Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Six-months ago I got one of these to try, but do not have it anymore. I had it for a weekend and promptly returned it. I bought it out of curiosity and confess I had little intention of keeping it, so that may skew the value of my opinion. Having stated that up front, here is what I think. Pros --- This truly is a clever design for portability, lightweight and compactness. It is small enough to fit in a small trunk or in the corner of a crowded apartment. (Though I am not sure what kind of renovations you might be doing in a crowded rental property) --- It has sufficient safety features to protect a moderately careful amateur, and that's good, because i can only imagine amateurs using this. Cons ---None of the individual tools are ANY good. In fact these may be the cheapest imported toys I have EVER seen. Even the light is crummy, and I don't count the light as a "tool" unless it's dark. --- All of the mounting mechanisms are sloppy. The "table saw" is held in place loosely and slips back and forth, canceling any possibility for accurate cuts. The hooks that hold the "drill press" in place wobbles. --- The "fence" of the "table-saw" attaches firmly at both ends, but is hard to move and nearly impossible to square. --- The "drill press" lever-arm sticks and binds. The post is weak and prone to twisting. Its action is loose and sloppy, even with only light pressure in softwood. ---The circ-saw is too small and underpowered. Its bearings are junk, noisy, plastic that could not possibly last long. The stamped-metal baseplate is out-of-square, thin and weak. My was bent right out of the box. ---The jig-saw is even worse than my son-in-law's B&D clone that cost $18 dollars. The blade moves up and down, but also wobbles left and right, with almost no cutting power even with a freshly-charged battery and a good blade. ---The Bag is a nuisance to pack. (Especially if you try to pack everything the way it came so you can return it) --- The box is brittle thin plastic that would easily shatter if dropped or pounded on as shown in videos. I doubt the thin Polypropylene latches would last either. ---None of the motors have enough power to cut anything except thin soft pine. ---The drill has a nice handle, but bogs down when you press into wood or even soft metal, like aluminum. ---The blades that come with the saws are ultra cheapo, not sharp, and get duller quickly. ---Batteries do not charge in one hour as stated in the manual and advertisements. Even if they did, they don't last long. ---The manual is terrible; one of those poorly-translated, "Gee-wiz! Look at all these groovy things this swiss army-knife will do! Congratulations on your most wise purchase" kind of manuals. ---The price is ridiculous for this level of "quality." You can get MUCH better quality tool-sets for this money at almost any home-store, or even Wal Mart. It would be no bargain at half the price. As admitted, I got this partly out of curiosity, expecting it to be junk. Also, I often buy inexpensive tools to try out to see if they work at all, or if they can be modified for some special use. Over the years, I've learned a lot about customizing cheap tools or building my own using features of commercial designs. Occasionally, I'll find a "diamond in the rough;" some tool that can be tweaked, modified, reconfigured or adjusted to work well. That's great when it happens because you can save some money and still get a certain minimum level of performance. Or sometimes cheap tools can just be cannibalized for motors and other parts. But this? It's surprised me by being even worse than my low expectations. Nevertheless, you could cull a few ideas from its design by incorporating GOOD tools into your home-made portable tool-box / work-station. I will also admit that I got one good idea from this design which I then incorporated into my home-made jig-saw table; the blade guard. The guard on this is merely to prevent wandering fingers from touching the blade. It is flimsy but functional. After thinking about it, I redesigned my own jig-saw table (a board mounted to a tall trash-can) to guard my fingers AND provide lateral support to the blade using two ceramic guide-bearings called "cool-blocks." With a solid plywood table and this rigid guard / guide, my Bosch jig-saw now operates like mini band-saw / scroll-saw. If someone was motivated to do so, he or she could adopt some of the design features of this gimmicky little set-up to his own tools or custom workstation. Other than that, I can see no reason to spend money on this disturbingly flimsy junk. I have no compunction about using cheap tools when they work, and I revel in light-weight, portable, clever engineering. I Actually LIKE some cheap tools better than high-priced stuff in some cases. But this tool-set only guarantees poor results and frustrating woodworking attempts that would probably thwart anyone's interest in craft-work forever. Even if you were the most inexperienced home-owner looking for a cheap "one-size fits all" solution to home repair or DIY projects, you could do much better for much less with standard tools from any home-store. Ryobi or B&D tools are better. "Tool Shop" and "Work-Force" tools are better. Harbor Freight has better stuff. Avoid this, unless you just want to return it to annoy and punish those who sell it for hawking such junk.