Purchased two packs of hobby wire brushes for my dremel to clean in those hard to get places.. They were Silverline brushes.. ( toolstream) As soon as I began using them on a very light weight subject you could feel wire hitting your face.. six brushes were wireless inside 3 mins a brush.. Now these packs are £6 each.. They were pathetic.. So I wrote a nice e mail to the manufacturer showing them pictures and offering to send them back, basically they didn't want to know.. They stuck by a clause on their packaging saying you had to register the £6 pack of brushes with them within 30 days of purchase or it would not be covered in any claims.. What does that say about their confidence in their own products then? I've just purchased some new brushes nearly identical from china.. One brush is still going on tougher work and has outlasted the entire silverline pack.. The cost including P&P was £1.79 for 10.. Ok they took 2 weeks to get here.. But hey! Needless to say I will not be buying anymore Silverline products..
Quite right! As an industrial electrician who has been given silvercrap gear to replace my own tools broken in the line of duty.... I can tell you that anything of this cheap crap brand should be thrown in the bin in the package it came in! Pay a few quid more...it is shite!
ram your silverline, remember blackspur tools? i think they where better if that helps put it in to perspective. there spanners will do for most pushbikes tho. utter bollox.
Silverline is right at the end of the low spectrum and is really just cheap and cheerful and almost meant to be disposable! I do have a polishing machine for paintwork, which to be fair, does seem good enough. Avoid at all cost I think is the answer.
Well said Red .. What I couldn't believe is their terrible customer services.. I bet if I complained that one out of the ten Chinese direct brushes was faulty @ 17p each they would send a new pack of ten without question..
You only have to look at the replies on this forum to see what the DIY fraternity think of Silverline tools in general. Clearly lumped in the same league as Blackspur, who were worse in my opinion and Rolson. Silverline Tools? - DIYnot.com - DIY and Home Improvement They are in the same line as Rolson 'tools'. Some of the pound shop bargains outperform this tat. If you want to do any serious work get some decent tools.
Mmmmmm I've snap on that I've had from the 70s and still great.. Expensive but you get what you pay for... There's not many who seem to make these dremel brushes though.. Dremels so called own brand brushes are not great either..
What about Clarke? They do wire brushes certainly as part of a kit as I have a couple, quite cheap overall and they must be cheaper than Dremel.
I think ive a Silverline parts washer, which is still in the box, in the garage. Never got around to using it. May treat it carefully
Clarke is cheap Chinese made as well. Some of their power tools are OK, though I wouldn't go further than that. Most of it is a poor imitation of the real thing. OK if your desperate and need something to get you out of trouble but better to bite the bullet and buy decent. Clarke disposable stuff is likely to be very disposable.
Most garage type tools that Clarke sell are from the same factories as other branded products - try finding a trolley jack that isn't Chinese made - if you do they are £hundreds. Generally some products such as Jacks are OK, power tools are a different story though, and bits, blades etc. Foot pumps are generally totally shit and all Chinese - anyone know where to buy a EU made one that isn't made out of bean tin steel?
Funnily enough a trolley jack was the last Clarke product I bought. Its a very high lift one which I use on my 4X4. I bought it as it was the only one I could find that went high enough. Its OK. It works but its not very well put together. The wheel holes are eccentric so the wheels don't turn properly and casters rub and drag (which matters as this is one heavy jack) and the rod which runs down the handle connecting to the release valve is bent and welded to the knob on the handle-bar off-centre so turning the knob to lower the jack is hard work which is a bloody nuisance because if you want to lower something gently just a fraction, you can't. As I say it works but feels like it was thrown together by people who couldn't care less. Its the same with Clarke air tools. They work but don't drop them or tread on them. They're chocolate. I don't think being made at the same factory guarantees the same quality. Build quality is not uniform but seems to vary to reflect brand status. In other words there is no automatic pursuit of excellence and cheap stuff's meant to be crap. There are plenty of quality European tools out there but they're not likely to be the ones you come home with when you rush out to get something on a Saturday morning when you're caught short.
A couple of years back I got a Silverline T Bar allen key set from the forum secret santa thing. I've used them loads, put some serious pressure on them, and they are still perfect, even the 3mm one! I really can't fault them!
I wouldn`t risk using it, post it to me and I`ll dispose of it safely for you, free of charge I got a set of Silverline ratchet spanners three years ago, they work fine and do exactly what it says on the box. I don`t polish them, they get used and get a quick wipe over if they get oily. Ditto a large and small torque wrench. The large one has been used numerous times up to 180NM and hasn`t self destructed.
