Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[GeneralBanter]

Anyone know if these are any good? Fits over the drill bit and keep the green laser circles concentric and you know it’s a straight perpendicular hole

A good idea but it came up as a FB scam type sales ad.

[Du1point8]

MajorMantra said:

skeeterm5 said:

The hardest bit is working out where to put the wood to cut it without cutting my bench!

I wondered about this. Do people typically use a sacrificial piece of timber/styrofoam under the workpiece?

Yep, had one of these:

https://www.diy.com/departments/mdf-board-l-1-22m-...

Was cheaper when I got it 3 years ago, I try not to cut it too deep, but for a few quid it works wonders and was great for the multitude of work I did.

[bennno]

I came to the conclusion earlier that this was the best £13.99 ive ever spent

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Air-Wedge-eSynic-Pump-Bag...

[beedj]

Billy_Rosewood said:

RacingPete said:

Billy_Rosewood said:

Any good deals going on the battery powered pressure washers?

Have been eyeing up the Ryobi 42bar, but was out of stock when they had the Jan sale on. I have a 110bar Karcher, but the battery powered one seems much more convenient for smaller jobs like car washing!

https://uk.ryobitools.eu/garden-tools/garden-clean...

I have one of those ryobi pressure washers, really useful for the mountain bike when finished a trail to clean down (especially with the attachment that goes in an old drinks bottle, truly portable power wash).

It isn’t amazingly powerful though, wouldn’t be cleaning any patios, but for washing cars down etc it is decent enough. My first did break though, but ryobi customer services replaced with no issues (actually just needed to send off a copy of the sticky label plate).

Thanks, sounds ideal.. I only really want it as something to wash the car/bikes with and perhaps give the outdoor furniture a hose down. Something with a bit more power than a hose on its own but doesn't need to have the power to strip the lacquer off the wheels either

I recently bought a Worx Nitro HydroShot WG633E, 56 bar, absolutely superb, c.£180. Adjustable power/pressure via 'eco' button to reduce the power (ideal for eMTB to avoid getting water in bearings, motor etc). Also nozzle spray width is adjustable, concentrated high power jet, or various wider angles etc

Edited by beedj on Saturday 17th February 20:07

[DocJock]

bennno said:

I came to the conclusion earlier that this was the best £13.99 ive ever spent

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Air-Wedge-eSynic-Pump-Bag...

I'm with you there.
Makes hanging or rehanging doors much easier.

[GeneralBanter]

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

[Nigel_O]

bennno said:

I came to the conclusion earlier that this was the best £13.99 ive ever spent

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Air-Wedge-eSynic-Pump-Bag...

They are exceptionally useful - I paid about £5 a pair from Aldi a few years ago

[B'stard Child]

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

20 years ago I bought a Makita one - it’s outlasted all the others I’ve bought since (judging from my disc storage I’ve had 8 or 9 others over the years) except the second Makita one I bought 10 years ago (and I can’t tell them apart)

They are both smoother to use and don’t give me white finger like cheap ones do

I have 3 angle grinders set up 1 for cutting, 1 for grinding and 1 that gets swapped between flap wheel and zip wheel

I don’t know if the quality of Makita stuff has dropped but when my last cheapy dies I’m going to buy another Makita

I’m also not sure if Makita is in your price bracket either……

[Buzz84]

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

I have had an Ebauer one from Screwfix that's had several years of abuse. Shrugged off the dust of cuting hundreds of patio slabs with a diamond disk and is still going strong.

The one Screwfix has now looks different but is priced at £37.
(I also have a Ebauer dual action sander that works really well too)

[Teddy Lop]

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

got many more to do?

while a 4½ will do it youre pushing it a bit, I'd be looking at something a bit bigger and more powerfull like a 7".

[Condi]

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

Can you not see about fixing the bosch? Parts are usually widely available, it's likely to be the bushes which are not expensive and if you Google it there are a surprising number of people who will fix it.

[B'stard Child]

Teddy Lop said:

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

got many more to do?

while a 4½ will do it youre pushing it a bit, I'd be looking at something a bit bigger and more powerfull like a 7".

If you've got a lot to do a 9 inch will make short work of them

When I did my brick weave driveway it worked out cheaper to buy a 9 inch (110 volt already have a transformer) with a diamond blade than to hire one for the week it was going to be needed.

[cptsideways]

Lidl have in the 20v multi drills this week. I have a few of them, at home, on the boat etc. They are utterly brilliant bits of kit, proved fairly bombproof, It's a drill, with a multi cutter, reciprocating saw and sander heads that swap out. The latest one skips the bigger sanding head but it's now a lot cheaper as a bare unit at £40.

Rather than individual tools just swap the head unit, genuinely useful things I use every week returning our Victorian pad and for boat duties.

[Fastpedeller]

GeneralBanter said:

Anyone know if these are any good? Fits over the drill bit and keep the green laser circles concentric and you know it’s a straight perpendicular hole

A good idea but it came up as a FB scam type sales ad.

Only good if it is accurate 'out of the box' and again if it stays concentric with the drill .... I guess it will also be spinning around at the same rate as the drill bit. I'd say it's unlikely to be useful, but stand to be corrected if anyone gives genuine feedback on PH.

[dickymint]

Fastpedeller said:

GeneralBanter said:

Anyone know if these are any good? Fits over the drill bit and keep the green laser circles concentric and you know it’s a straight perpendicular hole

A good idea but it came up as a FB scam type sales ad.

Only good if it is accurate 'out of the box' and again if it stays concentric with the drill .... I guess it will also be spinning around at the same rate as the drill bit. I'd say it's unlikely to be useful, but stand to be corrected if anyone gives genuine feedback on PH.

Could be useful as a tool to train 'muscle memory' but to be honest unless you're drilling steel or anything deep it really doesn't matter.

[GeneralBanter]

Condi said:

GeneralBanter said:

Burnt out my Bosch angle grinder yesterday cutting paving slabs, it went down to half speed and became a hand held smoke generator. I’ll unbox the backup Workzone one later but anyone got any suggestions for a sub £50 grinder 110mm?

Can you not see about fixing the bosch? Parts are usually widely available, it's likely to be the bushes which are not expensive and if you Google it there are a surprising number of people who will fix it.

I’ve had it apart and the brushes are really good for it’s 20 years of abuse. It seems to be running at half speed and overheating quick so I suspect a short where part of the winding isn’t operating and the energy is coming out as heat instead. I think it’s time for a replacement!

[Sporky]

I know it's frightfully against the spirit of the thread, but it'd be worth taking it apart and seeing if there's anything obviously amiss.

My little 10.8v Bosch drill stopped working - fifteen minutes later I'd cleared some crud out of the trigger and all was well again. Your grinder sounds like something bigger is wonky, but surely worth a look inside.

[bodhi]

GeneralBanter said:

I’ve had it apart and the brushes are really good for it’s 20 years of abuse. It seems to be running at half speed and overheating quick so I suspect a short where part of the winding isn’t operating and the energy is coming out as heat instead. I think it’s time for a replacement!

Seeing as the last Bosch lasted 20 years, how about another?

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Bosch-Professional-GWS7-1...

[GeneralBanter]

Sporky said:

I know it's frightfully against the spirit of the thread, but it'd be worth taking it apart and seeing if there's anything obviously amiss.

My little 10.8v Bosch drill stopped working - fifteen minutes later I'd cleared some crud out of the trigger and all was well again. Your grinder sounds like something bigger is wonky, but surely worth a look inside.

I’m all for repairs but I believe it’s the winding. Had it apart again and a lot of the plastic inside has melted as well.

Just picked this B&D from Toolstation, it’s excellent but the old 115mm Bosch guard worked (just) with 125mm discs so I was able to buy Aldi discs by the dozen. The new guards won’t accommodate 125mm BUT the old Bosch guard fits the B&D so happy days!
Plus they give 10% off the first app order so I bought a quick-change collet and the lot was £36.

[Sporky]

GeneralBanter said:

I’m all for repairs but I believe it’s the winding. Had it apart again and a lot of the plastic inside has melted as well.

My apologies for doubting you. That does sound rather terminal.

Happy new tool day.