Cheap tools you love

[Dippy]

Now I dont want to talk about expensive tools here but cheap Chinese shite that you wouldnt be without in your tool box.

I have a good quality ½”impact wrench  but rarely use it, I also have a cheap 3/8” Battery powered ratchet that I just love and use all the time. Ok you will need to loosen tight bolts but the all the jobs undoing long bolts or those with limited access become a pleasure as with the flick of a  switch that crappy electric motor will do all the work for you.

What tools could you recommend to others bearing in mind it should be within the purchasing power of most shitters.

Heres what Im talking about, comes with 2 batteries that seem to last well and available from many far east sellers on the  bay for approx £35.

 

bay.

[sutty2006]

I have a sealey 1/2 inch ratchet that’s about a foot and a half long, and it’s telescopic so it gets bigger. Cost about £25 quid. First one broke so I welded it half way out. Second one is still going strong! 
 

the mk1 still going strong 

[Agila]

Those silly magnets and mirrors on a telescopic stick.

Tyre core valve remover.

Gt85 and silicon spray and white lithium grease.

1mm cutting disc and 60 grit flat discs for angry grinder.

Latex gloves.

Mecanix gloves.

Cheapo but bright led torches.

Mole grips.

Irwin bolt socket removers.

[steveo3002]

old shit wood chisels for scraping rust and underseal off cars 

[Schaefft]

Dremel 3000, perfect for cutting bolts and other stuff, order the Dremel steel cutting discs and some cheapo wire wheels for rust removal and grinding. It's literally used constantly.

Also Dremel gas powered soldering iron. No annoying wires and also works as mini torch to heat up seized bolts.

[omegod]

I got a set of pick tools  for about £4, I honesty don't know how I managed without them for 30 yrs as they have been incredibly useful 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154061657117?hash=item23deca541d:g:n2kAAOSwKk9fRoO4

[doug]

1/4" metric sockets from screwfix. If I remember it was £2.50. How can they even make it and make a profit at that price.

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[Split_Pin]

My Draper 1/2 inch socket and ratchet set.

I got it for about £15 from a mate who was leaving the motor factor he was employed at and was selling off stuff cheap.

It's been fantastic.

[stuboy]

13 hours ago, Dippy said:

i got one and so far so good

[Merryck]

ALDI/LIDL 20v drills.

I picked up an ALDI one a few years ago, might have been six or seven years thinking about it. Anyway, it was £45 and it came with two batteries. It lasted up until earlier this year when the charger shat the bed. The batteries were also struggling so I binned it. It was absolutely fantastic and it saw some serious abuse in it's time.

To replace it I picked up LIDL's latest offering. Again 20v, £20 without a battery. Bought two 4ah batteries and their fast charger. It's a pretty decent drill, only issue is the chuck is a little loose so it's not great for doing anything that requires too much accuracy, but for the money I really can't complain.

All in I've spent just over half of what it would have cost me for a name brand drill, and in terms of battery life it would likely be coming to the end of it's life about now and would need them replacing, which is a significant cost with most of the brands. As it stands I expect this LIDL one will last me a good while longer.

[GingerNuttz]

Chinese cut50 plasma cutter.

When cutting new steel it's a life saver and a disc saver.

[stripped fred]

This thread is going to cost me...

[New POD]

1 hour ago, omegod said:

I got a set of pick tools  for about £4, I honesty don't know how I managed without them for 30 yrs as they have been incredibly useful 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154061657117?hash=item23deca541d:g:n2kAAOSwKk9fRoO4

Says the Scouser. 🙈🙉🙊

[Spurious]

Fibreglass pencils; couple of pounds for something that's handy for cleaning up electrical contacts in odd spots. 

 

[Wgl2019]

Aldi mini socket set with torx and driver bits. Incredibly useful and well made for about £15 (although webpage says nla).

https://www.aldi.co.uk/workzone-46-piece-socket-bit-set/p/800928402787500

[catsinthewelder]

^^ Yes a thousand times, mine gets so much use and has been across Europe twice.

[Noel Tidybeard]

10 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

^^ Yes a thousand times, mine gets so much use and has been across Europe twice.

so much so i boughted a 2nd set

[Andyrew]

Toolzone ratchets, 

stubby ratchets, around the 22 quid mark. 

Toolzone long handle ratchet around 12-16 quid.  I bought mine to see if id use a longer one much before spending more on a "better brand" and the toolzones ones been spot on and if it was to break id buy another.

 

[chodweaver]

Some great suggestions there.

+1 for mirrors on sticks. I also have a broken rear view mirror that lives in the portable* toolbox. Both are useful for locating things I dropped down the back of an engine, checking inboard brake pads for wear, looking for the access grommet on the backplate of shitty drum brakes (easier than getting my head stuck in the wheel arch or being under the hub when the car is only on a jack), inspecting the inboard side of a suspect sill without actually lying on the ground. You get the idea.

Also +1 for picks. Spring hooks was what my first set were supposed to be, but they got used to dig paint out of posidriv screw heads before applying a driver in an attempt to not round them out, unclog naughty washer nozzles, hook moss out of crevices in bodywork and trim, scratch legends on material to be cut, bent etc and of course, retrieve non magnetic things dropped in to inaccessible places.

I've avoided the rabbit hole of cordless tools for almost as long as they've been around, but a Titan cordless drill driver changed my mind, and this was reinforced by the ActivEnergy 20/40v battery gear that Aldi are doing. The cordless grinder skin of this range is my favourite new tool at the moment, and I've just spaffed more money than I'm prepared to let on to Mrs CW on:

Another battery

Another grinder skin (so that I can have one set up with flap sander wheel, the other with slitting disc)

The Ferrex combi drill driver skin

And I've finally tumbled to the pretend three drawer tool chest (in red!) that Aldi are flogging as a **Special Buy** for £30. Watch the grumpy thread to see if it turns out to be made of sharp edged foil, or has failed to survive the attentions of the couriers that Aldi use

[Uncle Jimmy]

[warch]

I have quite a few, especially my big set of spanners bought from my local agricultural supplier for about 12 pounds twenty years ago and comprised of every size between 6 and 32mm. Only snapped one (14mm) and that was on the shaft (giggedy) not the ring (giggedy giggedy), lost the 10mm and dropped the 21mm irretrievably down the back of my hot water cylinder. The big sizes are handy for plumbing, bike rear spindles and driveshaft nuts. 
 

My angle grinder is one of those cheapo B&Q own brand ones costing about 25 quid. It has worked fine for ten years now.

[sutty2006]

13 hours ago, Merryck said:

ALDI/LIDL 20v drills.

I picked up an ALDI one a few years ago, might have been six or seven years thinking about it. Anyway, it was £45 and it came with two batteries. It lasted up until earlier this year when the charger shat the bed. The batteries were also struggling so I binned it. It was absolutely fantastic and it saw some serious abuse in it's time.

To replace it I picked up LIDL's latest offering. Again 20v, £20 without a battery. Bought two 4ah batteries and their fast charger. It's a pretty decent drill, only issue is the chuck is a little loose so it's not great for doing anything that requires too much accuracy, but for the money I really can't complain.

All in I've spent just over half of what it would have cost me for a name brand drill, and in terms of battery life it would likely be coming to the end of it's life about now and would need them replacing, which is a significant cost with most of the brands. As it stands I expect this LIDL one will last me a good while longer.

Shame you binned that, I’ve got the same one and it works perfectly but the bearing in the motor has failed so round holes get drilled oval now lol

[sierraman]

I really rate US Pro, ok it’s not Snap on quality but good enough. 

[Spurious]

18 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Shame you binned that, I’ve got the same one and it works perfectly but the bearing in the motor has failed so round holes get drilled oval now lol

Have you taken it apart? Could it be the bearing at the rear usually seated in the plastic? They're usually just generic skate board bearings on cheaper tools 

[Merryck]

2 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

Shame you binned that, I’ve got the same one and it works perfectly but the bearing in the motor has failed so round holes get drilled oval now lol

Ah fuck! I’d have sent it to you for parts!

[Merryck]

12 hours ago, chodweaver said:

Some great suggestions there.

+1 for mirrors on sticks. I also have a broken rear view mirror that lives in the portable* toolbox. Both are useful for locating things I dropped down the back of an engine, checking inboard brake pads for wear, looking for the access grommet on the backplate of shitty drum brakes (easier than getting my head stuck in the wheel arch or being under the hub when the car is only on a jack), inspecting the inboard side of a suspect sill without actually lying on the ground. You get the idea.

Also +1 for picks. Spring hooks was what my first set were supposed to be, but they got used to dig paint out of posidriv screw heads before applying a driver in an attempt to not round them out, unclog naughty washer nozzles, hook moss out of crevices in bodywork and trim, scratch legends on material to be cut, bent etc and of course, retrieve non magnetic things dropped in to inaccessible places.

I've avoided the rabbit hole of cordless tools for almost as long as they've been around, but a Titan cordless drill driver changed my mind, and this was reinforced by the ActivEnergy 20/40v battery gear that Aldi are doing. The cordless grinder skin of this range is my favourite new tool at the moment, and I've just spaffed more money than I'm prepared to let on to Mrs CW on:

Another battery

Another grinder skin (so that I can have one set up with flap sander wheel, the other with slitting disc)

The Ferrex combi drill driver skin

And I've finally tumbled to the pretend three drawer tool chest (in red!) that Aldi are flogging as a **Special Buy** for £30. Watch the grumpy thread to see if it turns out to be made of sharp edged foil, or has failed to survive the attentions of the couriers that Aldi use

So the Titan tools accept the ALDI batteries? That’d be useful!

[chodweaver]

So the Titan tools accept the ALDI batteries? That’d be useful!

Wouldn't it!

Alas, no. I just mentioned the Titan cos it changed my mind about cordless battery tools.

[reb]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

I really rate US Pro, ok it’s not Snap on quality but good enough. 

This is good to know, as I got a set of US Pro stubby ratchets for christmas but haven't used them yet. It turns out there's actually quite a lot of space around most fasteners on a 205, even if it is at a funny angle, so they've been so far unnecessary.

[sierraman]

They’re well finished, certainly better than the price would suggest they should be. I think they’re sometimes marketed as Bergen which was the old name they were marketed under.

[juular]

I bought a load of US PRO stuff to get me through the engine rebuild and it's been pretty decent. The angle gauge, piston compressor sleeve, extensions and a few sockets are all dead cheap and would buy again.