Cheap chinese chop saw...

[furry1]

A familiar story, but I'd expect more of anything than the service my latest purchase has provided.
It's a 6" chop saw. I don't do masses of work but I thought it would be something that'd make life a little easier cutting 25mm box to length. Not a big ask you'd think..
It was cheap, at £35, but is useless. One cut and then the blade was worn too much to make another. It seems to be crooked on the spindle, which can't help. Actually, the way it went so quickly it's probably made from cardboard! It cut very poorly too, making quite a meal of the stuff the angle grinder flies through. I think a better blade might make a lot of difference, if I can get it to run true.
I should really know better - I've bought the odd cheapie tool, and have sometimes got great service - a £12 battery drill has served for more than five years and is still going strong despite several intensive projects and surviving a couple of far better named drills, though this is a rare exception. Usually I end up buying again.
This latest one is the worst yet - I'd expect a weekend's work from the cheapest and worst of tools. It's a total waste of space, time and the materials it's made from. It makes me angry that these materials have been treated so poorly to produce such a useless thing.
So folks, a warning - don't bother with them however cheap they are. Good stuff costs money for a reason, though expensive isn't necessarily good.

I will still take some time and see if I can't get it to work - I've found a lot of stuff just needs a little reworking to make good - but surely when you buy something new it should be fit for the purpose. Actually, as far as trading standards go that is what is required. I shall be having a word with the supplier.

 

[JayRS4]

Do you want to name and shame so others know what not to buy. Maybe with a pic, seeing as the chinese stuff tends to get rebadged a lot

 

[furry1]

I'll be taking it up with the supplier so no names just yet - however look on ebay for the cheapest chop saw (region of £35) and that's probably the deal. There seems to be various folks selling similar ones with the usual range of bargain basement badges for around £40 to £70. They all look alike, I got the cheapest. How the others are I don't know..

 

[malcolm]

Sounds like it's faulty (also sounds like it's faulty due to poor design and materials). In any case it's faulty.

Why not just send it back? There are rules and regs about this sort of thing, but normal wear and tear for a chopsaw would normally be more than just cutting one thing.

If they insist on replacing it with a new one cut something with that and send it back as well. The seller should soon get the hang of it.

(PS - nobody buy returned ones - they'll all be from furry1 )

 

[dannyweld]

even a £350 pound chop saw is bad enough, for £35 you get what you get, if you had bought it off me you would'nt be getting your cash back, no matter what you said about it.

 

[brightspark]

even a £350 pound chop saw is bad enough, for £35 you get what you get, if you had bought it off me you would'nt be getting your cash back, no matter what you said about it.

do u sell them like danny??

 

[dannyweld]

i'll flog anything out through my door!

 

[furry1]

Hi Dannyweld.
If it was advertised as - 'Useless piece of S####, Make good ornament or landfill' I'd have got what was described, and wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Neither would I be arguing, because I wouldn't have got it.
Traders, and this was from a plant supply trader, have a duty to their customers. Basically if they sell something it has to be 'fit for purpose'. In Example - It must do the job described.
I don't care how cheap it was. It should still do it's job. If not it should not be sold.
It seems too few folks are aware that trading regulations apply. These are a matter of law. The item supplied was deficient in form and function.
In this case I have a right to my money back even if it's as perfect as can be.
If you're in business I'd recommend having a word with trading standards as to what duties you have before someone catches you out. I'm not someone with a mind to needlessly persecute honest folks trying to make a buck. I just expect to receive basic standards of service that are required by law.
Now, there's only so much time I can be bothered to think about these things.. I just put this up to stop other folks from following my faltering footsteps, not to get into an argument. It's not the only faulty bit of kit I've had to deal with today!

 

[weldingscotty803]

what blade does it use?
steel or fibre disc

 

[weldequip]

If it was advertised as - 'Useless piece of S####, Make good ornament or landfill' I'd have got what was described

You should really of known that going off the price! Personally, even if it was a top quality leading brand, second hand at 35 quid, I still wouldn't touch it; heard the phrase "smell a rat"?
You are quite right though about fit for purpose & dealers obligations etc; if the dealer is kohser they should offer a refund/replacement without questions...although how many truely kosher dealers sell utter rubbish?!
It ain't referred to as eblag for nothing

 

[chunkolini]

Furry1, That is the second piece of faulty kit today. Uh oh, these things happen in threes.
The other week I had angle grinder, belt sander and router. Oh joy of joys.
Chunko'.

 

[Angusdog]

Well, I sympathise with Furry1. I've tried some chinese stuff and I have a 12" chop saw which cost roughly 40 pounds I guess. It works fine and I've just replaced the blade. It's not too accurate but for up to 1" square tube (What I mostly use anyway) it can't really go wrong. Some of the chinese stuff is a little rough around the edges, but works and lasts a reasonable amount of time. My compressor for example works a treat, yet I've had some quality tools just drop dead, like a DeWalt angle grinder. And like Furry1, and a lot of others, I can't afford to buy all my tools to last a lifetime. So we take a gamble on the cheaper stuff. Sometimes we win, sometimes we don't.

If it was sold as a tool, it should last a decent amount of time. If there's any possibility of getting your money back, you should try (depending on how much your time is worth. Apparently if Bill Gates saw $400 lying in the street, it's not worth his while stopping to pick it up.)

 

[Alfaman]

I know it's not the same material, but....

When I was about to lay 12mm oak floor in my downstairs living room/dining room about 3 years ago, I paid about £40 (I think) for a MAC Allister chop saw, thinking it would probably just about last long enough to complete the job.

It was a godsend, worked brilliantly well with good accurate clean cuts and made the whole job a breeze. Also cutting the new MDF skirting board, must've been well into the 1000's of cuts.

It's still going strong! As a rule I hate cheap tools, but this one worked out OK.

 

[furry1]

Cheap tools can be good! I paid £25 for a mitre saw from maplin's, back when they were good and it's been faultless, if not overly accurate. Many projects and even being abused cutting thinner firewood without complaint. I got lucky there.
As to the threes rule - my phone line has been off for two weeks now. I guess I've had my quota for now.. I hope.
I'm not one to give up on stuff easily - I started Mig with a SIP 130, bought for £35. I found this forum, ripped it apart and made it work. I now have a cebora which was also a total bargain - hardly used, not got halfway through it's first reel of wire.
I'm more inclined to sort the thing myself - the main problems being the toffee blade, which is mounted wonky - if it's a bent shaft there's not much I can do but it might just have been mounted by a monkey, in which case I'll let it go. For the cost of a new blade I'll be happy, I'll just have to dismantle a little and see. It's a noisy wee thing though, and smells like a burnt grinder, which might just be the new brushes bedding in.
It'll take a little time away from building the fancy folding bed for my latest camper conversion but it should hopefully save time once sorted.
For a time there was some fairly decent and ultra-cheap tools around, I think supplies have got low. Shame, because I couldn't afford to get this stuff at proper price. I prefer older stuff, tends to be much better made and easy to fix. I still take the odd plunge into new cheap stuff, basically due to the decent stuff being harder to find and increasingly more expensive.
I'll keep going, Making my own things is something I've always done and I couldn't calculate the money I've saved by doing it. Also, I get what I want!

 

[furry1]

Having said that I did the intelligent thing and some research - came up with this..
http://www.evolutionpowertools.co.uk/uk/evolution_fury3b.html
Which a certain mart of machines has for sale for not ridiculous amounts of cash.. Twice the price of the old one, but probably more than twice as useful. Hindsight being a wonderful thing and all..

 

[pedrobedro]

I looked at the Evolution saws but they are scarily noisy cutting metal and replacement blades are costly. I have a 14" abrasive chop saw which cost £90 years ago and it has done sterling service and the blades last reasonably if you don't force the cut speed. I did a load of steam pipe for my brother in laws fishing club building piers for fishing pegs and still had lots of life left in a blade. The only drawback is dust but I work outside with it whenever possible.

 

[Chipper]

They are loud, and the cuts may be cold but the chips are hot and fly well... visor, hat and ear defenders time (but as a tinnitus 'owner' these are always about now). They have versatility in their favour though, so I'm glad of mine (have the sliding mitre one).

 

[furry1]

OK, had a play with it. The blade was indeed mounted by a muppet. I don't have any 6" discs so I put a 4.5" angle grinder disc on it, it ran true and cut like it should! Albeit a bit wonky, but as it's a pressed chassis a tickle with a hammer should sort that. I will tell the trader what I found but I'll keep it - with a decent blade it should do the job. The nasty smells have cleared too, so not as bad as I feared. I'll just have to get a few discs next time I'm in town.
On the subject of luck, just put the new van on ramps to service it. The sump plug is properly seized in - metal plug in ally casting, the mid pipe on the exhaust is holier than the pope at easter and a couple of balljoints are shot. Still, it stops me getting bored, it's nowt I can't sort, and apart from that it's as good as I could expect!

 

[dannyweld]

look furry1 don't take it personal what i said. i have and we all have gone the cheap power tool route and payed the price, 'buy cheap and you'll buy twice'. if you can get your cash back that's good i hope you do. i could go on about buying this type of chinese junk but it seems everything has been covered already (again). i enjoy reading it though!

 

[dannyweld]

look furry1 don't take it personal what i said. i have and we all have gone the cheap power tool route and payed the price, 'buy cheap and you'll buy twice'. if you can get your cash back that's good i hope you do. i could go on about buying this type of chinese junk but it seems everything has been covered already (again). i enjoy reading it though!