Cutting the cord

Fab Shop magazine just published an article on the state of the art in cordless tools:

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RCM members should find it interesting. (How about a 2,500-Watt, battery-powered, 9-inch angle-head grinder?)

At the end of it, there's a mention of "John Doe's" DeWalt-powered bicycle, and a photo of it.

Reply to
Ed Huntress
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Very nice article. I also find myself using battery powered tools more and more. Beats running extension cords for every little thing. I have a battery powered angle grinder, impact wrench, drill etc. For one or two cuts or unscrewing a couple of nuts, they are indispensable.

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Reply to
Ignoramus12525

Thanks. The power of these things is now pretty impressive. What impresses me more is the run time.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I use cordless tools in the shop all the time. 1/4", 3/8" drivers, 1/2" impact. They are real nice when you're out in a salvage yard, makes pulling the 20 parts off to get to the one you need so much faster...

The impacts are getting pretty good but air still has them beat for raw power and lifespan as well as total cost of ownership. I still have my first IR air impact gun and it's well over 30 yars old. Still works like the day I got it and has had one rebuild (vanes and one bearing replaced)

Reply to
Steve W.

I have had a number of cheap air impacts, and finally bought an IR 1/2" a few years ago. Other than being an airhog it is head and shoulders above anything I've ever used except for the 35+ year old Chicago Pneumatic stuff my dad has. I remember breaking down engines with his CP air ratchet that some cheap impacts wouldn't touch. Ok, maybe that was a rosy glasses moment. LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Yeah, guys with smaller jobs would like battery powered tools more.

The angle grinders and circular saws are the hardest on the batteries. You can hear the RPMs start dropping after about a minute of use. I'd

-never- buy a cordless 9" grinder. For the really tough work, you have to have a cord. (Or LOTS of batteries and the patience to constantly swap 'em between the chargers and tool.) The 36v are probably the way to go if you don't want a cord and have larger jobs.

I went between 14.4v, 18v nicad, and 18v LION on 3 consecutive impactors, and the difference wasn't great, but the convenience was. The Bosch 14.4 and Milwaukee 18 LION (sm batt) last about the same, while the Makita 18 with the 3Ah LIONs lasted the longest. The tools with the lithiums were over a pound lighter than the old nicad. The nicads charged in 25-28mins, the lithiums 15. Convenient! I like the new (free, won in raffle) Milwaukee batteries have 4-LED battery status lamps, so I can swap a new battery when I know I'll be needing it nonstop for awhile. When I was building decks, knowing how long my battery would last would have been very handy, but I won the Milwaukee after tapering off the larger jobs.

What a convenient footrest!

My favorite use for a battery drill was the creeping scaffold.

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And this one belongs at Burning Man

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Hougen Ogura makes a nifty battery-powered metal punch

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(scroll down 8 screens)

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yeah there is a big difference from the 19.99 impacts to the name brand units. For folks on a budget the Earthquake units at HF actually are not bad. BUT test them and run them a lot in the first week or two. Defects tend to show up quick in air tools.

Reply to
Steve W.

Good stuff, good article.

I don't do enough work using power tools to justify buying new cordless tools to replaced my corded ones. I have a drill, a circular saw, a jigsaw and an orbital sander, all corded. I have given some thought to replacing the drill, the tool I use most often, but the use is still seldom enough that I can't quite justify it.

In your view, are the brands typically available at, say, Home Depot all of roughly comparable quality? Off the top of my head, I recall seeing DeWalt, Milwaukee, Makita, Ryobi, possibly Black & Decker; I imagine there are some others I'm not remembering. I'm sure the vast majority of them are manufactured in China, regardless of the national domicile of the brands.

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

I've been using cordless tools for something like 30 years, beginning with one of the original Makita 6 volt drills. Indispensable. Mostly I've had Makita and Dewalt stuff. But I've given up on buying expensive models. The last straw was when a Makita battery electronics failed, forcing me to charge it manually with a power supply. A replacement battery cost as much as a Ryobi drill/ battery/charger, so I switched to Ryobi a few years ago. I have 5 chargers, 11 batteries, and 9 tools. Mostly purchased as combo sets on sale, which means I ended up with extra drills that I gave away. Surprising even myself (an admitted tool maven), all those tools, batteries and chargers were occasionally in use at the same time with 3 of us working. A friend (large professional shop) has a similar setup, but perhaps three times as much stuff. Sometimes he has a dozen people working. We agree, none of these tools owes us anything, and we wouldn't lose a minute's sleep if any of them expired. My friend (longer history with Ryobi) has had a few failures. I've had none, but another friend had a side grinder die recently. It always ran hot though, probably a defective brush holder. Bottom line, the Royobi cordless tools are the best value for this amateur and at least one professional.

Reply to
The Voice

I had seen that on "Cool Tools" or some other such show and thought it was great. but a thousand bucks? That's pretty steep. I'd rather wait for the Harbor Freight model.

Reply to
rangerssuck

Thanks for the tip. By-the-by, I would not have guessed that cordless drills (or other serious cordless tools) had been around that long. I'm not sure when I first became aware of them - maybe in the 1990s when I saw my younger brother using them.

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

I'm currently using Porter-Cable 20V Lithium tools, and they're great. way more powerful than the 18V Bosch tools they replaced. I had occasion to use some 18V Makita Brushless tools last week, and I was impressed.

Reply to
rangerssuck

I have a couple of the old Makita 9.6 volt drills with the nicad batteries. I also have a set of a drill and impact driver made by Makita that is the newer lithium battery powerd style. Half the weight and at least as much power. Faster charging too. Way faster. I wanna get a new set because I know how much better they will be. Eric

Reply to
etpm

I can maybe one up that, the battery power chain saw.

Even though the saw is laid out like a log cutter instead of a tree trimmer saw, I REALLY LIKE IT for quick pruning of one or two apple tree branches at a time. No farting around starting up a gas saw, no need to drag out the hydraulic lines for a hydraulic orbital saw.

It is VERY HARD on batteries. I hope it lasts a year at $350 a pop.

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Thanks for your comments. I'm not a good judge of brands these days, as som e of the old tool makers have divided their lines into industrial and consu mer with very different results, but the ones you listed are pretty close. B&D, although it once made a great industrial line (I have three of their i ndustrial drill motors, all 40 years old or more and going strong), is now one of several companies owned by the same conglomerate, and B&D has been a ssigned to the consumer market. Still, I have two recent ones, and I have n o complaints about them. The same company owns DeWalt, Porter-Cable, Delta, and others. DeWalt is a little higher-end, and Porter-Cable, in the opinio n of many,is higher still.

Or they were. Competition is heavy, and they're all jockeying for different market segments. At the premium industrial end you have Fein and Metabo -- and you pay for it. The rest are pretty much head-to-head. (I still favor Milwaukee, but that's based on old experience.)I own a Makita grinder and a Ryobi belt sander, and both are doing fine after years of heavy use.

If I were buying one today, I'd look at reviews by users on the brands you listed. It's a little like cars: nobody can afford to make junk these days, unless they don't expect to stay around.

Reply to
edhuntress2

We had a cordless drill back in the mid '60s at a TV shop. It was used by the antenna installers. It was bulky, because it had a lead acid battery pack in a separate steel box. it was unwieldy, and didn't hold a good charge. It was probably 10 years old, when I worked there. It was made for industrial unit, and I was told that it had cost over $400 when they bought it. I can't remember the name, after 50 years. I never used it, but I did clean out the antenna truck, and make sure it was charged. After all, I was barely into my teens, at the time. :)

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

When I bought a Ryobi cordless oscillating multi tool, a friend with a high end corded model poo pooed my purchase. I think his was a Fein. We put them to the test with similar blades, and his did cut substantially faster. Then we swapped blades, and the Ryobi was faster. I wasn't surprised, but he was.

Reply to
The Voice

Ryobi (part of TTI, as is Milwaukee) and Dremel (now owned by Bosch, IIRC) both came up with models to compete with the Fein Multimaster, once Fein's patents expired. It's not hard to make a more powerful tool, if that's wher e the competition is. The Fein was the original but the newer ones are buil t to one-up it in one way or another -- particularly on price.

I own a Multimaster and it's the best-machined hand power tool I've ever se en. That isn't everything, but it's an impressive display of where their he ads are at. It works extremely well.

Reply to
edhuntress2

My corded drill is Milwaukee, and it has been a good tool; I use it more than the others combined. I have a DeWalt jigsaw, a Bosch circular saw, and a Makita orbital sander. All have performed well, but as I said, I don't do a lot of work with them. The Bosch saw is a worm-drive, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have got a "sidewinder" for the weight saving. I got what seemed like a good deal on the Bosch, and I figured I was going to use it a little more than I have.

Reply to
Rudy Canoza

Thank you for using Javascript/bootstrap/flipbook instead of Flash!

Wow, those batteries are imposing. Our garden club bought a 48V trimmer. That thing is relentless: I think we only charge it every couple of weeks. At home I have a 12V LiIon trimmer that discharges in about 30 minutes working around the house.

Reply to
Przemek Klosowski

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