Lets talk Power Tools

When my Son and I both started adding battery tools to our shops (after a few false starts) we ended up with Ridgid Octane. I'm pretty sure they were marketed as "prosumer" tools and I would be inclined to agree. Neither one of us have managed to kill one yet and it sure is nice to be able to swap out batteries as they all match. Just for added info he has a fully loaded wood shop and I do all the metal/welding fabrication so between us we have most the Ridgid line of products and the only thing replaced between us is one battery that failed after several years of abuse. Some of these tools do get tossed in into the back of jeeps and see more than their fair share of abuse.
 
I use DeWalt XR cordless stuff (and a few corded items). I stuck with them because my 12V DeWalt stuff was still working fine even after the second set of batteries had lost their capacity. I also like Milwaukee items but only own a corded Sawz-all. If it's something I rarely use, I'll buy corded and often Harbor Freight. Not much reason for me to spend a bunch of money on an oscillating tool, RA buffer, or jigsaw that I use once a year. All of my framing/finish nailers are still pneumatic, as is my impact gun and ratchets.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I went with Dewalt, since that’s the drill I found on the road.
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I have been using Dewalt for many years.
Couple years ago I found a Milwaukee 18 volt driver laying in the road. That battery lasted me for months when I started using it. So I have buying Milwaukee lately.
My electrician friend who does work for me claims he has every tool Milwaukee makes. I think he said there were 212 of them?
 
Gary Ward said:
I have been using Dewalt for many years.
Couple years ago I found a Milwaukee 18 volt driver laying in the road. That battery lasted me for months when I started using it. So I have buying Milwaukee lately.
My electrician friend who does work for me claims he has every tool Milwaukee makes. I think he said there were 212 of them?
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What road are y'all driving on? I will just go there.
 
I still have a few dark blue Ryobi tools from 20 years ago, back in the NiCad days. I accidentally buried my recip saw in a hole and left it out overnight in the rain several times. The neoprene grip long since rotted off, but it still works fine.
 
One of the reasons I bought my first Ridgid cordless drill was the rubber overmolding all around it, which prevented it from sliding off the metal roof I was installing at the time.
 
kyleb said:
I have a fleet of Ryobi stuff. One of the keys is replacement battery cost.
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I cruise through Home Depot regularly to look for batteries on sale. I daresay I probably have too many.

kyleb said:
I don't know that many other brands have quite the span of tools that can be served by the same batteries.
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Since Ryobi is oriented on homeowners instead of the trades, they have more household-type stuff. I picked up this stick vac a few weeks ago for my condo. Wifey was happy.

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Dave Theisen said:
Are we just going to avoid the elephant in the room? Does anyone here really think that @SixPapaCharlie should be operating power tools? :)
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hand tool usage at the beginning, supposedly bryan using power tools starting at 12:12 but we never see the tools and his face at the same time so authenticity is questionable


 
Dana said:
One of the reasons I bought my first Ridgid cordless drill was the rubber overmolding all around it, which prevented it from sliding off the metal roof I was installing at the time.
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I have a Rigid table saw, circular saw, and shop vac that are good tools. Fairly certain my father's framing nailer is a Rigid as well. We built a few decks, pole barn, and such with those Rigid tools and they run like new. No complaints from me on their durability, although the rails/fense on the Rigid table saw are a joke and wouldn't hold true (ended up switching to an Incra TS-LS fence system).
 
I have been using cordless power tools for works and home almost 40 years now and was a die hard Dewalt Fan for the longest time but they have dropped dramatically in quality IMO when they when to the 20v platform...plus their batteries are stupid expensive and lineup is pretty limited. I about to abandon the last of my 18V Dewalt tools.

If I was a contractor or in the trades or for daily work I would 100% be on the Milwaukee brand. They are rock solid and they line is growing, but they are pricey of you wanna grow an inventory.

For weekend warriors and personal workshops however you can't beat Ryobi from Home Depot even though the Pros make fun of them. I am all in on Ryobi and just built my entire house using all Ryobi cordless. My favorite part is that they are all ala carte and you can buy just the tool only for a reasonable price once you have a few batteries. Now there is a indeed quality difference between their brushless HP line and the budget line of tools and a few things are garbage...but there are so many tools, lights, radios, yard tools, and different devices that all work on the same 18V platform I love them. There are now over 300 tools that all use the same battery. My stick vac in my house is a Ryobi 18V unit.

I even started investing in the Ryobi 40V line for chain saws, weed whackers, trimers, augers, and blowers which have replaced all my corded and gas yard tools.

I agree corded tools do not really matter on brand loyalty compared to cordless...other than most of the Harbor Freight power tools are disposable at best. My corded tools are all over the map.

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Albany Tom said:
find a review from Project Farm on youtube, it's about the only site I trust for that
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Agree I like his reviews.
Ed Haywood said:
That said, I have Ryobi tools that I have abused for 20 years and are still functional.
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about 20 years of my cabinet installer students got me started using Ryobi tools when I helped him install cabinets one year when the CFI business was slow. He gave me his old drill/driver set. I still have them and they still work. The drill ended up sitting in a bucket of water for probably a month. I still works, omits a bit of an electrical order when I use it, which I rarely do, I have bought more/new ones since.

On the other hand over the past year Ryobi as been kind of disappointing me. My latest batch of batteries from them don't seem be lasting as long as previous battery. I am guessing I normally get about 5 years out of a Ryobi batter, but is think my 2-3 year old batteries have lost a lot of their capacity already. I need to check they may still be under i think the 3 year warranty.
AV8R_87 said:
Cordless power tools benefited immensely by the introduction of brushless DC motors
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I thought it would be cool to upgrade to the compact Brushless drill and impact driver. I do like the small size and the drill I find is excellent. The impact driver on the other had is much louder than my older Brushed impact drivers. it is the only Ryobi tool I want to use hearing protection with. I also doesn't have near as much torque as my other drivers. Perhaps Technically it does but practically it does not it does about 3 to 4 smaller impacts for every single impact my older driver does.
Dana said:
I've had good luck with Rigid brand cordless tools from Home Depot
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Sticking with my 18V Ryobi line, I had the need for a powered Caulking gun so bought the Ryobi Gun. It was terrible for the material I was working with, It would shut off just about the time it developed enough pressure to squeeze the caulk I was using out which admittedly was fairly thick. In hindsight this may have been in part due to the pre-mature degradation of my batteries which I hadn't figured out was an issue yet. But online reviews seemed to confirm my experience in that Ryobi had recently redesigned the caulking gun and the newer version I got is much less powerful compared to the review. After reading the review and evaluating cost vs capability I ended up getting the Rigid Caulking gun which was very similiar the Ryobi and I found it adequate to do what I needed to do. It is my only Cordless tool that isn't a Ryobi, but I my consider switching to Rigid or HF Bauer Brand. I like their battery designs better with easier battery adaptors than the Ryobi. I haven't tried HF Cordless yet, but have been very impressed with several corded Bauer products.
Jim K said:
I ended up on team teal.
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I was never very impressed with team teal. True what I used was built like a tank, but using one seemed like driving a tank also. They had very little finesse and I found not very pleasant to use. To be fair it has been quite a while since I have used teal tool and I am sure some are better than other.
 
Ted said:
The main problem now is that somewhere along the line they switched from their 18V batteries to 20V
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Dewalt makes adapters for the newer batteries for most of the older tools. Only problem is if you leave a battery on them then they slowly discharge. I just have 2 for my two remaining 18V tools.
 
brcase said:
On the other hand over the past year Ryobi as been kind of disappointing me. My latest batch of batteries from them don't seem be lasting as long as previous battery. I am guessing I normally get about 5 years out of a Ryobi batter, but is think my 2-3 year old batteries have lost a lot of their capacity already. I need to check they may still be under i think the 3 year warranty.
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Check-out some of the more highly rated generic batteries on Amazon. I think the build quality is better than OEM.
 
This thread got me thinking. I decided to list all my Ryobi cordless stuff. I'll put it in a quote so you don't have to scroll through.

Drill x2
Impact drill
Impact driver
Impact wrench
Recip saw
Circular saw
Jigsaw
Angle grinder
Hand vac
Stick vac
Bucket vac
Spotlight
Floor light x2
Worklight x2
Area light x2
Emergency light
Flashlight x3
Tire/mattress inflator
Tire inflator x3
Weed whacker
Rotary tool
Radio x2 (both dead)
Sprayer (dead)
Pruning saw
Hedge trimmer
Lawn mower
Leaf blower x2
Power inverter
USB charger
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Note for 18V tools, you can purchase "adapters" that let you use brand x battery in brand Y tool. I have one that adapts older "plug in" 18V Dewalt tools to "slide on" 20V DeWalt lithium batteries, one that takes "slide on Dewalt " 20V batteries for my older 18V plug in Craftsman, and most other combinations are available on Ebay or Amazon(found one last summer for my FIL that went from Craftsman to Milwaukee). My understanding is one of the MFG's somehow patented "18V" so all the vendors now advertise "20V" tools though the current 20V batteries basically are the "same open circuit voltage output" as the older 18V advertised batteries.
 
bdtaz said:
Note for 18V tools, you can purchase "adapters" that let you use brand x battery in brand Y tool. I have one that adapts older "plug in" 18V Dewalt tools to "slide on" 20V DeWalt lithium batteries, one that takes "slide on Dewalt " 20V batteries for my older 18V plug in Craftsman, and most other combinations are available on Ebay or Amazon(found one last summer for my FIL that went from Craftsman to Milwaukee). My understanding is one of the MFG's somehow patented "18V" so all the vendors now advertise "20V" tools though the current 20V batteries basically are the "same open circuit voltage output" as the older 18V advertised batteries.
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Speaking of adapters, I found an interesting/clever use for my Ryobi batteries. I have a Dyson Series 6 handheld vacuum. The batteries are lousy, and I got sick of replacing them. So, I found a Ryobi adapter, and now use a 4AH Ryobi battery on the Dyson vacuum. Obviously it won't charge on the Dyson charger, but it lasts many times longer than the Dyson battery. When it gets low, I simply charge it on my Ryobi charger overnight, and it's good to go!
 
Any thoughts on Batteries Plus replacing batteries that don’t hold a charge? Not that I’m there yet, but curious about the cost relative to buying replacement OEM batteries,
 
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This ^^^. Both formats.

Brian with a Y, stay away from the green ones.
Those are for high-wing pilots.

What oil do all y'all think Brian with a Y should be using, and with a splash of Marvel Mystery Oil or with Sea Foam?

:stirpot: Now where's my popcorn?
 
On the topic of power tools, Project Farm just put out a new video on impact drivers:
 
DeWalt. Milwaukee second. Adapters for weird tools made by others that ya just want, or to keep an old esoteric something alive (old Bosch hand plane, etc).

Gonna need the mega 60v for reliable chop saw or angle grinder performance. The 20v angle grinder is adequate for picking locks, not cutting granite.
 
I was 100% dewalt. Now I buy Milwaukee too. Have a couple Royobi, and I think they are fine for my purposes, which is working around the house and on some of the cars (homeowner, non-pro use).

My neighbor used to sell dewalt. And then, of course, Porter-Cable. I had some Porter-Cable tools, but all from before Black and Decker bought PC. Not sure PC is still as good. But dewalt and PC are both owned by B&D.
 
Tools said:
Gonna need the mega 60v for reliable chop saw or angle grinder performance.
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Never thought I'd see the day where battery-operated miter saws were a feasible concept. Are they good enough to cut walnut and the like reliably or just good for 2x4s?
 
Baked Potato said:
Never thought I'd see the day where battery-operated miter saws were a feasible concept. Are they good enough to cut walnut and the like reliably or just good for 2x4s?
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I have the Ryobi 18 volt brushless miter saw I've used it to cut oak, never Walnut, but I don't doubt it would do it with a good blade. Blade. Especially with the higher amp hour batteries. There's also a 36 volt version.

They also make 18 and 36 volt table saws.
 
@Lindberg nailed it, good blade. Yep, work fine.

Ain’t nothing new, I have a brushless portable power tool from the EARLY THRTIES. It’s 180v 3 phase… weird. A porter cable belt sander.
 
Stevel said:
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This ^^^. Both formats.

Brian with a Y, stay away from the green ones.
Those are for high-wing pilots.

What oil do all y'all think Brian with a Y should be using, and with a splash of Marvel Mystery Oil or with Sea Foam?

:stirpot: Now where's my popcorn?
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Wait! Now there's a social pressure component!!!
Which is the most expensive?
 
MauleSkinner said:
Any thoughts on Batteries Plus replacing batteries that don’t hold a charge? Not that I’m there yet, but curious about the cost relative to buying replacement OEM batteries,
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If they're NiCd, and you can't get a LiPo pack for the product in any fashion, there's no reason why BP shouldn't be able to weld up some new pack for you and have it work just as well as the original.

I'm not sure I'd have a LiPo pack rebuilt, but I suppose they're all using LiFe cylindrical cells that are pretty low risk.

I haven't bothered replacing any of my Dewalt Nicads and instead have just been transitioning over to the adapter and LiPos with them. The need to pop them out to keep them from draining is annoying as hell, but it's become fairly automatic.
 
bentmettle said:
If they're NiCd, and you can't get a LiPo pack for the product in any fashion, there's no reason why BP shouldn't be able to weld up some new pack for you and have it work just as well as the original.

I'm not sure I'd have a LiPo pack rebuilt, but I suppose they're all using LiFe cylindrical cells that are pretty low risk.

I haven't bothered replacing any of my Dewalt Nicads and instead have just been transitioning over to the adapter and LiPos with them. The need to pop them out to keep them from draining is annoying as hell, but it's become fairly automatic.
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They’re the Dewalt 20v Max LiPos. Haven’t had to replace any yet, but figured as long as he conversation was here, I’d ask.
 
For hand tools I have several RYOBI tools and like them. I'm disappointed that several batteries have had premature deaths but if you wait for a HD BOGO sale, they are not too expensive. I have never had one of their tools fail like I have with Craftsman, B&D and a few others.

For my yard tools (Blower, string trimmer, edger, chain saw and hedge trimmer I have all EGO. I bought three of them with batteries included and two as "tool only". So far, NO problems and I love their power and their ease of use. But I'm not looking forward to the day I have to go into hock to buy replacement batteries. But 5 years since my first battery and it is still hanging in there. I do have to recharge it more often than I used to though.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I went with Dewalt, since that’s the drill I found on the road.
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I hope it wasn't in the bed of somebody's truck.

I was using my EGO chain saw in the back of my property. When the chain saw battery died I swapped it and put the dead one on the side rail of the pickup "temporarily". When I finished my job I threw the rest of the tools in the truck and pulled out on the road to turn the corner to my driveway to my garage. When I unloaded, I realized the battery wasn't there. I retraced my very short route several times and it was nowhere to be found. Apparently in the few minutes it took me to move the truck it fell off and someone "found" it.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am a "sorts by price guy" and that has led me to a situation where I have zero power tools that can share a battery. I literally have another tab open on Temu looking at Dremel's. Mine died today.
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Probably because you bought it off Temu. ;)
SixPapaCharlie said:
What is the brand to align with? Maybe more importantly what is the brand to avoid? I have Black and Decker, some knock off Harbor Freight stuff, What's the blue brand that Lowes sells? I got some of that. I have a craftsman saws-all and a knock off one of those vibrating things that makes a loud noise and tears crap up, head on. Oh, and my sanders are B&D but.
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I have almost all Black & Decker. I started because when I needed the first tool it was the one on the shelf at the local shop. I have everything from a drill to a stick vac to a weed whacker that all run off the same batteries.

However... I also have some Ryobi stuff because B&D just doesn't make the variety of tools that Ryobi does. Because of that, I'll probably (slowly) move to Ryobi. They're in such widespread use that there's even some "homebrew" stuff out there - For example, you can download an STL file and print up an adapter that lets you mount light bulbs to the Ryobi batteries and that sort of thing. And there's entire YouTube channels dedicated to them.
Jim K said:
Ryobi is owned by TTI along with Milwaukee, and is positioned as the more homeowner level stuff. Kind of a sweet spot of quality vs value. They offer probably the largest variety, and have some unique offerings. I'd recommend sticking to one of these.
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The variety is the key, and for a "sorts by price guy", IMO, Ryobi is at the right price point. Milwaukee and DeWalt are awesome tools, but WAY overkill if you're not making money with them.
Gary Ward said:
I have been using Dewalt for many years.
Couple years ago I found a Milwaukee 18 volt driver laying in the road. That battery lasted me for months when I started using it. So I have buying Milwaukee lately.
My electrician friend who does work for me claims he has every tool Milwaukee makes. I think he said there were 212 of them?
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More than that. Some local retailers here have two entire aisles of nothing but Milwaukee tools.

Also, your electrician friend must make a lot of money! One of everything Milwaukee makes would probably buy a really nice airplane.
Shawn said:
For weekend warriors and personal workshops however you can't beat Ryobi from Home Depot even though the Pros make fun of them.
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This. And I see that as an advantage. If they can't make fun of my tools, they're gonna start making fun of ME! :D
 
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