Worthless Tools Gallery. What Tools do you regret buying?

Worthless vices story for my X2 mill

New vise is nearly double the size of the old one!!!!

As I like the vise, from the looks of it anyway, I made an important decision: To keep the vise and change the mill for a bigger one.

I had to confess it to somebody.

As you can imagine my wife is not the "understanding soul" that I wish to be, so she knows nothing on that!!!

Petros

Thanks for confessing. I showed my wife your post and she laughed until she cried.:roflmao: I think it reminds her of someone she knows.
Dave
 
I have come to the conclusion that any 'X in 1' tool is crap. It started long long ago with a drill motor set that also powered a jigsaw, circular saw, etc. and none worked - most were hazardous to fingers or other appendages. I mostly learned my lesson . . . until

Recently we wanted to do some small sheet metal enclosures and our shop is not blessed with a lot of spare space, so we purchased one of the 3-in-1 tabletop sheet metal combination machines. Shear, brake and slip rolls in one compact package. Lots of people market these, and they are probably all made within 100 yards of each other in China. Unfortunately, I figured that out after reading all the catalog data and getting the mistaken notion that some were better than others.

I already knew that Harbor Freight markets low cost, low end machines like this - I could go into their local store and see one for myself - and they didn't have a 'small' machine anyway... We wanted a 12" and settled on the one Baileigh Industries sold. Reading their slick color portfolio the concept of 'crap' never was an issue...

Until the small crate of scrap iron arrived that was supposed to be a metalworking machine. The freight cost $80 to get it to us, and would cost us at least another $80 to send it back so we'd be out $160 to send it back, or just the one-way freight plus the exorbitant cost of the crate of scrap iron that was supposed to be a metalworking machine if we kept it. How bad could it be? Unbelievable!

The basic design did not permit the shear or brake to work at all - Calling Baileigh 'technical support' was a joke - even sending pictures of how the parts of their alleged 'machine' could not possibly work as built elicited a response of 'gee whiz, I've never seen a machine like that before'... Honey, you sold it to me, it's in your catalog and it's your baby! No joy.

Giving up on their support we redesigned and re-machined the scrap a bit and got the pieces close enough together that the shear blades could make (poor) cuts in thin sheet metal, but the brake design was such that after bending a piece you could not remove it from the machine without completely disassembling it. It was almost like it was designed by someone who saw a picture of a similar machine and designed castings that looked the same but were non-functional. A pair of child's scissors and a sesame bagel would be more useful for metal forming.

So, I still have the contents of an expensive crate of scrap metal - a reinforcement of my experience that an 'x in 1' is crap and a resolution to NEVER, EVER buy anything from Baileigh Industries.

Utterly worthless as a tool, but a valuable lesson... And we now, thanks to patience and Craigslist, have an excellent American-made sheet metal shear, a very nice American-made finger brake and we will probably never need a slip roll.
 
Well just recently I started using ebay again for the first time in many years I actually needed a new account because mine had been erased after many years of inactivity. I made one purchase and that was fine. I must have left the website on my kindle and my 2 year old daughter got a hold of it. She somehow bought an angle table for a milling machine. I don't even own a mill yet and was saving to buy one but my money went to this instead. So I got a 100 pound angle table the seller mislabeled as a rotary table and got stuck paying 500$ after shipping with no returns allowed. Needless to say I was rather upset. So I have a big crate taking up a good portion of my work area till I sell it or something.
 
Well just recently I started using ebay again for the first time in many years I actually needed a new account because mine had been erased after many years of inactivity. I made one purchase and that was fine. I must have left the website on my kindle and my 2 year old daughter got a hold of it. She somehow bought an angle table for a milling machine. I don't even own a mill yet and was saving to buy one but my money went to this instead. So I got a 100 pound angle table the seller mislabeled as a rotary table and got stuck paying 500$ after shipping with no returns allowed. Needless to say I was rather upset. So I have a big crate taking up a good portion of my work area till I sell it or something.


Remember, On Ebay, even though most of the inmates are running the asylum, you do have buyer protection.
If you purchased something that was mis-represented in any way, deliberate or not, you have the right to return it for a
full refund plus your shipping costs. I've bought a few things that were damaged upon arrival and always got my money back.
 
Remember, On Ebay, even though most of the inmates are running the asylum, you do have buyer protection.
If you purchased something that was mis-represented in any way, deliberate or not, you have the right to return it for a
full refund plus your shipping costs. I've bought a few things that were damaged upon arrival and always got my money back.

Legally yes, in reality quite a few companies use the email system to waste time pretending to be sorting out your complaint until the resolution time frame has run out and you are left in limbo.
Dont get me wrong, I use ebay for a number of things but its impossible to tell the rogues from the honest sellers.
The review system is a joke as negative posts can be removed.
Ebay dont care as long as they get their commission.
If you find a bargain do an extensive search on the company name looking for negative press, if they are shysters there will usually be something out there. I found this out too late to help me but now use it everytime I buy.
Strangely I have had the best results from companies based in mainland china, the one company I had a problem with a product even sent a replacement and didnt want the original returned.
 
View attachment 88084

It's hard to hold the tension evenly so the punch marks come out off center. I prefer individual punches from a set.

That's a self centering punch. I think they're great! But you have to hold the collar all the way down against the work surface for it to find true center of the hole.
 
There is no such animal as a "Worthless Tool". Some are misnamed. Some should be Boat Anchors, some Paperweights, but they are not useless. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

"Billy G"
 
I have a couple of air chisels that seemed like a good idea 35 years ago, but never really get used. I bought them for cutting and separating exhaust system parts. They *will* work for that, but there are many other tools that work better. Even at that time, an oxy-acetylene cutting torch was faster and easier, and nowadays plasma.

Both of my air chisels still work like new (I keep them well oiled), but they haven't been used for an actual job in over 30 years. I smile when I walk through the DIY stores and see new air chisels amongst the other air tools. I wonder who is buying them and what they are using them for.

GG
 
Worthless vices story for my X2 mill

When I first bought my mill I bought a cheap 80mm vise to learn how to use the mill.
View attachment 88137

As you can imagine it was far from perfect for precision work and as I was feeling more and more comfortable in using the mill I decided to buy a PRESISION VICE to be able to do some more presision work.
Mr e-bay helped me to find a vise within my budget (80 GBP) and I ordered it.

Petros

i've gota vice that looks very similer, mine has provided good results, what issues did you have with it?

the kurt one does look very very solid :)

Stuart
 
That's a self centering punch. I think they're great! But you have to hold the collar all the way down against the work surface for it to find true center of the hole.

This is correct, but sometimes when you strike the blow, the whole UCP moves and you get a bad punch mark.
I prefer the steel punch sets. Maybe I need to practice using it.
 
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