I used to buy broken electrical tools for pennies at the bootsale to try and get them going!
I once bought a hessian sack full of drills, Six in all, The first five were easy fixes, The last one was a large Peugeot, I removed the forend case screws and parted the two casings when a pile of gears fell out!
, All the bits were placed in to the sack and put in to the dustbin!! ☺☺
I also bought some 115mm angle grinders, I bought one that the bearings in the gearbox had let go, A friend at work in the maintenance dept got me a couple (Some spares too!!), I still have it and it's working fine!, Another had a remote plastic rod from the thumb switch to the electrical switch inside, It had snapped but I had an identical grinder that had a burnt out motor so I scavenged the remote rod, I still use that one too!, They cost me 50p each!!
I bought this AEG 110v machine from a very posh speaking lady in riding gear, She had a big Land Rover Defender behind her, I asked how much it was, She said five pounds but her hubby was walking round, I paid the lady and have to say, Have to say, It works brilliantly!!!
This die grinder was the strangest thing I bought at the bootsale though, It had been refurbed, The label said 100 volts which I thought strange as they're usually 110 volts but it had a square pin 13a 240v plug fitted! I bought it for carving my little trees!
When I tried it the vibration made my hands tingle!, I asked one of our sparkies what would happen if I put 240v through a 110v machine?, He said it would go twice as fast so I fitted a 110 plug and the vibration disappeared!!, It must have been running at about 40,000rpm
John