Nothing that springs to mind for me but I’ll offer these in response to your hates.

1. They never seem concentric so I don’t worry about that. Destroyed teeth are usually down to running too fast, a 100mm HSS saw only wants to be doing about 100rpm max in steel. Too fine a pitch will clog and not help with getting a straight cut. Save fine pitch blades for slotting screw heads or cutting thing 3mm or less material.

2. Hand or machine reamer? What size pilot hole?. Typically A machine reamer wants to run at half your drilling speed a hand one under power very slowly. 0.2mm undersize drill for upto 8mm holes then 0.3mm less for upto 15mm holes. and use lubricant.

3. Again flycutters don’t want to be that fast, a typical MT3 or R8 one with 63mm head may be swinging an 80mm dia at the tip so 100rpm with an HSS tool in steel which should not get too out of balance. This also means a slow feed rate is needed Correct grinding to prevent rubbing and keeping the tool sharp is the way to a good finish

Worst tool ever – the misnamed “Easy-Out”. All you end up doing is expanding the thing you’re trying to extract so it’s an even tighter fit in the hole, and then snapping the damned thing off flush so now you have a hardened piece of steel down the hole so you can’t now drill it out. I threw my set of the things away.

Those telescopic bore gauges.  They seem to be popular but I’ve never had much luck with them.  Fortunatley, there are much better ways to measure a bore.

I was gifted a set of them many years ago, I was delighted and grateful until I tried to use them to determine the diameter of a bore accurately.  When asked, by the gifter, how I was getting on with them, I answered honestly!  He agreed with my thoughts and suggested passing them on to anyone who wanted them…

I have, due to circumstance, tried to use them occaisionaly, still hate the b****y things.

hand-held routers

Concerning Nigels “Easy-Out” extractor problems I’m a fan of the straight splined shaft style originally introduced by Ridgid.

Drill the right size hole, bang the shaft in, the spines grip the sides of the hole so the fastener remnant can be unwound using the special nut to drive the shaft. Almost always works, if it doesn’t you are left with a plain hole so other things can be tried.

Individual sizes aren’t silly expensive at around £11 in the UK direct from the Ridgid Toolshop :-

https://ridgidtoolshop.co.uk/product/model-1-screw-extractor/?utm_source=Google%20Shopping&utm_campaign=Pipe-Tube-Cutting-and-Prep&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=adtribes&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17338995289&gbraid=0AAAAAC_JXN1yQ7isatwfrBtLxxP8F3SGn&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuIGIh6yOlgMVEYhQBh2VKRTjEAQYCyABEgJNU_D_BwE

but you do have to supply your own drill.

The full kits with drills, drill guides et al containing 5 sizes form nominal 6 mm to nominal 13 mm, 1/4″ to 1/2″, in a case are bit, ahem, spendy at £170

https://ridgidtoolshop.co.uk/product/model-10-screw-extractor-set/?_gl=1*1shp8dt*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..*_ga*OTM4NzU0MzI1LjE3ODYxMDkyOTg.*_ga_FHLTYZ39GV*czE3ODYxMDkyOTgkbzEkZzEkdDE3ODYxMDk0NjUkajYwJGwwJGgxMTYyNjMyNzg.&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuIGIh6yOlgMVEYhQBh2VKRTjEAQYCyABEgJNU_D_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAC_JXN1yQ7isatwfrBtLxxP8F3SGn

But similar can be obtained more cheaply from, for example, Sykes Picavant £90, Britool £60 and E-Bay no-name £20. Personally I’d be chary about using anything other than known quantity brand name for the extractor part that does the hard work. But it’s almost tempting to get the E-Bay offering for the case and non precision accessories to replace the actual extractors with the genuine McCoy. A bare set of 5 extractors and nuts is about £35 from Ridgid. So if the drills in a bay of E set are OK you are potentially saving over £100.

Most of the time mine get used off site, down the garden or at least in the garage so having a proper case to keep everything under control wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world.

I’ve had my genuine ones come back from being borrowed bent and/or twisted but not broken. I don’t lend them any more, however dramatic and tearful the appeal!

Worst part of the job is usually driving the threaded remnant off the shaft. Creativity needed as the splined shaft becomes seriously seriously tight. Centring the hole can be bit fraught too but they work fine even when not dead on.

Clive

“Easy outs” the worst described tools in the workshop.

Usualy jams the remains tighter, if it hasn’t broken off as well!

Howard