Cordless?

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As mentioned in Mori's vac thread, I used to reguard DeWalt cordless tools very highly. Most seem to warrant a good reputation,,except for my sawzall tool. Have hammer drill, impact, sawzall, light, never a problem till used daily sawzall's vibration wore contact posts on BOTH
 
As mentioned in Mori's vac thread, I used to reguard DeWalt cordless tools very highly. Most seem to warrant a good reputation,,except for my sawzall tool. Have hammer drill, impact, sawzall, light, never a problem till used daily sawzall's vibration wore contact posts on BOTH batteries in two. DeWalt's battery mounting system is sufficient for my other tools, but the short stroke back and forth action of the sawzall has "sawed" both batteries into worthlesness. At $85. ea!!

Think I'll replace the whole group (these are used at work, not once a month, when I can think up an excuse scenario) with Milwaukee. Wondering if anyone here has had bad experiences with them?

Rigid, Makita,Ryobi, Bosh, none look any better designed than yellow D. . Craftsman (other than vacs),Black and Decker, Firestorm, none have any business in a full service repari shop.

Best,

Bob

Got posted before ready, then the edit timer got me!

Mori, personally glad to be a "sports" model now,instead of a "production" model.
 
oilyriser style comment by mori:

I would invest in alternatively powered tools like a foot pedal powered lathe and mill for those dark days that are ahead of us.
 
I don't have any cordless tools. I can reach any point on my property with an extension cord. 120v provides more power for a longer time with my tools. The biggie is that I don't have to deal with recharging or replacing battery packs.

The cons are that I have to deal with an extension cord. For the few times I use my power tools, I prefer the simplicity of my setup. Cordless tools would just complicate things in my garage and make tool ownership more expensive.

I see a lot of casual users of power tools in my neighborhood who are barely "weekend warriors". I wonder how many of them buy these tools for show or so they can feel like Tim "Tool Time" Taylor.
 
I've watched friends over the years upgrade from 9v to 12v to whatever is next, and sometimes also have to replace batteries. Half the time when they grab the tool and rag on me about how dumb cords are the tool isn't charged. To me cordless makes sense if you use one a lot, but may not otherwise. One friend couldn't dill some steel plate that we were working on with his big Dewalt cordless, but with the smaller drill press that I gave him he had no problems at all.

I'm still using a $20 corded 3/8in drill that I bout in the 70's, it's been abused off and on over the years but has been cleaned and regreased once or twice. I have a 1/2in Milwaukee corded drill that is like industrial art, and a very nice 4k rpm 1/4in corded Makita that is like a laser beam on wood and plastic. I do have a cordless that I've uses a fair amount for over 15 years now, a $5 'egg beater' drill that I bought in an antique store. It works great on pretty much everything but steel. My cordless saw is one of those aggressive 'shark tooth' handsaws.
 
Probably advantages to both. But the convenience of grabbing my cordless drill is like dying and going to heaven. I'd gladly replace it every year vs (for me) going back to the stone ages.


All my other tools are corded but they get very limited use compared to my drill.
 
I like my brace and bit ......
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I, as others, have given up on cordless. I don't use them enough to warrant their expense and all my stuff can be reached by an extension cord. I had cordless stuff in the past, but it seemed every freakin' time I went to use them, they never worked. Replacing them were expensive too. Just last night, I went to use a small drill with my versapak, and guess what? Dead....
 
My best cordless tools have been the cheap ones from Harbor Freight, hands down. I've broken all the name brand tools, and tired of spending ridiculous retail prices for them. Now I get cordless tools at HF - they actually do work well, and if my 18v drill breaks, I just toss it in the trash and spend $14.99 on another one. I'm starting to believe a lot of the HF tools are manufactured in the same place as Ryobi tools due to their suspicious likeness...

The real key to keeping good cordless tools is the batteries. I build my own high capacity NiMh batteries, about 4x the power as stock NiCd. And I make sure I use a smart charger, that turns off when it's done, rather than the dumb kind that just cook your batteries most tools come with. Lithium ion is over rated...
 
Great thread. I have one cordless tool, a drill, that I use more as an air ratchet than anything else. 14.4v.

It's the red/black brand. The name escapes me at the moment.

There's little point to having less then 2 batteries and a good charger.

Good to know about HF, I love that place. I have a $15 cordless I got from there, too, but the charger cord broke. It was handy cos the charger cord could be attached to the battery while it was still in the drill, allowing for corded operation!
 
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