Quality Chinese Tools

[Paul80]

Hi all.

Hope this is ok, I did search first but found no similar threads.

Given that many of us are not blessed with high salaries or pensions and cannot afford to buy high value tools from the Swiss makers, we only have what China offers for our hobby and as many have found a lot of what is sold on the likes of eBay turn out to be just rubbish and not even worth the low prices asked.  After buying a few useless tools I started to look at some of their better quality offering, which although quite a bit more expensive, were still miles cheaper than the Swiss tools, sofar the few I have tried turned out to be of excellent quality.

So to help others less well of could we have this thread for people to post about their quality Chinese Tools, for others new to hobby but put off buy high prices might find a better tool at a more appropriate price.

If this is OK I will start it off with some of my recent acquisitions.

Thanks.

Paul

 

[HectorLooi]

It would be hard to give general recommendations as the quality varies from seller to seller and even from batch to batch.

For example, it has been mentioned several times in the forum that mainspring winders from China vary in quality, from to good to rubbish. And price cannot used as an indicator of quality as there are vendors who sell junk at premium prices.

I bought a pretty good Presto style hand remover several years ago. But when I bought 2 this year, they were rubbish.

But there are good quality Chinese made tools and equipment. I've seen them. They are not sold on AliExpress. One of our new members from China mentioned this before too. We haven'theard from him lately, I hope he's ok.

The only recommendation I can safely give right now is a timegrapher. Most of us have a timegrapher from China and I haven't heard much complaints. 

As for hand tools, most of them are rough. But if you are willing to put some man hours into improving the finish, they are usable.

Good luck in your foray into the Chinese market.

[Michael1962]

What are your recent acquisitions Paul?

[Paul80]

Will post an update this afternoon with the first of my new tool aquasition.

[Paul80]

So here we go with the first tool in this series

The obquous mainspring winder ser.

This set came from Aliexpress and the price seems to fluctuate around £150

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002838742309.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.21ef1802uk2ABx

A set of 20 winders with lrft and right hand sizes plus one handle.

With this set the important Arburs are all steel and they are sold steel throught the range even some of the bergeon ones use a brass core with steel sleeve on the larger sizes, these are all steel.

Construction and machining is all to a high standard 

Now to the handle which is often a point of critisism in these Chinese sets as there is often only a right handed handle included which can make using the left handed winders a trifle fiddly which is why Bergeon supply two handle in their kits.

The handle in this kit is actually cut for both left and right hand use so only one is needed.

So on the whole a high quality tool that works well and well worth the average asking price of around £150.

Photos below, more tools to follow.

 

[Paul80]

Next up is a Basic Staking set again found on Aliexpress

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000394566891.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.21ef1802wHIXpx

A well made tool with 50 Stakes and 10 Anvils, all machines to a high standard with size code etched on each stake, codes seem to match those supplied by Bergeon etc.

Only used it a few times sofar but it did everything expected without any issues.

The only thing to note is that the Stakes cannot be used inverted, if that is an issue than something from Bergeon etc may be your only option.

Another Chinese tool I am happy to recomend.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Paul80

[Paul80]

Don't forget this thread is open to anyone who has found a quality Chinese tool they are happy to recomend.

Thanks

[praezis]

5 hours ago, Paul80 said:

Next up is a Basic Staking set again found on Aliexpress

The main tool looks good, that is true.

But the stakes? I can see only few usable ones. Looks like they copied but had no idea what to do with those. There seems to be no system of stepped sizes.
And 50 pc. is a very small quantity.

You would be much better off with a used non-chinese tool. For that money good, really usable ones with more stakes will be available.

Frank 

[jdm]

9 minutes ago, praezis said:

.ut the stakes? I can see only few usable ones. Looks like they copied but had no idea what to do with those. There seems to be no system of stepped sizes.

Sorry, how you can tell from a picture? OP said sizes are copied from Bergeon. 

 

9 minutes ago, praezis said:

And 50 pc. is a very small quantity.

It is a small set, these have always existed, target not too demanding professionals or people able to make their own stakes. 

[Paul80]

1 hour ago, praezis said:

The main tool looks good, that is true.

But the stakes? I can see only few usable ones. Looks like they copied but had no idea what to do with those. There seems to be no system of stepped sizes.
And 50 pc. is a very small quantity.

You would be much better off with a used non-chinese tool. For that money good, really usable ones with more stakes will be available.

Frank 

How about posting some links to the better sets, that would be helpful

[Paul80]

I suppose if it had been the near identical Bergeon set that costs nearly £600 there would be no complaints.

Don't forget the idea behind these posts is to highlight quality tools for those of us less fortunate in our financial situation.  Just because some of us are poor does not me we have to use rubbish tools.

Am I wrong for doing this, if yes then could a mod lock the thread and I will not say any more on the subject.

[gbyleveldt]

I, for one, found this thread incredibly helpful. So at OP, keep it up please

[jdm]

25 minutes ago, Paul80 said:

I suppose if it had been the near identical Bergeon set that costs nearly £600 there would be no complaints.

Just to mix around. Not really cheap, not Chinese, but looks good and no money goes to the Swiss.

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/staking-set?code=S39653

[praezis]

13 hours ago, Paul80 said:

Don't forget the idea behind these posts is to highlight quality tools for those of us less fortunate in our financial situation.  Just because some of us are poor does not me we have to use rubbish tools.

I forgot this not a second, Paul. Hence my advice above.

Do you own that staking tool or did you judge by pictures? 

13 hours ago, jdm said:

Not really cheap, not Chinese, but looks good and no money goes to the Swiss

I knew these Indian ones, but don't know if still available. They are well made and usable, but stakes differ from the usual 4.7 mm - a drawback:

Frank

[Paul80]

2 hours ago, praezis said:

I forgot this not a second, Paul. Hence my advice above.

Do you own that staking tool or did you judge by pictures? 

 

Frank

All the tools I will be showing have been bought and owned by myself

[praezis]

1 hour ago, Paul80 said:

All the tools I will be showing have been bought and owned by myself

That is good to know.
Maybe you can post pictures of the stakes faces? As said, the Aliex pictures of them were not convincing to me.

Frank

[Paul80]

Not easy to photograph just showing the tips so here is a list of the 50 included, the numbers match the Bergeon List

200, 202, 204, 206, 208, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 
217, 218, 220, 223, 225, 226, 228, 230, 232, 237,
242, 245, 248, 250, 252, 254, 256, 258, 260, 262, 
263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273, 
275, 278, 279, 283, 285, 287, 290, 290, 292, 293,
 

Regarding the picture you posted above, not seen those listed anywhere and looking at the prices, how old is that picture ? prices look like they are from quite a few years ago

Edited March 24, 2022 by Paul80

[canthus]

Indian set available from Cousins.

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/staking-set

Edited March 24, 2022 by canthus

[jdm]

1 hour ago, canthus said:

Indian set available from Cousins.

That is the one I had linked above.

[Paul80]

£280 with 120 punches is good value but so was mine at £155 with 50 punches.

The important thing was I had £155 to spend I didn't have £280.

Anyone ever seen the likes of those seen in the picture above at anything close to $95 with 120 punches.

Punches or stakes what is the correct term as they seem to be interchangeable with some sellers ?

[praezis]

17 hours ago, Paul80 said:

Regarding the picture you posted above, not seen those listed anywhere and looking at the prices, how old is that picture ? prices look like they are from quite a few years ago

From the 2007 catalog of a Mumbai wholesaler who supplies Cousins and US sellers.

Frank

[Paul80]

Thanks

So that would be the one Cousins are now selling for £280 as listed above, but now in a not so nice box.

[Paul80]

Next up is a cheap but still quality tool

A Crystal Press found at the link below for only £38

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32974408612.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.666c5b22pOlc91&algo_pvid=89ce2c17-ff1a-437d-9412-8c071e9cdb4d&algo_exp_id=89ce2c17-ff1a-437d-9412-8c071e9cdb4d-1&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"66707322604"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B38.01%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BGBP%3Bsearch-mainSearch

A very well made tool especially given the price, comes with a good selection of plastic (Dies/Dyes) and is of a very solid construction, offering a two speed screw system which quickly opens or closes the press until pressue is applied it then switches to the finer tread to applie the required pressure.

My copy is in full allignment and because the vertical polls are so thick at approx 20mm there is zero flex when pressure is applied.

All Chromes Steel or Red Anodised Alluminium.

A quality product that is well worth the asking price and actually worth a lot more.

 

[HectorLooi]

 New! Watchmaker tools professional welding and repair of watch dial feet apparatus for soldering dial feet Simple and practical
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqKdqvY

I just came across this on AliExpress. Looks impressive. 

[Paul80]

Nice find, just what this thread was designed for, keep them coming.