13 November 2025

It's been a while since I had a rant, although I have had things to rant about, but this one definitly need documenting.

Not having mains power in the garage, I'd replaced a number of battery powered items over the last year, using Lidl's Parkside tools for consistency and the discounts. They are not the best quality tools, but given the low level of use, they should perform well. I'd be using the jigsaw with the blade that was fitted, but needed to switch to a metal cutting one to sort out the bars on the 3D printer. But the supplied metal cutting blade would not lock in. It seems that the 'standard' 't shank' blades are a little wooly on just what the profile shout be? Althougn I suspect at least part of my problem is that the quicklock holder does not have any guide to position the blade initially. Since I needed some finer blades anyway I picked up a set market as 'Bosch' which rolled up in a couple of days and this morning I dried one from theat pack, with the same problem. A closer inspection of the tang of the blades that do lock in showed that the shoulder of the tang is smaller and hitting the blade I wanted to use with a file, I modified it to match. It is still a little difficult getting it aligned, but at least it is locked in. So I can get that job done and worry about the next blade when I need it.

I tried following through with Parkside's website, which forwarded me to Lidl customer service, who have passed the buck to 'Grizzly/Novo' and provided contact details for them. This just seems like another supplier who can supply spares for Parkside tools and there is no mention of repairs or support. A single metal jigsaw blade is being sold at £4.99 + shipping, while I only paid £8.10 all in for the 14 I now have and which I can modify to make usable. The question perhaps is just where the fault is in all of this?

I would have popped a question up on the Model Engineer forum, but it seems due to my stay in prison I'm banned from that site :(