Aff
Member
- Messages
- 219
- Location
- Weymouth
I've been keeping an eye on these Chinese copy Makitas over the last few years and the prices have continued to fall. A coupe of weeks ago the grinders dropped to nearly £25 so I gambled and bought one just to see how crappy it was.
It turned up in 10 days which was impressive and had no import charges which was probably just lucky.
It is brushless and has 4 speed controls which are almost impossible to work out, some go faster and some go slower but in some unintelligible order.
Genuine Makita batteries fit perfectly, it doesn't have the rubber bumpers that the genuine Makita's have but the fit actually seems to be better than the genuine Makita tools anyways. Also doesn't have the extra tab like the newer tools for the STAR battery protection so will just be like you are running older tools.
It feels a bit rattly and the motor is very coggy when moving by hand, however its isn't much worse than the genuine Makita grinder (brushed) I have.
Took it apart to have a gander inside.
The usual spiral bevel gear arrangement, quite a small pinion but it is looks well finished and the file test shows they have at least been case hardened.
Second picture shows the Genuine Makita gears, you can see the much larger pinion.
The castings all look good quality and the machined faces are good.
The rest of the internals looks pretty good.
Not much webbing on the injection moldings but the case seems stiff enough none the less, not sure how well it would stand up to a drop.
Motor is small but not lacking power, i have to use fully body weight to stall it with a flap disk.
Control electronics are nicely potted with a large heat sink and the switch is chunky and looks pretty robust.
The only thing I changed is in the gearbox. The woodruff key was like a hotdog down an alleyway, I shimmed it by 0.33mm to achieve the same level of sloppyness as the genuine Makita and replaced the rather watery grease with some good quality moly.
I will report back when it implodes
It turned up in 10 days which was impressive and had no import charges which was probably just lucky.
It is brushless and has 4 speed controls which are almost impossible to work out, some go faster and some go slower but in some unintelligible order.
Genuine Makita batteries fit perfectly, it doesn't have the rubber bumpers that the genuine Makita's have but the fit actually seems to be better than the genuine Makita tools anyways. Also doesn't have the extra tab like the newer tools for the STAR battery protection so will just be like you are running older tools.
It feels a bit rattly and the motor is very coggy when moving by hand, however its isn't much worse than the genuine Makita grinder (brushed) I have.
Took it apart to have a gander inside.
The usual spiral bevel gear arrangement, quite a small pinion but it is looks well finished and the file test shows they have at least been case hardened.
Second picture shows the Genuine Makita gears, you can see the much larger pinion.
The castings all look good quality and the machined faces are good.
The rest of the internals looks pretty good.
Not much webbing on the injection moldings but the case seems stiff enough none the less, not sure how well it would stand up to a drop.
Motor is small but not lacking power, i have to use fully body weight to stall it with a flap disk.
Control electronics are nicely potted with a large heat sink and the switch is chunky and looks pretty robust.
The only thing I changed is in the gearbox. The woodruff key was like a hotdog down an alleyway, I shimmed it by 0.33mm to achieve the same level of sloppyness as the genuine Makita and replaced the rather watery grease with some good quality moly.
I will report back when it implodes