Well..I thought I would be swimming upstream here but Roy's experience
agrees with something I saw: I have avoided buying anything that cut metal
from Harbor Freight(HF) thinking that it would be a waste of time and a
source of frustration. A friend of mine, a good mechanical engineer,
re-built a 35 Jason sailboat right along side my shop. He bought a drill
set from HF and used them drilling numerous holes thru,, of all things, SS.
My super duper made in the USA expensive drill bits couldn't keep up with
the usage that he got out of the cheap drills from HF. I'm still thinking
about that and wondering what and how? At any rate,the price differences
like $9.95 for a die grinder vs. $159 US I can throw the $9.95 unit at the
dog if it evers craps out and it still hasn't thru the building of several
projects and hard usage. I just bought a set of 1/2 - 1" Silver &
Demming drills in increments of 1/16. I paid less for the whole set than
just the 7/8" drill at the local store. Cheap? Maybe..I"ll find out. I
hope they are as long lasting as my friends..
Stu Fields
"Roy" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 05:32:44 GMT, Mickey Feldman
wrote:
===Really, I don't usually buy cheap tools. I appreciate high quality,
===and if I can remotely justify it to myself ("well, I just might use
===this a second time within the next decade... certainly within the
next
===two..."), I'll spring the extra bucks and get the better version.
===
===However.... part of me is a sucker for an apparent bargain and every
===now and then I do get something cheap, although usually with my eyes
===open. So it was last summer when House Of Tools (here in Canada,
don't
===know if they're in the States) had a drill index with 1/16in to
1/2in
===drill bits in 64ths for some silly low price - don't even remember
===what - 5 bucks? 10? Anyway, they were sharp, I figured how bad can
===they be? Maybe the steel is junk and they'll lose their edge
===immediately - I'll just reserve 'em for drilling plastic, balsa,
stuff
===like that, right?
===
===So finally the other day I need to drill some nice soft plastic, got
==='em out, chucked up the bit I needed. Hmm. Must have chucked it
===off-center. Seems to be wobbling. Rechucked, paying attention this
===time. Hmmm? Still wobbling. Took it out. Rolled it on the drill
press
===table. BENT! Straight (if I may use the word) from the factory!
Argh!
===Sheesh. Ya can't trust anybody anymore. I expect cheap stuff to wear
===out in no time, but I imagine I'd get at least one gentle use out of
===it before it died. Maybe some of the rest of the set is usable.
===
===Oh, well. Cheap lesson? At least it wasn't a $4K lathe.
===
===Mickey
===
I bought a set of letter drills on ebay one time for a total of $4.00
and some change. I accepted right from the start they would probably
be junk..............but I had that urge for a hopefull bargain. I was
totally wrong. They seem to be very good drill bits and I have yet to
have one problem out of any of them. They hold an edge fine and mic
out to ther proper sizes. Now I wished I bought another set or two, as
these were listed in a dutch type auction. Every now and then you
stumble on a great deal, rare but still a possibility.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
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