A few months ago I read a longish thread here on Screwfix vs
Toolstation, in which at least some people seemed to think that
Toolstation were better, or at least cheaper. So when I needed to
drill a few holes in plastic (polymethylmethacrylate) I thought I'd give
them a try, as their prices were indeed cheaper than others I could find.

For the 14 mm hole I bought an "HSS Balcksmith Drill Bit" said to have a
reduced shank (item 73936). There's no information either in the
catalogue or online as to the diameter of the shank, but the
illustration shows the shank to be *much* smaller than the drill. So I
got one - it's in an opaque package so I couldn't inspect it in the
shop. When I got it home I found it to have a 12.5 mm shank, so the
transition in size from shank to drill is barely perceptible. I didn't
have a chuck that would take a shank that big, so I could use it only by
grinding the shank down to a sensible size (not easy with my primitive
grinding skills).

I also needed to make some larger holes, so got 10-piece a holesaw kit
(item 23014) which was a lot cheaper than any other I could find. I
can't remember the last time I bought anything of such poor quality.
The hex key rotated without gripping the grub-screw in one of the arbors
(though the other one worked). The saws themselves had a hole with
flats designed to fit one arbor or the other: one of the saws had the
flats too small i.e. the hole was nearly circular, so the saw rotated on
the arbor unless it was done up extremely tightly. Two of the others
had the flats so large so they wouldn't even fit on the arbor designed
for them without being filed down. I took the whole kit back back and
got a refund.

The service from the counter at Toolstation seemed faster than with
Screwfix and they gave me a refund without problems, but if some items
are as poorly described as my drill, and others are of this appallingly
low quality, then I won't bother with Toolstation again, it was a
complete waste of my time.

--
Clive Page