Most of my portable power tools are old Makita or Hitachi, from the days when they were made in Japan (maybe they still are). But I usually look for other sources first. I did say I don't willingly purchase from China - sometimes there's just no choice (shows just how much they've got us by the short and curlies), not that I won't purchase from China. Even then many of the components will be made in China. My cellphone is a Samsung - which I assume is made in Korea (I didn't buy it so didn't research its source) otherwise my next one will have to be a Nokia (unless they're now manufactured in China too :doh:). :o You can probably start by throwing out your mobile phone and your computer. Wow, you're really in trouble if you're not willing to purchase ANY products made in China. But key is to remember that they are all individual shops - just like ebay. The tungsten bits are good, the HSS ones were crap.Ĭhinese friend says that Chinese language version of Alibaba/Aliexpress is even more comprehensive. So I bought about fifteen and the postage costs were moderate. I then added a few more bits, and a few more, until the postage rate jumped. I went to buy some router bits about five years ago, selected the three that I wanted and found that the postage costs exceeded the product costs. Keep things simple and be tolerant.Ĭhina Post seems to be reliable, but very slow, sometimes extremely slow. "How many container loads?"Īliexpress is the retail division, sometimes incredibly cheap, but you are dealing with individual suppliers of varying quality.Įnglish is a very foreign language to them. They are the "shop front" for thousands of individual vendors most good, some still learning, a few scams.Īlibaba is the wholesale division, B2B, prices may be brilliant but minimum quantity rules apply. Aliexpress really is worth a try but a few things to bear in mind:Īlibaba and Aliexpress are the Chinese equivalent of ebay and amazon. You sound like me about five years ago, Pete. I will, however look at Ali when replacing some of my smaller bits when the time comes. I don't have any experience of the Ali bits but I know the quality of those from MLCS and so feel safer and confident they'll do the job I want.Īs I only ever buy bits individually to suit the job I need (I only ever once bought a boxed set when I first started routing and half of them have never been used) I think I'll stick with what I know despite the cost when it comes to the larger bits - especially the heavier patterns such as rail & stile. These bits are very chunky with a massive head which I will be running about 15-16,000 rpm for the job in question (flattening boards in a jig). I took another look at the bits on Aliexpress and while the pricing is very attractive (about NZ$9.00 for the large diameter bottom cleaning bit), I'm still erring on the side of caution. :wink: Might take a bit longer to arrive, but, IMO it's a no-brainer. Annoying, but not dangerous.Īnd around half that cost through Aliexpress with no compromise in quality or size. Perhaps I had not secured the screw tightly. I have never had a bit break (chip yes).The only issue I have ever had was recently when one of the ball bearing guides came off and the bit, now no longer guided, ploughed into the work. I touch them up with small hand held diamond hones as required. Many of my router bits are budget quality and, with the limited use I put them to, it does not seem to be an issue. As I had intended to use them in a laminate trimmer and a small DeWalt machine I had messed up badly. However, I got caught out recently when I bought a set of rounding over bits and did not notice they had 1/2" shanks (this time I wanted 1/4" shanks as rounding over bits are light use even in dense hardwoods). I also, particularly with larger bits go for 1/2" shanks in preference to 1/4" as they are more robust. All I can say is that I have quite a selection of router bits and when used I try to run them at an optimum speed, which of course requires a variable speed router. I agree that to judge the worth it is necessary to perform a lot of work with the bits and have the same size and profile bit from different makers to really evaluate them. The subject of relative qualities was an interesting one for me.
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