Inexpensive router bits

[Scott C. Williams]

We have a winter home with a small shop in the south. In it I have a small router table and have been supplying it with bits from my home shop. To eliminate this I am considering the purchase of an inexpensive set of bits from ebay. They are listed at approx. $20 for a 15 piece set. Has anyone had any experience with these? I know you get what you pay for, but I don't want to put a lot of money into something that will only get a minimum amount of use on small projects.

[Charles Lent]

You might want to look at Woodline router bits. Over the last 25 years I have had very good results when using them. Not as cheap as your Ebay find, but they are very good for the price. About half of my router bit collection is from Woodline www.woodline.com . They are located in Tennessee and ship very quickly.

Charley

[justin sherriff]

I would spent a bit more and pick up this set $35 for 15 https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/set15piece.html and all the bits ship for free too

[Edward Dyas]

We have a winter home with a small shop in the south. In it I have a small router table and have been supplying it with bits from my home shop. To eliminate this I am considering the purchase of an inexpensive set of bits from ebay. They are listed at approx. $20 for a 15 piece set. Has anyone had any experience with these? I know you get what you pay for, but I don't want to put a lot of money into something that will only get a minimum amount of use on small projects.Most of the time cheap router bits are not as sharp as good bits. I use cheap bits because I don't have a service to sharpen them and I'm not going to mail order them so I use them until they start burning the wood and dispose of them.

[Dave Sabo]

I've bought all kinds of bits over the years and my experience is eBay bits are fine, but the value proposition is getting smaller.

They certainly aren't as good as Whiteside nor do they last as long. But I've never had one that didn't give acceptable results for at least one project. I just ordered a new slot cutter and a Whiteside was 20$. I looked at the yellow eBay cheapies and they were 16-17$. Not enough of a savings for an offshore cutter that I know won't last as long. For 9-10$ I would have considered it for this run.

So , if the price diff is significant I'd still buy them for infrequent use. But it's getting harder to find savings over the Top Tier brands. Perhaps it's different when looking at a set.

[Carl Beckett]

I have purchased bits off ebay. Especially ones that I think will only be used on a certain project (limited/one time use). For bits I use a lot (straight/spiral bits, roundover, dovetail) I have gravitated towards a higher quality bit. Whiteside or Frued most often.

Another woodworker I know sends his out from time to time for sharpening (at least the larger panel bits he does). I need to do that. And wonder if these ebay bits might cut better once sharpened.