Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[V12GT]

pquinn said:

gfreeman said:

crossie said:

Teddy Lop said:

NextSlidePlease said:

Bill said:

I just use a reciprocating saw for that kind of thing.

Correct answer, a recip saw does very well with branches, should make short work of them. I use the Milwaukee M18 for this type of work. Great at cutting through roots as well.

Yeh, but you're gonna look a bit of a tit come the zombie apocalypse with a pruner aren't you?

For me I had a tree to compartmentalise but I can't really justify extending my milwaukee kit, so $40 of chineseum fury with an M18 battery plate bodged on it was:

Do you have a link on where to buy one?

Don’t bother buying one. Pop down to A&E later his wife will be selling that one…

Lidl have these next week, among other potential limb removers.

Thanks all for your suggestions - in the end I added a recip saw to my existing tools and it seems OK at ground level, just haven't used it at height yet! It does chew through the batteries though!

I might have a look at Lidl next week too.

[Bobhon]

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Is yours the earlier version with a small round plug on the end of the mains lead, with a corresponding socket in the end of the battery?

If so then would you be willing to sell me your charger lead? Mine dropped on the floor and the 3 pin plugs end lost it's earth pin. It's currently held together by a dab of superglue, but I fear that I can never unplug it from the wall or it will break off again.

[B'stard Child]

Bobhon said:

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Is yours the earlier version with a small round plug on the end of the mains lead, with a corresponding socket in the end of the battery?

If so then would you be willing to sell me your charger lead? Mine dropped on the floor and the 3 pin plugs end lost it's earth pin. It's currently held together by a dab of superglue, but I fear that I can never unplug it from the wall or it will break off again.

Err I may have done that too on a different charger

Plug it into a really short extension lead (I made mine up for about £3.00) so that I never have to pull the charger out of the socket it's plugged into but I can pull the ext lead socket out of the wall

[finlo]

Bobhon said:

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Is yours the earlier version with a small round plug on the end of the mains lead, with a corresponding socket in the end of the battery?

If so then would you be willing to sell me your charger lead? Mine dropped on the floor and the 3 pin plugs end lost it's earth pin. It's currently held together by a dab of superglue, but I fear that I can never unplug it from the wall or it will break off again.

Can you not just cut the plug off and replace it?

[Teddy Lop]

finlo said:

Bobhon said:

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Is yours the earlier version with a small round plug on the end of the mains lead, with a corresponding socket in the end of the battery?

If so then would you be willing to sell me your charger lead? Mine dropped on the floor and the 3 pin plugs end lost it's earth pin. It's currently held together by a dab of superglue, but I fear that I can never unplug it from the wall or it will break off again.

Can you not just cut the plug off and replace it?

It'll be a wall wort transformer plug. Plastic earth pins are a joke and should be banned.

Bobhon - you can probably buy a universal power adapter to do the job. What's the rating, volts/amps/VA etc

[AstonZagato]

Bobhon said:

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Is yours the earlier version with a small round plug on the end of the mains lead, with a corresponding socket in the end of the battery?

If so then would you be willing to sell me your charger lead? Mine dropped on the floor and the 3 pin plugs end lost it's earth pin. It's currently held together by a dab of superglue, but I fear that I can never unplug it from the wall or it will break off again.

It is the Ferrex one with a 12V and, yes, a small round plug. I'll send a PM but you can have it once I've sorted a replacement. That way you have a spare battery too. No need to pay.

[Semmelweiss]

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.

Contact them and they'll likely just send you a replacement...how do I know? I've had mine a few years now and use it very regularly.

I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

[Chris Type R]

Not exactly the best example of the tool - but something that I picked up on special for £40 some time ago and have only recently unboxed and used - a wall chaser. It's not something that a DIY'er will typically need, but it's proved extremely effective and quite the time saver in a property I'm renovating. Certainly something I'd have found a use for in the past.

https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-1500w-125mm-wal...

[Chris Type R]

pquinn said:

dickymint said:

Bought this Titan wet n dry years ago for the workshop and on site - It outsucks far better than the couple of Henry's I've had and at fifty quid!!!!!!

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb774vac-1300w-1...

Last one of these I took apart to clean said 1300W on the case label & 1400W on the actual motor.

I think I'm going to semi-retire my Titan - the capacity has become a bit of an issue and I'm finding it a challenge to find robust bags. Maybe it'll get relegated to being a loft vac.

I've added a 30L Scheppach, which immediately seems less likely to block up, and with greater capacity & a longer hose - £50 at Aldi currently - https://www.aldi.co.uk/scheppach-wet-%26-dry-vacuu... - it seems better value to me than the Titan.

[Taff107]

Teddy Lop said:

Nah that's this one!:

That's the one for me! Time to get my Jonsered up on Ebay.
I'd like to see that thing cut anything thicker than some dowels

[shih tzu faced]

Taff107 said:

Teddy Lop said:

Nah that's this one!:

That's the one for me! Time to get my Jonsered up on Ebay.
I'd like to see that thing cut anything thicker than some dowels

That contraption has to be up there with those circular saw blades you can get to put in your angle grinder

In theory I suppose not a bad idea, but in practice you just know you’re going to be a problem case for some poor sod in the NHS. You won’t be able to clap them either as you won’t have any hands left

[Jules Sunley]

Chris Type R said:

Not exactly the best example of the tool - but something that I picked up on special for £40 some time ago and have only recently unboxed and used - a wall chaser. It's not something that a DIY'er will typically need, but it's proved extremely effective and quite the time saver in a property I'm renovating. Certainly something I'd have found a use for in the past.

https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-1500w-125mm-wal...

I've got a chaser which I used on our previous house renovations. The key learning point with these is never use one in a house you are currently living in - the mess is biblical. For cutting cable runs in engineering brick though they work very well.

[Taff107]

shih tzu faced said:

That contraption has to be up there with those circular saw blades you can get to put in your angle grinder

In theory I suppose not a bad idea, but in practice you just know you’re going to be a problem case for some poor sod in the NHS. You won’t be able to clap them either as you won’t have any hands left

Exactly!

The actual 'chainsaw' part looks like it just slots into the chuck which means that it can rotate separately from the drill. Press down on the front grip, down it goes and across your wrist comes the bar and chain.....

Jesus h christ

[Taff107]

Chris Type R said:

Not exactly the best example of the tool - but something that I picked up on special for £40 some time ago and have only recently unboxed and used - a wall chaser. It's not something that a DIY'er will typically need, but it's proved extremely effective and quite the time saver in a property I'm renovating. Certainly something I'd have found a use for in the past.

https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-1500w-125mm-wal...

is it just a single blade which means you have to run 2 parallel lines and chase out with a chisel? If so, apart from being able to set depth, there's no real advantage over a mini grinder and disc is there?

[Chris Type R]

Taff107 said:

Chris Type R said:

Not exactly the best example of the tool - but something that I picked up on special for £40 some time ago and have only recently unboxed and used - a wall chaser. It's not something that a DIY'er will typically need, but it's proved extremely effective and quite the time saver in a property I'm renovating. Certainly something I'd have found a use for in the past.

https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-1500w-125mm-wal...

is it just a single blade which means you have to run 2 parallel lines and chase out with a chisel? If so, apart from being able to set depth, there's no real advantage over a mini grinder and disc is there?

No, two parallel blades. You fit spacers to change the chase width. The chaser has a little wheel on it to make life easier. Basically you mark a vertical line and run the tool along this to get nice straight cuts. You can connect it to a vacuum cleaner to reduce the dust. You clean out the chase with a chisel, but for the ones I've done the strip just dropped out when poked by hand.

The chase is tight enough to then squeeze fit plastic conduit to run cable through - and you can also fit fire rated metal clips to retain the conduit - https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-fire-rated-safe-...

[Taff107]

Chris Type R said:

No, two parallel blades. You fit spacers to change the chase width. The chaser has a little wheel on it to make life easier. Basically you mark a vertical line and run the tool along this to get nice straight cuts. You can connect it to a vacuum cleaner to reduce the dust. You clean out the chase with a chisel, but for the ones I've done the strip just dropped out when poked by hand.

The chase is tight enough to then squeeze fit plastic conduit to run cable through - and you can also fit fire rated metal clips to retain the conduit - https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-fire-rated-safe-...

Doesn't sound too bad at all for 40 quid.....

[AstonZagato]

Semmelweiss said:

AstonZagato said:

I bought something like this:

From the Aldi aisle of dreams for (IIRC) £20-25. It has been very useful but has now developed a leak.


I'd like to replace it but even the no-name ones are twice the price.

Can anyone recommend one? I don't have any power tools so I don't have a spare battery/charger. I'm not averse to paying more but I'm either looking for cheap and cheerful or more and bulletproof.

Contact them and they'll likely just send you a replacement...how do I know? I've had mine a few years now and use it very regularly.

Aldi? or the manufacturer?

[Semmelweiss]

Aldi

[gtidriver]

My latest Festool purchase, of course it has no impact bits with it,so today a Festool bit kit that fits in an insert in the box will arrive.
I'm running out of Festool shizzle to buy. It'll be either the new saw stop table saw or a chop saw..

[Niponeoff]

Spanner test on torque channel. I know people rate the wera joker on here..


https://youtu.be/JyfkQBQuvBM