Bosch and other makes

[carbine]

I'm slowly building my welding tools up over time.

However, what make of tools does everyone rate as the best?

I bought a Sealey 100mm angle grindera few months ago, but found that everything is made for 115, so I just went out and bought a Bosch 115. Its much lighter than the Sealey!

Is Bosch good for trade / heavy work? Or is it upper end DIY stuff? It was cheaper than the Sealey which I wasn't expecting.

Seems to be so many out there, my carpenter mates say only use Hitachi and Makita, others say Powerbase xtreme stuff is ok as its so cheap and is re-badged black and decker.

What do you think or know is best for fabrication?

Thanks!

 

[wyn]

The Bosch grinders are ok...The blue ones are a bit better than the green ones.
As you say 115mm is more common than 100mm.

 

[cazl1994]

we're builders and mainly only buy
bosch blue
makita
dewalt
hilti
milwaqee
and thats about it
and a few hatachis

 

[metalspanner]

If your going to be giving it a hammering all day everyday then Hitachi, Makita and Metabo are THE tools to have, especially in the cordless versions dont mess about get the LithIon with the 3.0ah batteries.

Bosch are okish go for the blue bodied models these are the heavy duty industry spec equipment, as for the powerbase extreme these allways seem to promise much, but deliver little, I was looking for a recip saw for a one off job and looking at several reviews from one major high street chain, thiers came with loads of blades for this and that, but you were unable to get replacements when they went blunt.

I went for the bosch multisaw, the blades are mega money, they stay sharp for ages.

To my mind, buy the best you can afford with reference to how much work its got to do.

 

[hareng]

You probably have the diy Bosch green, it wont stand too much abuse.
Far better than the chinese made stuff rebranded and painted red in Sealey colours and for that you pay a premium of 60 to 200%.

Makita are good, so are Dewalt, AEG, Metabo, Hitachi and Bosch Pro (blue.)

 

[clarkey31]

I have 4 of the blue bosch grinder aging from about 10 years old to new a couple of months ago they get used every day,they need new bushes every now and then. Very happy with them..

 

[pete23]

bosch, the blue indust spec.

my 14.4 battry drill died last week, and its about 8yr old, and used near enough every weekday.

all of me other kit is bosch, apart from a 7"angle grinder thats makita.

 

[CTB]

You probably have the diy Bosch green, it wont stand too much abuse.

I'd disagree with that statement. I have a green Bosch 8-125 grinder that came to a sudden stop when a cutting disk broke in the middle of a cut The locking nut jammed on so tight that I had to use a two foot extension pipe over the removal wrench (the one with the two pins) to get it off. This in turn distorted the holes for the removal wrench, plus broke a tooth off the main gear where it engages with the blade lock button (which also suffered damage).

I took it apart, threw out the broken bits of teeth and locking assembly, packed it with tool lubricant and it works just as fine as it ever has. It's got a bit of a high pitched whine due to the broken tooth is the only difference.

I've had this grinder for at least 8 years now, and for heavy duty diy I would thoroughly recommend it.

 

[Ed.]

Hi, it really depends on how much work and what type of work you do with them. I started off buying brand name gear such as Makita, Bosch, etc, then got quite a few of the imported Chinese models, now after going through about 5-7 grinders in the last couple of years I am starting to buy the name brands again, some of the cheap grinders lasted from dead out of the box to a year or more. I recently bought a 125mm Bosch angle grinder GWS 15-125 CITH and last week a 9" Makita G23UBY.

The cheap ones are good if you only do a little bit of work with them or don't mind replacing them every now and then. But the quality isn't there. I have had one shatter the head whilst I was grinding up on a frame and hanging on by my legs, the locking pin went and locked up the disk instantly, bit of the head went everywhere, another one decided to not switch off on the same job also when I was up in the air.

Would I buy a cheap one again, yep, if I was doing a grinding concrete job and didn't want to wreck my good ones, as most of them are about 3 to 6 times cheaper than the name brands I treat them as a consumable item. But for my daily use ones I now only use the name brands.

So the cheap ones do have a use, it all depends on if they suit your needs. If they last then great, if not they are cheap to replace . Are the name brands better? In my opinion yes but you pay for that quality.

 

[hareng]

I've had this grinder for at least 8 years now, and for heavy duty diy I would thoroughly recommend it.

I have had a recon Black and Decker pro range blueish colour in 1986 still going strong but dont rave about them. Mind you its cut a quite a few slabs, concrete posts, steels for constant hours on end etc.
Bearings are naff in the green Bosch range and too many bad experiences with that name including the planer, heat gun, pruner, cooker, fridge and freezer all made in Germany.
They do make some decent holesaws though.

 

[Ratty]

If your going to be giving it a hammering all day everyday then Hitachi, Makita and Metabo are THE tools to have, especially in the cordless versions dont mess about get the LithIon with the 3.0ah batteries.

Not sure I agree with that (about LithIon), correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to think that they are great for occasional users as the batteries hold their charge well when not in use and they don't have a memory, but if you use them a lot then the much cheaper NiCad's are great. Just remember to run them fully down as often as possible, much easier if you have more than one, I run mine down when it loses torque but is still running by putting a clamp onto the switch and just picking up another drill to finish work with.

Personally, I use Makita cordless drills - about 5 or 6 I think (12v, 14.4v & 18v), easier to switch drills then bits sometimes! (with both NiCad and NMH batteries..I started buying the NMH but went back to NiCad as I could get such good deals) and have Bosch (blue) grinders and corded hammer drill. Very happy with all of them. The hammer drill isn't used a lot but all the drills and grinders are.

 

[metalspanner]

Not sure I agree with that (about LithIon), correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to think that they are great for occasional users as the batteries hold their charge well when not in use and they don't have a memory, but if you use them a lot then the much cheaper NiCad's are great. Just remember to run them fully down as often as possible, much easier if you have more than one, I run mine down when it loses torque but is still running by putting a clamp onto the switch and just picking up another drill to finish work with.

Personally, I use Makita cordless drills - about 5 or 6 I think (12v, 14.4v & 18v), easier to switch drills then bits sometimes! (with both NiCad and NMH batteries..I started buying the NMH but went back to NiCad as I could get such good deals) and have Bosch (blue) grinders and corded hammer drill. Very happy with all of them. The hammer drill isn't used a lot but all the drills and grinders are.

LithIon are the professional users choice, Hitachi have a twenty minute charge, they last for ages off a full charge and zero memory, I recently bought a draper redline 24 volt drill and in the space of three weeks the batteries are capputt, both of em, cant find reciept so now have a 90 quid paperweight.
Bought a Bosch 18v Lithion and it has done loads of work and only had a couple of charges, the good thing is I can leave it and go back to it and it has lost none of the charge.
The last thing I did was hang a gate, four 22mm holes in telegraph poles all the way through, this would kill at least one 18v nicd the Bosch didnt even break a sweat, and off the same charge three days before drilled 8 16mm holes for rawlbolts in solid masonry to put up a couple of shotgun cabinets.
This the draper redline would never do.

 

[Ratty]

I stand corrected!

 

[Emmsy]

best cordless drill i ever bought was an Atlas Copco , which is now about 8yr old and still going strong. that replaced a blue bosch that barely lasted 18months.

 

[carbine]

Wow thanks for the info all!
Yea my grinder is a Bosch green, but it seems to be built very well in comparison to some others I have seen, and the design I am very impressed with. Its got the smallest head I have seen, so I can do some serious cutting with it :-) as is the nature of welding, I'm finding I'm using the grinder for cutting, grinding and paint stripping 80% of the time. So hopefully it will last..

Anything else I get I will use Makita and DeWalt I guess. I will have a van full of angle grinders soon!
I don't think I would use cordless stuff that often so will stick with my thousands of watts stuff..
Thanks all!

 

[Delgado]

Yes, If you're going to get a new power tool then makita or dewalt, if you're going to get another 4.5" grinder then I'd go for metabo every time. I'm not sure if they are any more durable than the other top makes, I've burnt them out aswell as other makes in the past, but IMHO are the most comfortable to use for long periods of time, and I like the fact that the switch is on the back not the side.

 

[Robotstar5]

Just remember to run them fully down as often as possible, much easier if you have more than one, I run mine down when it loses torque but is still running by putting a clamp onto the switch and just picking up another drill to finish work with.

I am trying to remember where I read recently it was a bad idea to run multi-cell nicads flat as it can cause one or more of the cells to go reverse polarity and you'll never charge it properly again, any one else heard this?

 

[Ratty]

I think it's the NiMH that suffer from this.

 

[Emmsy]

and maybe lithium, the dewalt lithium drill i use at work automatically cuts out when it gets slightly low. theres a lot of crap posted about flattening nicads before recharging, this only really applied to the old old nicads of 10+ years ago