Worthless Tools Gallery. What Tools do you regret buying?

This may not be an exact fit for the thread, but anyway...

HF sells three price levels of twist drill bits. Low end is identified as high speed steel. The middle is noted as high speed steel with TiN coating. The third is called cobalt steel. Among other ways these are available is sets - 1 to 60, letter drills, and 1/16" to 1/2" (by 64ths I think). Pricing is roughly 3 for cobalt, 2 for TiN, and 1 for HHS - so a cobalt set is about $100.

Anyone use HF bits? If so, how do they hold up when drilling steel? Especially the cobalt?

Thanks


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Sets of drills are almost always junk stuff, unless they are a really good brand.
Locally made drill bits have this terrible habit of being slightly bent after heat treatment. Put them in a good chuck and the tip wobbles! Seriously.

These days I will only buy Dormer drill bits. And I prefer the stub drills to the jobber drills anyhow, especially in a CNC.

Cheers
Roger
 
EmilioG said:
I read that brown and sharpe hole gages were not well made. That the set was horrible, very springy and loose.
I was very surprised to hear this. B&S usually make quality tools.
Click to expand...

Bought a set of B & S adjustable parallels back around 1980. What a POS they were. They were not parallel, most were out about.0015". They were not ground flat, bowed badly. Gave them to my little brother a few years later.
 
I won't buy new from a lot of manufacturers. B&S being one. B&S made quality tools years ago,
where you see the old logo, made in Providence, RI. LBS. Go with vintage where you can/
 
GarageGuy said:
I had the same setup. You had to weld or braze fast, because those oxygen pellets didn't last very long. They were expensive as heck, and the only way we could get them was by mail order. You could also use Mapp gas instead of propane, but that made it even more expensive. The aluminum pellet canister was prone to corrosion because of the heat and oxygen rich environment. Very nearly worthless. I had forgotten about it! You're right, that would have been around 1976 maybe.

GG
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I had two setups like that. One used a 14 oz. oxygen cylinder and propane cylinder. I bought that to do an emergency repair on an outboard motor when I was on an up north fishing trip. The second one was the SolidOx torch that was given to me by my ex father-in-law. I gave up on the 14 oz.oxygen cylinder. I had a larger medical oxygen tank which was pressure tested for 2500 psi working. I made an adapter that allowed me to charge the tank from my larger oxygen tank and made a nice portable stand for it. I use MAPP gas instead of propane. It is handy to take out to remote areas where I don't feel like lugging the large tanks. I used it to weld a splashwell made of 16 g. aluminum for one of my boats once.
 
I started my welding career on one of those solid ox torches. I got one as a kid about 14-15 sheet metal was all it was good for I think I got new pellets from sears. yes that far back I knew I wanted to work metal.
Mark
 
markknx said:
I started my welding career on one of those solid ox torches. I got one as a kid about 14-15 sheet metal was all it was good for I think I got new pellets from sears. yes that far back I knew I wanted to work metal.
Mark
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It (the torch) actually worked quite for aluminum. Its limited capacity made it much harder to create a pool of molten aluminum. Never actually used the SolidOx pellets though.
 
Cheaper brand name tools from "big box" hardware stores... had a particularly bad run with an Ozito keyless church power drill, would never maintain a tight grip on the drill bit and a GMC jigsaw... absolutely hopeless, wouldn't naintain a straight cut and never anywhere near "square" either.

I replaced both with (and tend to stick to) Makita power tools... have had a good run from every one I have owned.

My lesson... buy quality not cheap.
 
My pals (Generous well meaning souls) upon occasions buy me these crap, cheap digital callipers sold at street markets & cheap tool stores, They are far eastern rubbish, When they are away after I have thanked them most profusely, I fire them straight into the rubbish bin! They are useless, You never get the same reading twice on the same component, give me my Brown & Sharp etc vernier scale instruments + good British similar tools of about thirty years ago any day, Quality now gone for ever
 
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