Cordless tools

FWIW, I have corded versions of everything. Except a hedge trimmer. Never owned one.

I need a hedge trimmer the most now that I think about it. No need to go with gas since I’ll only use it a few times per year. That led me to battery. Don’t want to get a one-off system that will be irrelevant in a couple years. Battery hedge trimmer led me to the tool compatibility. M18 set on Amazon comes with the trimmer, 12/18 charger, and 9 Ah battery for $300.

Now my main thought is to get (eventually) a M18 hammer drill/driver, M12 1/4” impact, and M12 drill/driver. Down the road, update my dremel and Fein to the M12 versions.
 
BrianGreen said:
Now my main thought is to get (eventually) a M18 hammer drill/driver, M12 1/4” impact, and M12 drill/driver. Down the road, update my dremel and Fein to the M12 versions.
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I *love* my M18 driver. Probably one of my favorite tools.
If you're already going to have M18 batteries, there's no point I can see in getting anything M12. Just get everything the same. There's no advantage at all to be 12 instead of 18v.
 
I have owned mikita, dewalt, Bosch, and several cheaper brands over the years.

Bosch cordless drills are great.

But overall, you cant beat Milwaukee.

That is vote 13.5 for Milwaukee....
 
I started switching to 18v lith ion Makita about the time they came out. At this point I am married to them but I do not know if I would switch to anything else. The batteries seem to last a good while and they are plenty strong. Most of the new stuff I get is brushless and it is strong as hell. They have several different impact/drill combos. Price depends on how bad ass the drill is. I cannot comment on their sawzall. That is one tool I do not believe is a good cordless tool. If I have a sawzall out, I am fixin to wreck shit. If they made a 240v sawzall, I would probably get that... Because more wrecking power. I am sure their deal is good and I am being silly... But whatever... Probably not the first time.
 
my previous bastard collection of Bosch, Porter-Cable, Ryobi, B&D, & Crapsman (12v-18.8v) were all crapping.
I was given a couple DeWalt 18V tools with no batteries/charger a few years ago...
Went with Dewalt XR (brushless) 20V and haven't looked back.
Currently have 2 drills (both hammer), 1/4" impact driver, 1/2" impact, 4.5" angle grinder, oscillating "multi-tool", and 18>20V adapters for older 18V sawzall & circular saw...

Fawk a cord anymore!
 
RatLabGuy said:
I *love* my M18 driver. Probably one of my favorite tools.
If you're already going to have M18 batteries, there's no point I can see in getting anything M12. Just get everything the same. There's no advantage at all to be 12 instead of 18v.
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Weight. I have some M12 because it's nicer to use for light duty tasks than M18 stuff, with more finesse and better dexterity.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Weight. I have some M12 because it's nicer to use for light duty tasks than M18 stuff, with more finesse and better dexterity.
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We have the 28v stuff at work, it's built like a brick shithouse (Weighs a bit more) but the chuck is just as shitty as every other keyless chuck I've ever used.

Personally I've been a DeWalt fan, currently have Porter Cable and it's not bad for a home gamer. If I were to buy anything today I'd probably go Milfuckee like everyone else. Really want to try the new Makita stuff.
 
A sale email from CPO Outlets this morning reminded me of something I really, really hate about most of the Dewalt stuff. The tool power rating of "UWO". It's specific to Dewalt and Stanley/BD products, and it doesn't actually relate to anything else (except other Dewalt and Stanley/BD units).. It's some internal formula, with no public calculation, so it's impossible to compare their stuff to any other brand for power. That may be on purpose, because if you go the European Dewalt site, which has actual units of power listed most of the time, the Dewalt stuff usually gets the crap kicked out of it for power output by other brands. Happily, I do see some of the new Dewalt stuff is rated in actual standard units of power, not made-up units of power.

It's like a car with an engine power rating of PigHeights or something like that. You assume that it's something to do with lifting a pig, but don't know how high the pig is being lifted, the amount of time, the weight of the pig, etc., and so there's no way to convert to something standardized like Horsepower that everyone else uses.

Anyway, that's enough ranting about Dewalt's stupid marketing bullshit.
 
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Fabrik8 said:
It's like a car with an engine power rating of PigHeights or something like that. You assume that it's something to do with lifting a pig, but don't know how high the pig is being lifted, the amount of time, the weight of the pig, etc., and so there's no way to convert to something standardized like Horsepower that everyone else uses.
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lol this is what all of my mainland European and Australian friends think about "horsepower". Even though technically there IS a conversion to Watts, they assume it's some weird made up meaningless thing.
 
Bumping this back.

My porter cable cordless drill finally broke, so I'm looking at a new one.

Should I just pony up and buy the fuel stuff? Might replace my cordless impact driver also but it works just fine, so i'm not sure what the best thing to do now is.
 
Fastenal has some Milwaukee deals going on right now. There’s some pretty good deals through them. Buy a tool off of the list and get two free batteries. Buy a tape measure or some safety glasses and get an instant $100 discount.

I now have the big nasty impact I’ve been drooling over and 4 more batteries for about what the batteries alone would have cost. And another tape measure.

My little M12 3/8” compact impact gun is my number one go-to tool in my shop. I just removed the entire front suspension from my 70 c10 with it last week. I was really expecting to break out the big air gun but that little thing is awesome.
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
My little M12 3/8” compact impact gun is my number one go-to tool in my shop. I just removed the entire front suspension from my 70 c10 with it last week. I was really expecting to break out the big air gun but that little thing is awesome.
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Just got one. It's the shit.
Also got a M12 Fuel die grinder and I love it.
 
Rnuovrcj5 said:
My little M12 3/8” compact impact gun is my number one go-to tool in my shop. I just removed the entire front suspension from my 70 c10 with it last week. I was really expecting to break out the big air gun but that little thing is awesome.
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Absolutely LOVE my M12 3/8 stubby impact. I only got it because I wanted the M12 ratchet and it was part of some bundle deal or something, but it gets used more than all of my cordless tools combined.

As for @DSM Turbos drill, I have flat abused my Porter Cable stuff, and for the weekend warrior home project person I still recommend them. If I wasn't gifted a Fuel set I probably never would have switched. But in full disclosure they don't hold a candle to the Fuel.

Duane
 
HF sells an electric version of that tool. It isn't very expensive, I have one.
 
DSM Turbos said:
M12 is really that strong/lasts long enough that I won't hate that I didn't get the M18 stuff?

Fastenal's website sucks also.
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chargers charge both.
i have a mix.
m18 is much stronger for most tools m12 much lighter
 
DSM Turbos said:
M12 is really that strong/lasts long enough that I won't hate that I didn't get the M18 stuff?

Fastenal's website sucks also.
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The m12 has its place, 3/8 ratchet is nice and the drill and impact are light for small tasks. I haven't tried the m12 fuel stuff. But the m18 impact driver runs circles around the m12. When i was putting my deck boards down the standard m12 battery would do 2 boards max, while the m18 would do 10+ twice as fast.

Also home depot and nothern tool both have sales on Milwaukee every so often.
 
83oldyoda4x4 said:
The m12 has its place, 3/8 ratchet is nice and the drill and impact are light for small tasks. I haven't tried the m12 fuel stuff. But the m18 impact driver runs circles around the m12. When i was putting my deck boards down the standard m12 battery would do 2 boards max, while the m18 would do 10+ twice as fast.

Also home depot and nothern tool both have sales on Milwaukee every so often.
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Seems like if i am used to using my 20V stuff, and I don't need lighter tools really the M18 stuff might be best for me. I'm not a crazy heavy user of cordless stuff so I don't want to buy tons of different stuff.
 
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