Middle of Lidl

I see that one of the items that will be available this week in Lidl is a 107 piece set of coated HSS drills in 14 sizes Ø1 to Ø10 for £14.99. They may not be top grade but for pilot holes or general use they will probably be fine based on other Parkside drills I have had. Possibly worth buying to keep the better drills for when you really need them.

Martin C

Lidl drill set

Thanks for sharing Martin

My experience too with other sets. TiN coating, good clean grind, accurate to size within my measuring limits, good durability of edge and fine for resharpening. I can only wonder whether I'd ever use the quantities...

They also have a cheap engraving tool. Since the nose screws on. I´m 3D printing a replacement parallel one to suit the Pantograph that I am making. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtX0FM3txCo

Interestingly, the thread on the nose is 5/8 - 16 UNF, not metric.

We do not have Lidl in Australia but have Aldi instead. Both German and probably buy from the same supplier. Have had no problems with their drill sets for ereryday projects. And they have a 12 month warranty if there is a problem.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 28/12/2021 02:45:48

I wouldn't touch them for pilot holes. If a pilot hole goes off-centre because the edges are unequally ground it's very hard to recover. Based on recent experience I much prefer high quality stub-length drills for piloting. You only need a few sizes so worth buying good named brands

I managed to pick up a big set of Braziilian made Dormer split-point (in the larger sizes) drill bits, by 0.5mm up to 13mm.

I won't say 'I will use no other', but I do keep them for all the critical or demanding jobs.

Neil

Hi All,

Just popped into my local Lidl for a set of these drills.

The attendant there told me that they had just 20 sets of these put out at 0800 this morning; there were just two left so I bought one for me and one for my neighbour.

Cheers, Martin

With Martin's warning I rushed in and thought I was too late, but realised there ought to be a price tag and empty space at least. Second loop round saw the price tag as the black boxes were in a corner obscured by a heap of other drill sets.
Mysteriously the jam donuts were all sold out, as were the large waistband trousers.

Hello John,

I would not hesitate to use the Lidl drills for pilot hole use. They are cheap and incredible good quality, the grind is also extremely accurate. I use them for 90 % of the time, although I have Dormer sets on the shelf. Try them and be pleasantly surprised!

Andrew.

I've had no trouble with Lidl and Aldi tools generally. They might not be up to full trade quality but for our much lighter, more occasional use, they are fine.

Bazyle....

No dounghnuts left? I expect you missed the last packet by it having been placed among the pet-foods by one of those prunes who delight in picking items from one selection to abandon them randomly elsewhere!

Lidl in Uxbridge still had loads this afternoon. Picked up a couple of boxes (one for the neighbour) they should last me a while. Larger ones are 4-facet ground. Haven't tried them yet.

John

My local LIDL had piles of these drills in stock this afternoon so I conveniently forgot the lessons learnt in the past when buying far eastern tools (drills in particular) and "treated" myself to a box. Stupid, stupid stupid

I checked the quality when I got home. Even one of the two 10mm jobs had been ground so far of centre that it will only be usable on steel / brass after a regrind. I'll leave you to imagine the general standard of the rest in the box.

There will be those who say I should have checked the contents before buying and I would have done but the lids to all the boxes were secured with nylon cable ties.

Rik

I popped into Lidl this morning and bought a very nice double size stainless rectangular magnetic tray and also the the soldering station with magnifying glass with LED lighting.

They also have twin pack epoxy resin glue 5 minute and 20 minute, I have used it before good quality stuff all stocked up now.

Journeyman mentioned the grind being four faceted. Maybe he got a different batch, but mine were not four faceted, more point thinned I think:

I think mine are 4-facet (split point) not a good photo but:-

This is what I bought.

John

I bought a set and they look pretty good, same tip grind as Journeyman's.

I also bought one of the cordless Dremel-type tools. £16.99 I think and excellent value. I already have one which has had much use at work, the new one is for home workshop use.

I have had to fix a couple of things on the old one. The switch packed up, but I got a replacement from ebay - a couple of quid for two, identical to the original.

An unfortunate design flaw (which they share with Dremels) is that the plunger to lock the spindle for tool change is carefully placed where your index finger tends to fall whilst in use, resulting in a high-pitched crunch, and eventual failure to lock the spindle as the locking holes get mashed up.

However, a replacement is simple to make (I used leaded EN1A, the original was brass):

You need to remove the old spindle from the motor by machining it away - its pressed on too tightly to pull off without damaging the motor. The motor shaft measures 2.28 mm as above , but I drilled the hole 2.3 mm and loctited it together.

To avoid the same thing happening again, I dispensed with the built-in locking plunger, and used a separate knurl-headed pin. The slight extra inconvenience is worth it to my mind, and if you mislay the pin, you can always use the shank of a 2.5 mm drill - it should be no problem finding one, there are 12 of them in that box of Lidl drills...

Can you share a photo Rik?