Middle of Lidl

[wildebus]

Ideally you need a paint thickness gauge to help you determine if - and where - it is safe to polish. The good ones that tell you about different layers are very pricey and not a hobby tool. You can get more simple and cheaper ones for around £50 or so. Check out this link - https://amzn.to/4p2yAZc
(PS. The reason why you might want to know about different levels is for multicoat finishes. Nowadays you have primer, then the colour coat and then the clesar coat and you don't want to go past the clear coat when polishing. With a simple thickness gauge you have to made assumptions about the layers which could be dangerous!).

This is the one I have. It is a simple basic one and just tells you the distance between the top surface and the metal (that 115 - in micrometres - reading shown is the thickness of a piece of paper I put over a ruler ). Actually, as well as handy to check before polishing, a useful tool when purchasing a vehicle ... You can use one to check if a panel has been resprayed if you suspect a repair. paint re-work will be significantly thicker than original paint, which is laid incredibly thinly (and if you check places like the underside of a bonnet, dramatically so)

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I have used one David, I have a drill type one in the garage which I'll bin, basically no faster than it needs to be, keep it moving and keep it wet with polish but not too much.

 

[wildebus]

Here is a tool question ...
I am after a 12V Mini Angle Grinder. The type that use a 76mm cutting disc.
I already have a 240V Mains Grinder (think it is actually Parkside?!). I also have an 18V Ryobi Angle Grinder, but want a super-portable one. For this purpose I tend to use my Cordless Dremel but the cutting discs are very expensive and have a very short life being so small so ends up being an expensive tool to run

My preferred one would be the Bosch Professional model but they are very expensive (I don't know why they are so much as the other Bosch Professional 12V tools are much more reasonable). But the cheap ones that I see listed on Amazon have very mixed reviews, most of them reporting bits falling off and things lke "good for the price" - but when the price is that low, expectations start super-low as well. I have been unable to find one that is overall decent without going up to the realms of the premium brands and prices to match - in which case, I would just get the Bosch.

So anyone have one and would actually recommend the one they have and that it didn't shed parts (note, I want one that is decent value for money and if it falls apart, it is worthless).

The Parkside BLACK (in Parkside Terms, the Green Range is DIY and the Black Range is 'Professional') 12V Mini Angle Grinder tests very well in the various German YouTube Tool Videos against the more expensive alternatives, but there is the usual problem with Parkside Tools sold by LIDL that is a constant irritation ... you have to wait for the relavent week of the year for them to come up for sale! and if you miss that week (or more likely didn't decide you wanted to buy that tool that week) you have to wait for goodness knows how long until it comes back up in the shops for another week.
True of all the Parkside Tools and a rediculous way to sell things.
Now you do see various Parkside Tools on eBay, from people who have bought them when available specifically to resell at higher prices later on - and new Parkside Black 12V Mini Angle Grinder can be found on eBay for around £100 - which is a massive markup on the Shop Price and at that price not worth it.

So rant over on Parkside/LIDL and I decided to buy the Bosch 12V Mini Grinder direct from Bosch on a bit of a 'Black Friday' Deal. Their price was a little bit more than on Amazon (may a fiver?), however ... spend over £200, which I could as wanted to get some discs and blades and stuff, and you got a free Bosch Go Screwdriver which I don't really need (it is a good tool, but I already have a Bosch PushDrive I bought in 2019 which is essentially the same thing more of less) but can sell on Ebay for around £50.

PS. If I see the Parkside Black 12V Mini Grinder coming up in the Middle Aisle, I will probably get that to have a play with as I do have a Battery and Charger for one (got them to go with my Parkside 12V 'Dremel' Clone, which inevitably is not a patch on my real Dremel 12V I got nearly 20 years ago ).
If it is as good as the reviews say, a nice backup tool. And can always stick it on eBay for a profit anyway if I don't want to keep it

 

[Geek]

I have a 20v Parkside angle grinder, and have used it a fair bit. It's really good.
However, running at full tilt for more than about 20 minutes makes it overheat and cut out. Turn the speed down a little and it is good until the battery runs down, by which time it is best to have a rest anyway.

 

[wildebus]

I have a 20v Parkside angle grinder, and have used it a fair bit. It's really good.
However, running at full tilt for more than about 20 minutes makes it overheat and cut out. Turn the speed down a little and it is good until the battery runs down, by which time it is best to have a rest anyway.

Only 20V Parkside Tool I have is a Heat Gun. It is pretty crap to be frank, but then it only cost £15. My 18V Tools are all Ryobi, which is of course a popular DIY-orientated brand (from the same stable as Milwaukee, for example. Similar to Stanley B&D owning loads of brands, TTI own Ryobi, Milwaukee, AEG and others) and I would put Ryobi above Parkside any day TBH.
But having a 18V Ryobi Angle Grinder (which I do) or a 20V Parkside Grinfer (as you do) is totally irrelevant to my buying a 12V Mini Angle Grinder. Totally different tools for different roles.

PS. For anyone interested .... an 18V Tool Battery is IDENTICAL to a 20V Tool Battery EXCEPT for the label that says "18V" or "20V". In the same way a 12V Tool Battery is identical to a 10.8V Tool Battery and a 36V is same as a 40V Battery.

 

[Geek]

I have several 18v Makita tools and several 20v Parkside ones. And several batteries of either sort.

I also have an adapter that lets me fit an 18v Makita battery to a 20v Parkside tool and a an adapter that lets me fit a Parkside battery to a Makita tool.

However, the Makita battery connections have a third contact (presumably a temperature sensor) which the Parkside ones lack.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I have a 20v Parkside angle grinder, and have used it a fair bit. It's really good.
However, running at full tilt for more than about 20 minutes makes it overheat and cut out. Turn the speed down a little and it is good until the battery runs down, by which time it is best to have a rest anyway.

Odd you mention it lasting longer if turned down, I have a Parkside grinder, and I was shortening a ladder I bought yesterday, on full speed 6 it kept cutting out, turned it down to 4 and it was fine.

 

[Geek]

It could be that the battery voltage drops at full power, but on mine the problem seems to be the grinder motor overheating.

 

[wildebus]

Odd you mention it lasting longer if turned down, I have a Parkside grinder, and I was shortening a ladder I bought yesterday, on full speed 6 it kept cutting out, turned it down to 4 and it was fine.

Get what you pay for. That is why they are cheaper as not all the features work

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Very true David, good no cheap, cheap no good.

I didn't have one at the time, and it needed to be battery just for one silly job, I've had it about 6 years, £29.99 I think, have three batteries and loads of other parkside stuff.

 

[Geek]

Get what you pay for. That is why they are cheaper as not all the features work

Yes, Makita kit is unquestionably better but more thsn twice the price.

I have a Parkside 20v drill/screwdriver.

Bought cheaply, it lost its magic smoke on only the second use, with an incredibly light load. Took it back for a refund. Pity, because it was a very nice tool to use.

Then I saw one exactly the same "orange labelled" down to £13.99 so I bought it.

Several years later, it has done a lot of very hard work with no problems.

Perhaps their QC is a bit iffy, or I was unlucky with the first.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The 3-year warranty makes it worth taking the chance, it's no quibble too.

 

[wildebus]

As long as the limitations of the kit you are using does not limit what you are wanting to do, then it is all good

I've fairly recently taken on the decision of instead of getting tools that I have to work around, I get tools that are beyond what I really need. In that way, I don't hit their limit but just my own, and it allows me to improve as well
As a case in point, for the last few years I have been using a home-made tracksaw Guide Rail for cutting up ply sheets. It does what it is meant do and is a definate improvement on free-hand cutting to a pencil line, but a couple of months ago I bought a proper 1 Metre long Guide Rail to go with a new battery Circular Saw I bought and the difference between the home-made rail and the manufactured Guide Rail is night and day. I used it a couple of days ago and it was honestly a joy to use.
The difference to using that compared to my home-made Guide-Rail, let alone a basic clamped straight edge is massive - and it is not something I expected to make much difference. So much so that I took the opportunity to buy a nice long Rail Set (long enough to rip a full 8'x4' sheet in a oner) on a Black Friday deal.


Having a good battery Circular Saw is very handy as well. I bought my first one back in 2006 alongside a Battery Jigsaw. Both Ryobi One+ tools, but back in 2006 Ryobi One+ was all Ni-Cad Batteries (not sure if anyone made Lithium Power Tools back in 2006?) and the Ni-Cads were just not up to the job of driving a Saw. Sold both of those Tools on and stuck with using Corded Saws for years after that (did get myself a 12V Jigsaw about 6 years ago and that is fine - shows how much the battery tech matters over the voltages). The Ni-Cads were fine for the drills and I still have the original Ryobi Blue Angle Drill/Driver and the Blue Impact Driver, but now of course using the Lithium Batteries with them (when Ryobi switched to Lithiums from Ni-Cad, they changed all their One+ Tools from Blue Casings to the Greeny-Yellow colour, but the batteries were downward compatible, which was very good).

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I bought a Divar 55 with two 1400 guide rails to do the selfbuild David, as you say night and day to the accuracy, it's covered on spider webs and very dusty in the back of the garage, but I plugged it in at the weekend and it still works, it could do with a new blade and the track joints may have vanished but unlesss you're doing it all day, it's good enough.

 

[wildebus]

I have never used a Plunge Saw. I watched some videos recently on them and the people doing the videos liked them (in fact, one of them was a review of the Parkside Black Plunge Saw) but it wasn't clear to me what benefit a plunge saw has over a standard circular saw, and that comparison between the two was never talked about for some reason.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Clue in the name David, you can plunge the saw in anywhere in the sheet, you don't have to start at the end and work in, so you can use it to cut a rectangular hole in a full sheet for say a doorway in the self build van.

Of course, you can still do it with a normal circular saw, but a plunge saw gives much greater accuracy.

 

[wildebus]

Clue in the name David, you can plunge the saw in anywhere in the sheet, you don't have to start at the end and work in, so you can use it to cut a rectangular hole in a full sheet for say a doorway in the self build van.

Of course, you can still do it with a normal circular saw, but a plunge saw gives much greater accuracy.

Aha, that makes sense and I see could be useful In your door example, without a plunge saw you would typically use a jigsaw so unlikely to be a really straight cut

The videos I saw, the guys just ripped a length off a sheet same as you would with a circular saw so couldn't see the benefit there.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I used to subscribe to a lad in Australia, and he was shit hot with wood, and he bought one and did a two hour video on it the day after I started the build, and as I am no carpenter it was just a revelation and a no brainer for me, so I bought one, not cheap back then but the cheapest I could find, I put a festool blade in it, and I got no tear out at all, but I did score the sheets with a stanley blade with the Divar blade and that worked almost as well, just more messing.

Cheapest, but no rails I think.

https://www.diy.com/departments/einhell-te-ps-165-plunge-saw-1200w-precision-cutting-tool-for-diy-enthusiasts/4006825629668_BQ.prd

Or

https://www.diy.com/departments/festool-ts-60-k-plus-kebq-plus-master-edition-168mm-plunge-cut-circular-saw-ts60/4014549373668_BQ.prd

 

[wildebus]

Pretty sure guide rails are cross-compatible across brands? My 1M rail is a Makita and I bought that for my Bosch, but it was listed as being compatible with Festool as well as others. My other rail set is Evolution, so a entry-level brand but again compatible and shoudl be good enough I think.

That Festool is way outside my needs I don't think I will ever need all what the Festool offers!

Had a look at Facebook Marketplace .. Quite a few on there including some Festools. Might be the way to go if I need the features of a Plunge Saw? (don't currently).

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Apparently not David.

I googled it and some will swap but not all so you will need to ask direct questions to see what's what.