"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Things like spanners and sockets are a different kettle of fish to
cutting tools.

Funnily I bought a cheap set of drills from Lidl just the other week not
expecting them to be much good. All the 0.5 sizes to 10mm in a nice steel
case for IIRC 4.99. and it was the case I really wanted for carrying
drills out to the car, etc. And having drilled a fair amount of mild steel
with them they've done as well as branded shed types at many times the
price.

I'm explaining myself very badly. By cutting tools I meant precision cutting
tools that have to work to a tolerance. If they do so they are fully
functional and if they don't they are useless. There's very little utility
in between those two extremes. This includes taps, dies, machine reamers and
adjustable hand reamers, boring and honing equipment and precision grinding
equipment.

Drill bits have a wide range of utility. Even cheap ones will be close to
nominal size and in any case hole size is not critical to a thou or so when
drilling and will vary more due to the machine, the chuck and the speed and
feed than the tool. What you get by paying more is longer life and the
ability to machine tougher materials.

So for occasional or hobby use cheap drill sets are usually fine and in fact
are often pretty good quality. You might not get many holes out of cheap
ones before they go blunt but if you only want to drill one hole it doesn't
matter. In high volume production environments the cost of tool changing and
setting up again will far outweigh the saving on cheap items so you buy the
best.

Similarly most hand tools like spanners and sockets will have a wide range
of utility depending on price. Cheap ones will do most jobs and expensive
ones might only be needed for the occasional stubborn bolt that's rusted
into place.

So finally, boiling down what I've been trying to say into something
comprehensible, it's the importance of the tolerance that determines whether
you need pro quality stuff or can manage with cheaper.

In my experience the worst items for being useless if you buy cheap are taps
and dies. For everything else you tend to have a range of price vs quality
that you can tailor to your personal needs and still get a functional item.
--
Dave Baker
www.pumaracing.co.uk
"Why," said Ford squatting down beside him and shivering, "are you lying
face down in the dust?"
"It's a very effective way of being wretched," said Marvin.