Cordless grinder, who uses one ? - Tile Advice

[Blunt Tool]

Flex is a good corded grinder aswell Lee but the Bosch blue corded is a lot thinner to hold than any other which makes it more comfortable and steady for one handed operation

 

[LM]

Yes Ian, the thing that puts me off Flex is the change of ownership and where that looks like going. Perhaps I’m just paranoid but when certain companies from certain nations buy companies it’s usually to allow them to do other things with the brains of that companiy without fear of consequence. I’m a big fan of blue Bosch, but I find the Metabo to be more rugged without sacrificing dexterity.

 

[Blunt Tool]

I do see your point and I think Antonio pointed this out Bosch blue not going to last long with prolonged use compared with Hilti which is more or less bombproof

 

[Concrete guy]

Yes Ian, the thing that puts me off Flex is the change of ownership and where that looks like going. Perhaps I’m just paranoid but when certain companies from certain nations buy companies it’s usually to allow them to do other things with the brains of that companiy without fear of consequence. I’m a big fan of blue Bosch, but I find the Metabo to be more rugged without sacrificing dexterity.

Flex were bought by a Chinese company specifically so they (the new owners) could offer Flex manufactured tools in the domestic market, re branded. As opposed to having to start from scratch with a quality product.

I visited the Flex factory in Germany 18 months ago to see the manufacturing and assembly process. A very high percentage of components are manufactured and assembled in house, in Germany, we actually saw it all happening.

Flex have had a problem with switches which is being addressed.

The cordless range Flex now offer is very high spec indeed, but it's such a difficult market to break into with Dewalt and Makita being clear brand leaders.

Festool and Flex are much bigger brands on the continent, it's their main market.

We're a distributor for Flex, mainly because they offer specialist tools for stone masonry that simply don't exist elsewhere. So we offer them along side our products more as a convenience to our customers.

The margins in powertools is laughable and we'd prefer not to be involved in them at all. The only way it makes sense for us is we stock low volume and unusual tools that are available for next day delivery. The availability allows us to charge more than the tool shops who tend to have to order in from Germany once the customer has placed an order.

Money no object, the best quality stone masonry tools available are manufactured by Galeski, but they are at a Hilti price point.

Galeski - Manufaktur innovativer Maschinen - http://galeski.net/index.php

 

[LM]

Flex were bought by a Chinese company specifically so they (the new owners) could offer Flex manufactured tools in the domestic market, re branded. As opposed to having to start from scratch with a quality product.

I visited the Flex factory in Germany 18 months ago to see the manufacturing and assembly process. A very high percentage of components are manufactured and assembled in house, in Germany, we actually saw it all happening.

Flex have had a problem with switches which is being addressed.

The cordless range Flex now offer is very high spec indeed, but it's such a difficult market to break into with Dewalt and Makita being clear brand leaders.

Festool and Flex are much bigger brands on the continent, it's their main market.

We're a distributor for Flex, mainly because they offer specialist tools for stone masonry that simply don't exist elsewhere. So we offer them along side our products more as a convenience to our customers.

The margins in powertools is laughable and we'd prefer not to be involved in them at all. The only way it makes sense for us is we stock low volume and unusual tools that are available for next day delivery. The availability allows us to charge more than the tool shops who tend to have to order in from Germany once the customer has placed an order.

Money no object, the best quality stone masonry tools available are manufactured by Galeski, but they are at a Hilti price point.

Galeski - Manufaktur innovativer Maschinen - http://galeski.net/index.php

I’ve never even heard of Galeski. Tip of the hat sir

 

[Tim Saunders]

Use a Makita 18v LXT brushless with a quality blade. Nice touch is the inertia brake when you turn it off

 

[Topcourt]

Makita brushless is excellent buy for £149, with a decent blade can tackle most tiles on site work where no power is supplied.

 

[Julian 'Farmer' Bonsall]

Hello all. I have a Dewalt DCG405 (flat head 5") 18v and a DCG414 56v (6") grinder. For my amount of tile work I used a corded Hitachi 5" but will use the cordless now. I have a kitchen to tile (wall) in a few weeks with some sockets to cut. I am not sure which blade to buy (I have a Erbauer Diamond Tile Blade 115 x 1.9 x 22.23mm)
but this is what I looked at. Is this the best size? Manufacturer? Type?
RUBI DIAMOND TILE BLADE 115 X 22.2MM (£25 from screwfix).

All the best.