BMack37
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Posts posted by BMack37
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Read that there is a Sears Veterans day sale this weekend, 40% off of regular price and 10% sale price. There's a caveat though, you must present military id. I'm unsure if it has to be valid, I doubt they'll kick a veteran out for using an expired id but your mileage may vary. Good luck gentlemen!
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Yea, I can always park close to the door.
In 2003 or so when they switched Kobalt from J.H. Williams to Danher made tools, I was disappointed. The original Kobalt line was the best value in tools bar none. The sockets were Snap-On, ratchets and wrenches were Blue Point, all from the Snap-On family. After the Danher switch, most items were genetically identical to Craftsman or Allen tools. Kobalt lost the unique identity and the tools were continually cheapened to meet price point. They lost me around 2006 and by the end of the Danaher run around 2012, the Taiwan made stuff they have now is actually an improvement.
Shit happens I guess. I still preferred Lowe's at that point. Then in a short few months they lost or dropped Milwaukee, dropped Klein and bought the rights to use the Southwire name on an exclusive electrical/telecom line, and then dropped both Channellock and Knipex in favor of their Kobalt shit, again an exclusively grab.
My experience is that anything available exclusively at either HD or Lowe's automatically translates to pure, unfiltered, SHIT.
HD has exclusive brands too, but at least they give me a higher quality option on all but mechanics tools.
Fuck Lowe's and their shitty tools
Those Kobalt ratchet/socket sets were labeled as "Made by Williams" not Blue Point(Obviously sister companies soo really a moot point). I have a set and it's the nicest ratchet and socket set I've ever used. I wish I would have bought a couple of 1/4" sets and a 1/2" set, hindsight is a b*tch...but I was just a poor kid in high school at the time.
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No Wera love? The Impaktor bits are quite good.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Most of the bits mentioned are from Lowe's/HD. This is why I wanted to do this, almost all of these bits are Chinese, with Makita being the exception(Japan). The Germans, Czechs and I'm finding the Taiwanese are pretty damn good at making bits. The machining on the Chinese bits can be pretty good but when it comes to other tools, I've noticed the main issue with Chinese tools is the metal strength...which is damn important in bits. The thing is that we can't just assume that all Chinese metal is poor quality, I'm more familiar with quality of carbon fibre and there is a HUGE discrepancy in Chinese carbon fibre from plant to plant...I can only assume this extends into other areas of material manufactering, including metal. I've found the Chinese do a wonderful job at making items for a specific pricepoint, expensive items can be made damn well. These Chinese bits are not cheap, they're comparable to European pricing, so the metal may very well be good quality. I wish I did more impact driving so I could nail the strength thing down quickly but that kind of thing is left for the weekend for me and I don't really have any wood projects right now.
BTW, not sure if I've mentioned it but I've been buying the German/Czech bits from KCTool for very reasonable prices. The shipping cost isn't even that bad and it's free shipping over $50. The Wera(Czech), Wiha(Germany) and Felo(Germany) bits are all quite nice.
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Yeah Ridgid bits are awesome!
Chinese I assume? That's not a knock btw, Bosch, Dewalt and Irwin are also Chinese and are just fine. I just checked Home Depot online and it doesn't seem like they have a lot of options. A couple of sets and two philips 1" packs. Even Ryobi has more items...makes you wonder if either are mostly-unfound gems.
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I didn't even know Ridgid had bits.
I seem to have found something that should have been apparent but I didn't consider in the fitment test...apparently phillips and JIS screws have a noticeable variance in how they're cut into the screws. Also I found a few surprising things; I discovered the fitment issue with the Milwaukee Shockwave bits...they're JIS(Japanese philips) not Phillips and they fit those JIS well. Another surprising thing, the Makita gold, the ONLY bit from Japan, is Phillips and not JIS. My preferred (and a bit I've recommended numerous times) Bosch bit is now far from my favorite bit.
I'm having trouble figuring out a way to come up with a way to measure fitment other than by feel. I found that I'm really good at blindly feeling out the better fit in screws. My first blind test was checking fitment in a phillips screw head and three came out to be what I considered the same...turns out they were the three Wera bits. Then I tried another good condition phillips screw and got sightly different results. What I can tell you is another surprising result, every single bit fits into one of the four screws I tested better than my Klein screwdriver fits in ANY of the screws. I wanted to also add the Klein into the fitment test because pretty much everyone has one...Snap on, Witte are also in the test. That is if I can find a way to measure the fitment, it's really difficult when the tolerances are a fraction of a millimeter.
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Hot blonde with low standards is the only thing on my list.
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Looks good! I also use the forum via the 'new content' button comp56. It's awesome to filter by threads I participated in or started. My TIA bookmark goes straight to 'new content'.
Do we still need to separate Power Tools & Power Tools By Manufacturer? Couldn't there just be an optional tag for manufacturers?
Thanks Conductor!
I agree with that, I honestly don't even click on that section to read because it's separated by brand. It could just be us though because I imagine that some like that all *such and such* brand content is in one place.
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Love it. Too many sections is just asking for posts in the wrong forum and difficultly in reading all threads you'd be interested in, great job!
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VCR's were a good place to store some of my hot wheels.....didn't go over well with mom and dad though
LOL, I did that once too and got in trouble...and not the trouble that kids get in nowadays, I got my ass whipped but I learned not to do that!
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Do like I did on the VCR when I was a kid, electrical tape!
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Great job!
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Welcome back!
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I've had online orders on deals disappear to only find the product stashed...though I haven't always found them. I've had online orders disappear, get charged for the item. Sometimes the online order gets cancelled but with no notification or reason. Ask for help locating something, look in computer and go to the aisle I was looking in...10 minutes later they get someone else, who does the same process, 10 mins later someone else...at this point I start wondering and find a display for hand tools myself in the lumber section or something where it does make sense. Complain to corporate about any issue and they tell me to contact the store manager because "it's not our problem." contact store manager and they basically tell me to screw off. BTW, these are from just THIS YEAR.
If Home Depot had a greeter that punched me in the face every time I walked in the front door, I'd still prefer Home Depot to Lowe's. I ONLY buy items at Lowe's if they are at least 50% off.
About a month ago I did have a little faith restored in Lowe's. I was looking at some sale items and noticed two employees messing with wrenches that were on sale. They pulled all of the remaining sets off the rack and opened them, started moving wrenches around. After a few mins one pulls out a cell phone and calls someone. They called the customer and explained that they didn't have a complete set left but they could offer a further discount on the item because one piece was missing. That's above and beyond in my book, that was the first time in over 10 years that I've seen anyone at Lowe's try to be helpful. We have several stores in our area, more than HD so it's not like one bad apple spoiling the bunch.
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You do really nice work man. I've seen several backup camera installs and those are the cleanest I've ever seen by a long shot.
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I've found that calling Lowe's to complain will be a waste of your time. Often they're basically tell you to go screw yourself. I NEVER buy deals online from Lowe's because they always disappear, probably to an employee. I've heard that they take complaints on the BBB website seriously, so if you're going to complain do that. Corporate will refer you to the store manager, store manager will just tell you to F-off.
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Looking forward to the results!
Why is it that your only into 4" bits? I use a bit holder and 1" bit 95% of the time. Only when I have a specific need will I reach for a 2, 4 or 6" bit
It's for my current job, doing electronics repair. I have to reach through to recessed screws. I want to be able to find one bit and/or line(or at least brand) that can do most of what I need(So I can buy at one place/time). 1" bits are easy to find, everyone has those in every available option. So limiting myself to the longer bits gives me a starting point and I can go from there with my 1" bits...so if I like the Wera bits I can try the Impaktor bit for my short bits(not available in longer lengths). Basically, it limited me to 11 bits instead of 30+ !!
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No problem! I've been happy telling as many people as possible about them. I've always wished someone made a pair of pliers like this and to my surprise, earlier this year they popped up on my Amazon recommendations, did some research and bought them. Couldn't be happier...apparently, they aren't uncommon in Japan. There are multiple makers of this kind of plier in Japan, Engineer makes the most economic/good quality of the bunch. The others have to be shipped from Japan...though Chinese knockoffs have been found in Canada at Princess Auto(their Harbor Freight equivalent).
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That's awesome! Nice to see the guys' work is paying off!
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Bmack, that wera to the right of the Irwin looks crazy!! It looks like it should be a #1 or #0 bit instead of a #2 with how thin that shank is.
I'm curious to see how it holds up.. I would think you would loose a lot of torque to to torsional movement of that thin shank, maybe even premature snapping of the shank.. Humm. Interesting none the less!
I don't imagine it's going to hold up too well. It's easily the weirdest bit I have ever seen, it's a little short for me and I don't think it will last but I just had to see the thing. It's supposed to be rated for use in "Sheet metal and metal" but so is the other similar colored Wera bit (851/4 Z)...no idea what the thinking of the shape or shaft really is but I imagine it's going to snap on anything above 18 on my clutch...but stranger things have happened. I'm going to try to keep this one alive and test the ultimate ability to wear on the tip before I put some torque to it...at least that's the plan.
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I picked up the Makita and looked for the gen 2 Shockwave but they didn't have it, so I lucked out. I had decided to buy one, get you the fit and just plop the guy in my impact driver, drive a couple and break it(presumably). VERY impressed with the Makita, glad you guys talked me into trying it...I didn't know it was made in Japan!
I also got the Blue Point bits in yesterday. Early award and a COMPLETE shocker for best machinging goes to the bit from Taiwan. It's machined nicer than my Snap-on Instinct screwdrivers! If the steel is as good, this may be the early favorite, was not expecting these to be even half as nice.
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Two things of note that I forgot to mention. The size I linked to, the jaws are designed not to touch but really it would have to be a TINY screw to not work. Another thing is that the serrations in the jaws are nice and sharp, you're going to really dig into the screw head to remove a screw. I think the slip-joint would be the most useful of all of them but I also wouldn't hesitate to buy multiple sizes of these guys to use as regular pliers as well as worn bit extraction.
Here are the slip joints: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W9IV82?colid=FG53APQ94OYX&coliid=I2ELIE28340Y9I&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl
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I really don't want to even bother to be honest. That Shockwave is there just so I can compare the fit and physically show the difference between that and a quality bit. There are guys using these by choice and I want to show them why they could get better for their money. That may change as time goes on as I hear about whether the new Shockwaves are actually improved, it will be a long term test so there will be time. For the short term, I'll show and go into detail of the fit (JIS and Phillips) and the various differences. Too many bits and not enough people(just me) to test them quickly but why not get good images and initial impressions? They all look the same with stock photos. It's interesting to see the differences in the anti-cam out ribs, complete opposite way to accomplish the same idea between competing German manufactures.
Some of these German bits are machined ridiculously well for the price, AND some of them were cheaper than the Dewalt bit by over a dollar a piece! Though of the German bits were more expensive, that Harpoon bit with the anti-cam ribs were $6.50 a piece! Nice machining but I find it hard to believe that it's nearly three times better than the Dewalt...I really don't imagine these will hold up too well.
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I have a pair, they are FANTASTIC. Vampliers is the US distributer, they do limited advertising and charge more than the OEM which doesn't do any advertising. The OEM is Engineer and they sell for about $10 less. Here's a link to the ones I have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L6HJAA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
They have two different sizes of this tool, then they have a micro version as well as a slip-joint version. Very good quality, strong jaws, good cutters on them. Handle is dense and comfy. I love them, they got me out of a jam on site Friday. Screw was really tight, screw head was stripped. Grabbed these guys and it was out in a few seconds and because the way they're cut, they don't slip like trying to do it with regular pliers.
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Just one more package and a trip to Home depot to go!
Each bit is a different make and/or model:
Aviation Style Lamp
in Woodworking
Posted
I like those a lot! Great idea!