What brand of cordless tools?

[PAULO]

I am going to buy one of those cordless tool kits(drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw) and was wondering what brand anybody might recommend. I have an assortment of corded power tools from several manufacturers and am selling them. Makita seems to have the most variety of cordless tools. 18v drill, circ. saw, recip. saw, mitre saw. I seem to see Dewalt tools everywhere and they make a nail gun for trim work. I also have looked at Porter Cable. I will use these for home repair and working on my rental properties. They will not be used all day everyday but I would still like them to last. Also, 18v or 24v? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Paul

 

[Deezul1]

I have a home repair business and live and breath cordless tools. These things save me so much time and effort that I cant imagine not having them. I have tried several brands and Makita is darn hard to beat for price and Quality. Any thing you look at check replacement battery cost, it can kill you if you get the wrong brand. I have 2- 7. 2volt Makitas that get used a lot and one of them had a motor go bad and the local shop charged $18. 00 for the new motor and labor.

 

[Todd G]

I've wore out several Makita's, Craftsman, and Bosch. The only one that lasts is DeWalt.

 

[Lurch]

DeWalt gets my money.



Lurch

 

[illflem]

I used to have good luck with DeWalt until Black & Decker bought them out, after that the quality went downhill. I'm using Milwaukee now, seems to be excellent quality and the price is right in there. Makita's are also very good but seem over priced to me. Craftsman is junk.

 

[DarrellB]

Try Dewalt, Milwaukee, or Bosh. Bosh will have the best price and their cordless drills are a little smaller frame size than DeWalt so you can get into more places with them. I myself like my dewalt cordless drill and don't even mess with the cordless saws just not enough sh$# behind them for me. They work fine for small jobs like a cutting a couple of 2x4s or something but they drain batteries too quick. I like Milwaukee's corded tools have a hammer drill, circularsaw, and sawzall and wouldn't trade them for anything. But I haven't used any of their cordless stuff but I would say it's as good as anyones. Stay away from craftsman they suck.



Big D

 

[HDH]

TOOLS! My Favorite Subject!

DeWalt or Porter Cable Gets my Vote, I own around $2,800 of DeWalt Tools, Not one has let me down.

But I dont use them for a living either.

Doug.

 

[Gray Ghost]

Wood mag just ran an article on cordless machines. Stop by your local book store and pick up a copy. Interesting article.

 

[RHARVEY]

Porter Cable... ... ...





Rick

 

[EOliver]

I do quite a bit of metal work, and I am very hard on tools, bits, blades, whatever. I have some DeWalt, some Porter Cable, and some Milwaukee. The Milwaukee stuff seems to hold up the best to what I do with it. They all seem to be good tools, but I like Milwaukee the best thus far.

 

[redneckdr]

cordless

no one mentioned Ryobi..... i've got a ryobi 18 volt 1/2" drill that i love. has been durable, and charge lasts for a long time. torque out the wazoo. don't know if they make other tools--haven't looked.....

 

[TxDieselKid]

I sell the stuff at Sears....

When a customer comes in and asks for opions on cordless tools, I tell them Dewalt



AJB

_______________

Sears Hardware

 

[Papa Joe]

I've got the drill, screw set, two flashlights, reciprocating saw, and circular saw - all Dewalt. Other than frying a battery (my fault) everything works well.

 

[BK]

All my cordless are Makita 9. 6V.

I originally went with them cause back when I bought mine, noone else had standardized a line of tools on a single type of battery yet. I own a drill, right angle drill and small sawzall type saw.

Been using them for about 12years now while totally re-doing my house in and out. They've lived through a lot of crap and drops.

I've had to toss one out of the 4 battery packs I had. Other three are doing well.



I own Porta Cable and Milwaukee corded tools.

I've trashed all my Crudmans (caftsman) power tools. . they just didn't hold up. I had a belt sander, 7. 2v cordless drill and corded circular saw... burnt them all out.



During that time I worked along side contractors I hired for framing & roofing, they had 18V Dewalts that they loved.

Dewalt is an industrial division of the B&D. I have a large very heavy duty right angle corded drill from B&D that has seen a lot of pluming and electrical hole drilling. Used it a lot for alarm installations too over the last 15 years, as well as all of my cordless Makita stuff. . all still going very strong.



I have a corded 3/8's bosch hand drill that I burned out the motor and burnt up the plastic casing drilling some large dia holes through studs will running some conduit... the holes were beyond the capacity rating of the drill. . but it was small enough to fit between the studs. . after burning that up (the plastic body basically melted in my hands from the heat) I went and bought the heavy duty right angle B&D drill. I bought parts for the Bosch 3/8 drill to fix it. It was about 30 bucks in parts... but the drill had cost me almost 100 bucks way back when... I out right abused this drill. But the curdsman tools I burnt up were not abused.



My two Milwaukees are corded tools... a sawzall and sheetrock gun. Both have seen soo much work and abuse. Still going strong.



All my cheap tools that I bought trying to save money are long dead a gone. . if you shop and compare and don't get blind sided on a price, you do get what you pay for.

 

[TxDieselKid]

18v??? Get real...

If you REALLY want some power, go get the new 24v Dewalt!! That's about equal to the power that HVAC is putting out..... you'll never need it, but mines bigger then yours



I love it when they buy these, and then tack that Product Protection Plan on there, really jacks up the commision



AJB

 

[BRobertson]

We used corded and cordless drill motors in our business that we just sold. We would drill for an average of 1000 rivets daily. We started with Dewalt and after wearing out 2 sets, we went to Milwaukee. They are still going strong!!

 

[QRTRHRS]

I have an 18V Dewalt and a 19. 2V Porter Cable. I like the PC better even though I did have the slip clutch repaired. That was after running those "blue" coated screws into concrete block all day. The battery pack on my Dewault is difficult to remove and I have large and relatively strong hands. The PC is a breeze. Both of these drills have been used very hard and in dirty conditions.



Fine Homebuilding just did a report on cordless recipricol saws. None had the moxie of a corded but the usual Dewalt, PC and Milwaukee were found to be good contenders.



In no particular order, I like Bosch, Dewault, Milwaukee and Porter Cable. One Milwaukee tool I bought that I did not like was a corded hammer drill with a keyless chuck. Duh, had to relplace with a keyed chuck.



Here is a site to check out some testing on various tools.



http://protools.net/default. asp

 

[WOWZY]

I have the 18v DeWalt 1/2" drill and a friend of mine at work bought a 24v DeWalt 1/2" drill. I asked him how much torque it had and he said that he was getting ready to find out because he had to drill some 1" holes in a plate. I stood and watched and just as I turned my head, the bit "bit" and twisted his wrist a few degrees to far. He then handed the "Torque Monster" to me and said, "You try it!"



I classify his offering, the same as handing me a Thompson Varmint pistol with a M60 round in the chamber and saying, "You try it!"



Those 24's have got some serious torque! I'll stick to my little 18v.

 

[redneckdr]

24v

gotta love those 24v's. (valves OR volts!!)

 

[QRTRHRS]

Interesting reading that article I mentioned from Fine Homebuilding. Author says heat is the killer and the 24V suffer from buildup. Plus pricey! Author suggests going with the lower voltage models.



Also, he suggests not running until the battery has kicked but rather recharge when a drop in power is noticed.