Two Drills

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

Aldi and Lidl bench Drills

[Ray LyonsParticipant @raylyons29267]

New out this week. Lidl have a small bench drill with electronic speed control for £150. Aldi have the same thing for £130. Only difference I can see is one is green and the other blue. Looks neat if you are looking for a bench drill.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Ah blue ones are metric.

Martin

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Aldi one is cheaper and free delivery

Looks like a pretty handy compact and portable hole puncher 10KG

2 speed 170-2400 rpm, digital drill depth counter

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Fundamentally a woodworkers machine.

Biggest worry is going to be reliability of the relatively sophisticated electronics inside. If the board goes 3 or 4 years down the line you are pretty much stuck. Even if replacements are still available overall costs will probably be high enough not to be worth it. Dropping £150 (ish) on a tool really needs a confidence in 10 year + life. Unfortuantely at this end of the market the tendency is to try and make things a little too inexpensively.

The modern take on a pistol grip electric drill in a stand. Not I think something for proper workshop duties but, given the light weight, just the thing to take to a job and clamp to a workmate or similar for on-site drilling when something more accurate than hand held drill would be nice. Would almost have killed for it at times in the past couple of decades doing heavy DIY and low end construction.

Price /reliability issue is different if its justifiable for one or three big jobs.

I want a battery one! Hurry up Makita, what are you waiting for!

Clive

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I view it as a high end hand drill system, use it intelligently, use it within its limitations

Amusing to watch some reviews where the guy tries to bang a 10mm hole in steel with no pilot hole and the smoke starts to rise… you can just imagine his biceps bulging as he gets that cut started

[William ChithamParticipant @williamchitham75949]

Don't know about the drill but I see the portable bandsaw is back on th Aldi special buys page, I bought one in the spring and I love it (it was a Ferrex then but looks the same). The palm router is tempting too.

William.

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

I have one of their cheapy bench drills, Aldi/Lidle ? I forget, so long since I bought it.

No, it,s not a top grade machine, but for much of the work done in a small shop, it suits fine.

Speed might be a bit fast for some users but I find I can still drill 1/2" holes if I need to, so for 50 Euro, I find it hard to fault it and it was handy enough to use for site work. Mostly used for shop work these days.

My one has no fancy electronics, nor do I see the need for them, one motor one drive belt, two sets of pullies, what more do you need ?

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

From the Aldi / Lidl point of view you need that bit of pizazz to turn an "Interesting but I don't really need it" into an impulse buy. Hence the wide speed range and wizzo display. Which makes it look really good on the shelf.

So cheap that "only need to use it once or twice to be worth it" only gets you so far.

But that's what gets things onto my list. If something gets more than a few uses it gets changed for a more professional version.

Mini tube bender (needed that last week actaully), grub screw kit (I'm short on metrics), and the mult-purpose cutter (old one got sed a lot but handles broke) this time round. I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be a mainstream version of those multi-purpose cutters. Using a disposable Stanley knife blade is an excellent way of getting a really sharp cut.

Clive

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