What are the worlds worst power tools???

[TwoInch]

For those who grease their HF angle grinders, what kind of grease do you use? I have a $20 B&D I'm getting nervous about.

i have tried a couple, i tried some EP moly wheel bearing grease, put some superlube in another, and some stalube red EP in a 4" and all seem to be just fine.

if you dont leave a large enough air pocket in the gear case, they will over heat very quickly, fluid friction.

 

[neonnblack]

Weird how very opposite some peoples experiences are. I have a Ryobi drill 18v. Think its been 5 or 6 years now, and the batteries are only just now starting to go bad. I wouldnt hesitate to buy Ryobi again, thought i really want the m18 fuel combo, or the Makita brushless combo.

 

[97nismo]

Northern reciprocating saw handle broke off while I was using it and I just taped it back on and use it for small stuff cause it has a nice case

 

[928'er]

i have always felt RYOBI is pretty junky

I've got quite a few of the 18v Ryobi tools. My favorites are the 1/2" drive impact and the 1/4" hex drive impact. I'm just a DIY'er, but I've used these to strip cars down to the bare shell - never skipped a beat - work fine for general auto maintenance. Never had a failure of any kind.

No problems with the batteries either. The Lithium batteries are a big step up, but my original 6 year old NiCads are still going strong. Don't know how they'd hold up under pro use, but for the DIY'er they hold up just fine.

 

[rshadd]

I borrowed my Dad's HF grinder and it lasted about 4 hours before I over heated the motor an killed it.

 

[01ps]

Can't remember the brand but at one of my old jobs we had a bunch of holes to drill into concrete and needed a 1/2" hammer drill. The boss ordered a cheapy from ebay and when I used it it pretty much caught on fire immediately, sparks everywhere.

 

[jd_1138]

Can't remember the brand but at one of my old jobs we had a bunch of holes to drill into concrete and needed a 1/2" hammer drill. The boss ordered a cheapy from ebay and when I used it it pretty much caught on fire immediately, sparks everywhere.

That's an example of how it is expensive to be cheap. Your boss lost out on worker productivity due to a cheapie drill. He probably lost way more than the price of what a quality drill would cost, and he still had to buy a new drill.

 

[TwoInch]

I borrowed my Dad's HF grinder and it lasted about 4 hours before I over heated the motor an killed it.

i bet there are a high percentage of bad apples when you are getting a 4.5" angle grinder for $8 or $10 bucks.

i bought mine expecting about 4 hours of use, essentially a throw away, beat on it when i dont wanna ruin the good stuff tool. and i was very pleasantly surprised.

 

[97nismo]

My friends have a standing joke about the hf welder I bought for under 100....how my arms are gonna fly off ha.....as for the hf grinder it's not bad for small stuff I wouldn't use it for a full time job

 

[tshetter]

i don't think skil is too bad as long as you stick to drills and circular saws and don't buy the absolute bottom of the line. i have always felt RYOBI is pretty junky, HF "chicago electric", goes without saying... B&D is kind of middling nowadays imo (although recent posts have shown this wasn't always the case) and i have a bias (perhaps unfounded?) against makita that i get from my dad. i'm not a huge fan of most modern craftsman power tools, either.

Now, maybe they are starting to make some better tools than I imagine but In the past year or so the amount of RYOBI tools I have seen contractors bring onto sites has risen 500%. Not everyone can afford the best, we all know that, but damn at least get your self a Dewalt drill and impact.

My Bosch drills and impacts, 18v and 12v have always taken care of me. I especially like my 12v impact. Handles 99% of things I need to do, and only when I am doing masonry/carpentry all day long do I switch to my 18v stuff for the battery life and the use of the bigger hammer drill.

I still want one of the 12v reciprocating saws, they are so compact and handy they are worth their weight in gold.

 

[tshetter]

That's an example of how it is expensive to be cheap. Your boss lost out on worker productivity due to a cheapie drill. He probably lost way more than the price of what a quality drill would cost, and he still had to buy a new drill.

THIS!

Run into this **** so much at work. Bosses will buy the cheapest **** they can all day long, and then go spend $5k on something no one ever needed, asked for, or even wanted. Granger cheap-o carpentry drill press, band saw, why-oh-why!? They can't handle working with a 4x4 in a reasonable fashion and are useless for any metal fabrication. Don't get used at all.

Then there is the high end Graco line/paint sprayer, do not get me started on that waste of money. Quality tool no doubt but never used in 2+ years.

Cheap fasteners is a pet peeve of mine too. When my 12v impact is ripping the heads off #14 phillips screws there is something wrong.

 

[RV77]

Snap-on IM6100......Biggest and most expensive POS I ever bought.Live and Learn

 

[redwrench60]

Angle grinders seem to be mentioned a lot. I can buy lightly used Makita, Milwakee and Dewalt 4 1/2" grinders for $20-$30 tops all day at the pawn shop. Why would anyone want to buy a $10-$20 ************* that you have to work on so it won't catch on fire?

 

[crewchief888]

Angle grinders seem to be mentioned a lot. I can buy lightly used Makita, Milwakee and Dewalt 4 1/2" grinders for $20-$30 tops all day at the pawn shop. Why would anyone want to buy a $10-$20 ************* that you have to work on so it won't catch on fire?

you wont find them around here at that price.

a beat up, painted over, used angle grinder has a price tag about $5 below the new list price.

i see HF orange grinders quite bit with $25 tag on them, and someone buys it..

 

[redwrench60]

you wont find them around here at that price.

a beat up, painted over, used angle grinder has a price tag about $5 below the new list price.

i see HF orange grinders quite bit with $25 tag on them, and someone buys it..

Wow. That *****. I have never bought a new angle grinder. I always get them used at pawn shops. The only time they are more than $30 or $35 is if they're brand new in the box. Then they're $40-$50 or so.

 

[chris6278]

I dont have any experience with Ryobis cordless stuff, usually buy the top of line when it comes to cordless, but i have a few corded Ryobi power tools, angle grinder an circular saw, that have been pretty dam good especially the angle grinder. That thing just keeps goin an goin

 

[SMKS]

I bought a cheap ($25 or $30) HF drill for a job once about three years ago.

I still have it and it's still my only cordless drill. It's not the nicest drill, but it keeps working. It's definitely far from the worst power tool.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Weird how very opposite some peoples experiences are.

That's the problem with cheep sheeit...some of it goes forever, some you break taking it out of the box. Absolutely no consistency. Ever notice that virtually any/all of the cheep tools have lifetime no question warranty...its NEEDED... The chances of getting a DOA Milwaukee or Makita I'd say are slim to none.

 

[crewchief888]

That's the problem with cheep sheeit...some of it goes forever, some you break taking it out of the box. Absolutely no consistency. Ever notice that virtually any/all of the cheep tools have lifetime no question warranty...its NEEDED... The chances of getting a DOA Milwaukee or Makita I'd say are slim to none.

3 years ago i had to return a ridgid 18v cordless drill that was 2-3 weeks old when sparks came flying out, closely followed by all it's smoke.

3 weeks ago, i had to return a 1 WEEK old milwaukee 18v fuel 3/8" dr impact when the trigger stopped working.


i'm beginning to think all tools ****, even the ones that dont have a cord, battery or air fitting on em

 

[bobemmerich]

I dunno. I have an 18v Ryobi drill that keeps going and going. I've dropped it down stairs, off ladders and beat the hell out of it.It works flawlessly. I also have a Skil 12v cordless drill and it works well. It's not the most powerful, but it works good enough to hang drywall in a 10x12 room on 2 charges.

 

[comedyman809]

fuuny thing is, my first power tool was a dewalt corded 3/8 keyless chuck drill, i used it for about 3 months, abused it by making 7/16(it actually fit the chuck)holes in 1/8" stainless. then the motor fired, smoked and kept going until the plastic fell apart, then after that, many years later when i got back into the trades, i bout the bosch mini drivers and impactor, and love them, still have them. since then, the 36v bosch drill, much of the m18 lineup, bunch of the m12 lineup, and the makita 18v angle impactor, along with a festool csx driver......never realyu had a junky power tool, only junk ive ever used is when i borrowed somthing from someone for 1 reason or another....kawasaki- junk, hitachi- junk-that coleman brand cordless drill-junk.

 

[Walterchang]

Ryobi is **** the batteries are so bad, even brand new the batteries ****, I own a few Ryobi tools drill, saw, sander, jig saw, all of the them are ****. Dewalt is bar none the most reliable I have found, I do love my 12V Bosch stuff, simply awesome tools. Hitachi batteries are piss poor too.

 

[skruft]

That is hard to say.

Probably the worst I ever had were Craftsman electric tools but this was years ago, before I stopped buying them.

Several corded drills failed in light use, way before they should have.

A variable speed electric die grinder failed in very light use within warranty, was replaced, and failed again. I think I had about a half hour's service altogether. Not even. That was the worst power tool ever.

I don't want to say that everything they make is bad. I still have an angle grinder that I use with a heavy wire brush to clean rust. That has been used a lot for many years and is still perfectly good. Also an old belt sander.

 

[57JoeFoMoPar]

Obviously some of the HF stuff goes without saying, but some of the names mentioned here are surprising.

From personal experience, I bought a Ryobi reciprocating saw years ago before I knew what was good and what wasn't. It was a true piece of garbage and the best thing about it was the case that I kept.

Skil tools are also pretty budget, but the worm drive circular saw is still a classic tool that is professional grade, even if the rest of their line is less desirable.

I'm also shocked to hear Bosch mentioned here. I have several Bosch tools, and their tools seem to have the tightest motors and best overall quality of all the tools I own. While I can't speak to their warrantying, I can attest for tools that just don't break to begin with.

 

[PugetDude]

I used to say that the worst tool is anything from Sears with an electric cord on it.

Now I don't even need to mention the cord.

 

[PugetDude]

I'm also shocked to hear Bosch mentioned here. I have several Bosch tools, and their tools seem to have the tightest motors and best overall quality of all the tools I own. While I can't speak to their warrantying, I can attest for tools that just don't break to begin with.

I had a Bosch 1/2" Mighty Midget drill a few years back. It was an awesome tool, until it died under mysterious circumstances. I took it in and had it rebuilt... for almost the cost of a new one.. and it died again a week after I got it back, too bad, it's now been discontinued by the mfr. So, I have a dead drill with $250+ invested... Needed to do something different , so I tried the Ryobi 18V cordless, have been using them for about 10 years now. Every one of the tools still functions perfectly, (the impact driver is fantastic, I've driven thousands of screws, lag bolts, etc with mine-m no issues ) though I've been through quite a few batteries. But, no one (except Ridgid) offers a lifetime warranty on cordless tool batteries, anyway. And the Ridgid warranty is so restrictive and inconvenient that it's pretty much worthless, IMO.

 

[ZRX61]

The only powertool I recall having an issue with was a 4.5in SnapOn angle grinder. The screws holding the end plate on with *live* & as this was in the UK I got the full benefit of 240V & 13A. It threw me across the workshop. I unplugged it & then threw it across the workshop in retaliation. Me & the truck guy had words, most of the ones I used were single syllable.