Changing the brake fluid in both my and Mrs. Catcher's cars was scheduled for April this year so, well overdue. Not having a lift and/or the hands of a 6 year old dictates that I have to remove each roadwheel in sequence making it quite a tedious job. Anywaysanall, whilst sitting on the Priorwood Rd unofficial rank one evening I had a browse of a Lidl catalogue a client had left on the back seat. An impact wrence for €89.99 caught my eye. Can't be up to much at that price I thought to myself but decided to give it a try and finally do the brake fluid job with a view to returning it if not entirely satisfied - in essence I was expecting to borrow it, I guess... so I had a look in the new Lidl in Coolock, none in stock but, as happens when one browses the middle aisle I bought a tap and dye set (@€14.99) I have absolutely no use for and a cordless circular saw for €44.99 caught my eye - my 20 year old Argos corded one needs new brushes every time I use it nowadays - but, on closer inspection it was a bare unit i.e. the (20V - beware there's a cheaper and totally useless 12V model too!) battery would have cost another €40 and the charger the guts of €15 so I decided against, however thinking I might have a look for the impact wrench in another store and buy both if the battery/charger was the same. So, last Wednesday I was up in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland so decided to have a quick look in their Lidl. Bingo, there was the impact wrench for stg£65.99 (c.€75) and the battery (4AH battery and fast charger included) did match the requirements of the saw - x20 series, which I had committed to memory. Alas they had no saw in stock... in fact, I looked in several other stores both north and south and concluded that the Coolock store (the one beside The Range) was the only place I could get it... so I did on Thursday.
Thursday afternoon I decided to do the brake fluid and play with my new toy. As soon as I had a jack under the first wheel a neighbour was out enquiring what I was doing and on being told went back to his gaff only to arrive a couple of minutes later with a brand new Milwaukee impact wrench he'd spent a monkey on for his garage. Bollox, says I... I want to play with this one, showing him my Lidl machine. Pff, says he... use mine to take them off and use that to put em back and see what torque you get - later coming back with a torque wrench. Needless to say his machine pissed through the removal job where the Lidl one failed to remove either of the two bolts I tried it on but I did use it to replace the bolts as suggested and measured the torque concluding that it just about reached manufacture specifications at 120NM but got nowhere near the advertised 4xxNM. The saw probably isn't as powerful as my electric one (the one that eats brushes as fast as the erm devours hot dinners) but is sufficient for occasional DIY jobs and, being cordless, ideal to bring to the local mercantile if buying lengths of timber that need cutting to fit in the car. Conclusion, at the prices I might as well hold on to both tools but I'll not be disposing of either my old electric saw or my knuckle bar!
