Power Tools & General Tools Recommendations & Advice

DXP55 · 16 Jul 2019 at 18:45

Mark A.
Those old sewing machine weigh a ton - Not long back we binned wife's machine that I bought her in late 70's - Had to ask one of the lads at local tip if he would be so good as to bin it for me from boot of car. Makes you wonder if putting it in loft is a good idea.

paintguy · 16 Jul 2019 at 19:08

rhysduck said:
Bosch PSB 1800 drill on Amazon for £50 with 2x 1.5ah batteries... any good for £50?

I assume it's the Li-2 version?

I absolutely love mine. I bought it for £80 when the batteries in my old NiCad PSB 1800 finally died, and haven't regretted it. I also bought the matching bare bones impact driver for £40 but I've hardly used that. My corded hammer drill never sees the light of day now.

I've done various DIY jobs with mine and it hasn't missed a beat. Battery lasts really well, I rarely have to change to the second one even after a full day of drilling and screwing. It's seen me through fitting a decent sized kitchen and utility room and is currently helping me fit another. With a decent masonry bit it's drilled 8mm holes in solid concrete lintels no problem, it breezes through brick, and has drilled for 10mm diameter Corefix without issue. The only time I've had to use my SDS is drilling a 12mm hole through a double skin brick wall to run a cable, and it might even have managed that if I'd got a suitable bit. It's bored 76mm holes through worktops for cable grommets and I think the biggest screws it's driven are 120mm long No 6, which it had no problem with so I didn't bother digging out the impact driver.

So yes, I'd highly recommend it for that price!

Martynt74 · 17 Jul 2019 at 14:51

Think i'm going to pick up one of the Ryobi 18v Routers. Homebase have them reduced to £63 which seems pretty decent. I chopped through the power chord of mine last year and have been thinking of buying a replacement one. Would've liked a 1/2 version but you just can't beat cordless and the Dewalt one costs a fortune!

Mark A · 17 Jul 2019 at 16:19

Marvt74 said:
Think i'm going to pick up one of the Ryobi 18v Routers. Homebase have them reduced to £63 which seems pretty decent. I chopped through the power chord of mine last year and have been thinking of buying a replacement one. Would've liked a 1/2 version but you just can't beat cordless and the Dewalt one costs a fortune!

1/4" is better for smaller jobs like trimming and rounding over. 1/2" is more for you big kitchen worktop cutters and big cutters that are best used in a router table. I have a big 1/2" router and it hardly ever gets used as it's just too big and heavy for the smaller jobs I do most often. Only ever get it out for kitchen worktops. I'm thinking of getting a decent router table and putting in in that and then get a cordless 1/4" router, but yeah, the Dewalt price makes your wallet cry

.

Martynt74 · 17 Jul 2019 at 16:24

Yeah true, think it's from when i was cutting huge rebates in 2" pine shelves to slot onto some wall battens and once i used a 1/2" router it was so easy. I could use a wider bit which needed less passes and could do the full depth. A router table would be good, but it's just another thing i'd have taking up space,.

At £63 i'm happy. Shows my theory of buying a cheap Ryobi drill to get a battery/charger and expose myself to their cheap ecosystem was a good call. Although i'm currently eyeing up additional batteries :rolleyes:

. Was laughing at the sheer size of the Ryobi range!

bloodiedathame · 17 Jul 2019 at 16:39

I've just reserved a Ryobi one+ strimmer and hedge trimmer for £77 from homebase

Martynt74 · 17 Jul 2019 at 16:42

Oooh i could do with a hedge trimmer and my wife talked about a strimmer...

Martynt74 · 17 Jul 2019 at 21:14

@Mark A

I’ve found a few old Record G clamps that my dad gave me a few years ago. They’re very rusty but the thread on them seems decent.

Any recommendations for tarting them up? Will add some pics tomorrow.

Mark A · 17 Jul 2019 at 22:35

I'd soak them in WD40 to loosen them up then use a wire brush to remove the rust. Then once the rust is gone i found paste wax to be a good lubricant to keep the threads moving smoothly on my vice. If it's really rusty, I believe a vinegar or citric acid bath can help remove it.

Martynt74 · 18 Jul 2019 at 08:38

Cheers, any suggestions on paint? Or just see how they come up after wire brushing?

The 12" one is Record. The other is a brand called Paramo i've not heard of.

Also unboxed the Aldi table saw. Went straight to Health and Safety 101 and removed the riving knife so i can cut tenons!

And annoyingly, i went to Homebase to get the router only for them to say they can't find the key for the cupboard

Mark A · 18 Jul 2019 at 18:00

They don't look too bad condition at all. I'd probably just brush the rust off and give them a coat of paste wax. If you do want to paint them I have found Simoniz tough black to be excellent stuff. It goes on thick and produces a tough coating that doesn't chip easily. Also the seller on Amazon is great and it gets delivered next day by DHL in with the price. Great stuff for painting galvanised hinges etc and is holding up well on my gate furniture.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004R95MXU/

I believe Paramo is another Sheffield tool maker that was competing with Record. They make great stuff and I recently bought a Paramo vice and the quality is easily on par with the larger Record vice I bought. I read that during the second world war the Record factory got bombed and there was a mass shortage of tools, so the government allowed other manufacturers to use their patents as they couldn't have shortages of engineering tools etc in war time. I'm not sure how much truth there is in that, but their vices look to be very similar to the Records.

Mark A · 18 Jul 2019 at 18:06

Regarding the riving knife, it's really not a good idea to remove it. If the fence isn't completely square to the blade, or moves at all and the workpiece catches the rear teeth of the blade, it can fling the wood back at you and is one of the main table saw injuries. The best thing to do is cut the top off the riving knife, so that it's slightly below the blade, so you can still cut rebates etc, but the knife will stop the workpiece from being caught by the blade.

This is what I did on my table saw and was going to buy a new fence and riving knife for when I don't need the full blade, but I'm so careful when using it that I don't think i'd ever use the fence. I always have a couple of push sticks at the ready to feed the timber through the blade.

Edit, one other good mod you could do is to make a 0 clearance insert. It looks like the one they supply has a massive gap that will stop you being able to cut small strips of wood. You just trace the current insert and cut it out then bolt it down and raise the blade slowly to cut a slot in it.

Martynt74 · 18 Jul 2019 at 19:19

Good advice on the riving knife. I’ll cut it away and refit later tonight.

Re the insert. That pic has the supplied insert missing as I had to remove to get to the riving knife. The gap isn’t too bad. Thanks for the tip though.

paintguy · 18 Jul 2019 at 19:24

Mark A said:
I believe Paramo is another Sheffield tool maker that was competing with Record. They make great stuff and I recently bought a Paramo vice and the quality is easily on par with the larger Record vice I bought. I read that during the second world war the Record factory got bombed and there was a mass shortage of tools, so the government allowed other manufacturers to use their patents as they couldn't have shortages of engineering tools etc in war time. I'm not sure how much truth there is in that, but their vices look to be very similar to the Records.

That's very similar to the story I've heard too. I believe Paramo were actually making the castings for Record, but after the bombing Paramo turned to making the whole thing.

Mark A · 23 Jul 2019 at 15:37

Got my Tstak tool boxes from Screwfix today. Worked out at about £20 each with the £10 off voucher I used, which isn't bad as they're usually around £35 with the removable tool tray. I'm going to make some 1/4" plywood dividers so that all my tools aren't just in a giant pile.

Blackjack Davy · 24 Jul 2019 at 14:20

bloodiedathame said:
Do any strimmer, hedge trimmer, pruner/chainsaw multitools exist that are cordless. I was hoping that Ryobi might do a ONE+ combi but no such luck. I had a Titan petrol one for a while but that ran so hot that I think it seized.

Something like this perhaps? https://www.blackanddecker.co.uk/pr...v-cordless-seasonmaster-multitool/bcask8967d2

Get a petrol engined Stihl is the usual one contractors go for they're reliable and durable but obviously not cheap. Go to a proper machinery supplier ask for advice if you need it and avoid the local DIY and its tat.

Mark A said:
I bought a new sewing machine (well, new to me) as I want to do some upholstery work soon and my Mum needs hers back. I know nothing about sewing machines so just went for the same make as hers, but a newer model. It's crazy how far build quality has dropped over time. Hers is all cast and milled metal parts inside and the one I bought have pressed steel and plastic gears . The one at the back weighs 15kg and the new one weighs 8kg... It's not even that new, I can't find a date, but I think it must be from the 70s-80s and hers must be 50s-60s. The new ones these days have plastic shells and almost all plastic and electronics inside.

Yeah new machines weigh around 6kg, so that will be the last bit of metal inside removed and a plastic shell . I really hate how things are made to be disposable these days and anything that is built to last costs a fortune.

Sold my mothers one a while back was a proper dressmakers one or something and properly heavy could just about lift it myself but too heavy for my mother which is why it had to be gotten rid off. Nothing wrong with it other than its weight. If you look around you can pick them up used for not a lot of money there isn't much demand think that one went to some guy who does them up and resells them on eBay.

Mark A · 24 Jul 2019 at 15:12

Blackjack Davy said:
Sold my mothers one a while back was a proper dressmakers one or something and properly heavy could just about lift it myself but too heavy for my mother which is why it had to be gotten rid off. Nothing wrong with it other than its weight. If you look around you can pick them up used for not a lot of money there isn't much demand think that one went to some guy who does them up and resells them on eBay.

yeah, I can see why people get rid as they do weigh a lot. I couldn't even put it on a folding craft table as it would have turned it back into a flat pack. Have had to plonk it on my solid oak PC desk when i need to use it.

It's a really handy thing to have though, especially if you're tall with wide shoulders like me as I have to buy L/XL tops to fit my shoulder width, but they are then too baggy. So i have been using it to take in all my tops for a tailored fit. Surprisingly easy to do and they look much better on me now.

Also going to replace the cuffs on a few of my hoodies as I tend to roll my sleeves up a lot and the cuffs end up stretched, so instead of binning perfectly good hoodies I can now just buy some cuff material and replace them. It'll have paid for it's self in no time!

DXP55 · 24 Jul 2019 at 17:56

All my Record G clamps are blue the same as vises

Mark A · 26 Jul 2019 at 19:05

Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent, but not too expensive dovetail saw? Are the Japanese style pull saws any good for dovetails? There are some around the £20-£30 mark on Amazon. Do they cut cross cut and rip cut in one?

I'd love to splash out on a Veritas or whatever, but I can't justify the price at the moment. I'm hoping there is something a bit cheaper that will get decent results for now, then maybe pick up a decent saw later.

@famas @darreny I'd be interested to know what you guys use for dovetailing if you ever do them by hand.

Mark A · 2 Aug 2019 at 16:13

Never mind, I ended up splashing out on a Veritas fine tooth rip cut dovetail saw

. It seemed a good price for £46 as they are at least £10 more everywhere else I looked. If it's any good I might get the crosscut version later on and maybe even the tennon saw.

https://www.tyzacktools.com/products/361-veritas-fine-tooth-dovetail-saw-211804-05t0505.aspx