work.

Chill out

 

[novocaine]

Chill out

No stress here. But i see why it might be read that way. More stressed that ive finished the bottle of syrah and i might have to move on to the wifes pinot grigo.

 

[danst96]

No stress here. But i see why it might be read that way. More stressed that ive finished the bottle of syrah and i might have to move on to the wifes pinot grigo.

Haha ok, enjoy

 

[Sachakins]

No stress here. But i see why it might be read that way. More stressed that ive finished the bottle of syrah and i might have to move on to the wifes pinot grigo.

You'll be more than stressed if she catches you with her pinot grigio in hand.....

 

[Rorschach]

The plunge saw - @petermillard has just done a quick video today on the 2021 version of the track saw - he still prefers the MacAllister, mainly as the Lidl has proprietary rails.

I don't think it's quite fair to say the Lidl saw has proprietary rails, they are very similar to lots of other tracks and all companies seem to have their own little changes. With modification I would guess the Lidl saw could be made to run on Makita tracks, it definitely runs on Evolution tracks (also "proprietary") and I run my lidl saw mostly on a Festool track, no mods needed.

 

[Fergie 307]

This really Zilch-Wedlock me off.
"You cant use a gasless mig its useless"
No, what the person who posts this mean is "I can't weld with flux core, because i don't know how"
Treat it like mig and you won't be able to get a good weld.
It isnt MIG. Its flux core, which means slag. When theres slag, you have to drag. Your torch angle has to be steeper else you'll push the pool under the slag and get porosity. Loops only work with a quick back pass. Stick out is critcal on short circuit and don't even attempt to spray. Straight pass on clean surface but drop you amps and slow your pass with a slight weave to push the puddle wider otherwise you'll undercut it and most likely have a tall bead.

There are flux cored machines welding pipelines for god sake. If you step away from the fact it can run on the same machine as MIG, FCAW is a cheap and practical bit of kit to have, if you know how to use it.
I have a small Kennedy set up for fluxcore that gets used more than the very large Kemppi it sits on top of, purely because its there and great for those 5 minute jobs where you'll use more gas priming the line than actually welding something. I'm not a pro welder, but i was taught by one and worked as a welders mate for a short while, where i watched what id consider the true masters of the art work.

You are quite correct of course, but the guy asking the question is looking for a cheap machine, and has no welding experience. I have used "proper" flux core machines and they are pretty good. The only cheap gasless or flux cored machines I have used were rubbish, and certainly not a machine that any beginner would be able to use successfully. So, in the context it was originally made, I think my observation is perfectly valid. For thin stuff like car body work TIG is by far the best method. The party trick of the guy who taught me was to cut a tin can in half and butt weld the seam back together, try doing that with flux core.
Going back to the original question, if you are looking to weld something substantial like a scaffold pole, then a cheap stick welder will do that perfectly well. Just practice on some scrap to get the hang of it, there are loads of videos on you tube. It's not a particularly hard technique to learn. It takes practice to produce really nice looking welds with full penetration, but you can achieve a strong albeit not particularly pretty weld fairly easily.

 

[TRITON]

Feeling theres a bit of pointless titfortat going on, I felt it wise to have a look on professional welding forums and blogs, to see what actual professional welders think about gasless.

The reaction to them in way of a beginner or occasional user is very high, with all stating that gasless for a beginner is a very good option, taking occasional use and ease into account.
They also state that a gasless is ideal to be used outside, where wind might blow the gas away.
All in all and without pretension, I think they are mostly happy with the attributes of a gasless system.

Im sure there are points concerning welding big chunky sections of pipe or sheet, but I'm only welding 4 nuts in to new positions, and likely after that it probably wont leave the cupboard but once a year.

I dont think anyone can criticize this chaps opinion.

 

[Droogs]

for once, I agree with @Rorschach ☝ no probs

 

[Rorschach]

for once, I agree with @Rorschach ☝ no probs

I'm screenshotting this one

 

[novocaine]

Feeling theres a bit of pointless titfortat going on, I felt it wise to have a look on professional welding forums and blogs, to see what actual professional welders think about gasless.

The reaction to them in way of a beginner or occasional user is very high, with all stating that gasless for a beginner is a very good option, taking occasional use and ease into account.
They also state that a gasless is ideal to be used outside, where wind might blow the gas away.
All in all and without pretension, I think they are mostly happy with the attributes of a gasless system.

Im sure there are points concerning welding big chunky sections of pipe or sheet, but I'm only welding 4 nuts in to new positions, and likely after that it probably wont leave the cupboard but once a year.

I dont think anyone can criticize this chaps opinion.

Thank you for finding a video that collaborates everything i said.

Fergie, not going to argue, i agree that stick really should be where you start with welding.
Tig for car body though is just terrible unless you've got the panel on a table. You can't weld upside down, or on a windy day, or less than perfect metal, or where you cant get two hands a and a long rod in. Mig is still the tool of choice for almost all body shops, for a very good reason.

 

[robgul]

I don't think it's quite fair to say the Lidl saw has proprietary rails, they are very similar to lots of other tracks and all companies seem to have their own little changes. With modification I would guess the Lidl saw could be made to run on Makita tracks, it definitely runs on Evolution tracks (also "proprietary") and I run my lidl saw mostly on a Festool track, no mods needed.

OK - "different rails"

The Lidl 2021 riving knife is possible an enhancement but as @petermillard suggests cutting sheet materials is usually not an issue with the cut closing behind the blade.

 

[Rorschach]

OK - "different rails"

The Lidl 2021 riving knife is possible an enhancement but as @petermillard suggests cutting sheet materials is usually not an issue with the cut closing behind the blade.

The riving knife is a nice feature but also in my mind a bit of a bad feature. I don't use the Lidl stock blade in my saw, I upgraded and use a festool standard size blade which is 2.2mm (don't quote me, I just know it's thinner than the lidl blade). If you use the riving knife you are limited to 2.6mm kerf blades which may or may not be a problem.
Don't get me wrong, the stock blade is surprisingly good for cutting MDF and ply but it isn't the cleanest cut on MFC, especially the cheap stuff sold by IKEA which is one of the main materials I use my saw for cutting.
If you cut "real wood" though I suspect it might be very handy, I am not sure if I ever have done that with my track saw though.