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On Being Handy - TOOLS

jt2 said:
I used to think that, but check out some of the newer lithium stuff. A while back I put in some cabinets and was running a 5" hole saw for a vent tube through several layers of particle board and subfloor with a Craftsman C3 drill and XCP lithium battery combo. Had enough torque to easily run the hole saw, and I wore out long before the battery did.
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Totally.

My older 18v Dewalt stuff is finally starting to wear out, and I was gifted one of the new fancy 20v Lithium drill sets to replace it.

Shit is amazing.
 
Soldering Iron. Never replace another $80 laptop charger because the cable got pinched.

Safety glasses
Respirator
Hearing protection

Also, if you have a circular saw, a drill and a sander you can basically build anything. Just depends on how patient you are.
 
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I have a cordless Hilti TE4 18V at work for the sole purpose of drilling into concert. It easily drills 5/8.
I tried a more expensive Milwaukee before it and the Hilti kicks it's ass.
 
Pretty much every major cordless tool manufacturer has jumped on board the shared batteries train. I'd recommend DeWalt if you're doing lots of heavy duty DIY, Milwaukee if you're doing medium amounts of medium duty DIY, and Ryobi/whatever's cheapest if it's gonna sit in your closet for most of the year. All 3 manufacturers have 5-in-1-bag kinda kits that come with several tools, a couple batteries, and a charger. You may want to buy individually though if you have specific purposes in mind that the 5 combo won't help on. It'll be a bit more expensive though.
 
I wear out cordless drills about every 5 years as a guy who currently makes a living doing construction stuff. My recent cordless purchase was the Ridgid 2 gun set, a hammer drill and a regular driver ($170?) They are made by Milwaukee for Home Depot, and actually have a better warranty than Milwaukee. These things just keep getting better, and I never want for corded power. I did buy an extra "big" battery.

Home depot ain't going nowhere, and their products are hard to beat in quality and price. The batteries run my job radio too. They will take their own stuff back without question. You can't really go to the Milwaukee store, or the ryobe store, but HD knows you bought the ridgid tools from them.
 
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Toolboxes
I have one for different jobs
Carpentry
Plumbing
Electrical
Misc
Two tool bags
Carpentry and general hand tools.

I have a 12 v set of Craftsman cordless. One drill and one driver which is awesome. Set came with a flashlight and charger.
 
SM610 said:
I wear out cordless drills about every 5 years as a guy who currently makes a living doing construction stuff. My recent cordless purchase was the Ridgid 2 gun set, a hammer drill and a regular driver ($170?) They are made by Milwaukee for Home Depot, and actually have a better warranty than Milwaukee. These things just keep getting better, and I never want for corded power. I did buy an extra "big" battery.

Home depot ain't going nowhere, and their products are hard to beat in quality and price. The batteries run my job radio too. They will take their own stuff back without question. You can't really go to the Milwaukee store, or the ryobe store, but HD knows you bought the ridgid tools from them.
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Considering you do it for a living and wear them out consistently, can I ask your thoughts on DeWalt stuff? We abused the shit out of our DeWalt cordless tools in Iraq and they took it like a champ. Then again, we weren't paying for them ourselves, so the cost didn't really factor into the equation. When you're buying engines at $140k a pop, in quantity, a few hundred dollars for better tools is a drop in the bucket.
 
NorCalAthlete said:
Considering you do it for a living and wear them out consistently, can I ask your thoughts on DeWalt stuff? We abused the shit out of our DeWalt cordless tools in Iraq and they took it like a champ. Then again, we weren't paying for them ourselves, so the cost didn't really factor into the equation. When you're buying engines at $140k a pop, in quantity, a few hundred dollars for better tools is a drop in the bucket.
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Dewalt had the best tools for a while, but I think that they've been caught and passed by others for various reasons. Still pretty good, but as I said, you can't really go to a "Dewalt" store. You go to the place that sold it to you, and they tell you to jump thru THAT company's hoops for the warrentee, or the parts... I can't buy ryobi, they're just not construction grade, but Milwaukee, ridgid, dewalt, and a few others are all really good tools now. I just wanted a brick and morter place that stood behind the tool.

I'm usually not disappointed when I have to replace stuff like this, as the newer product has improved so much that it was time to upgrade anyway. Battery life is the thing for me. The new hammer drill is noisy, but man do they perform compared to the regular drill. Drive a thousand 3" screws into a deck and you'll see what I mean. The new ones have a LED light that lights the way for you, its great in low light situations. Little things like that are great.
 
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AbsolutEnduser said:
*IF* one is just starting, I think there are basic "homeowners toolkits". I think these are AWESOME value! So cheap by the looks of it--- there is one at IKEA or one at HD by Stanley (brand)

basically instead of buying the stupid hammer , adjustable wrench, replaceable bit drivers + Drill... like I did.... you can get them all for cheap.
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Most of those 'cheap' kits that people like to get when they have nothing are next to useless! :x

I have a couple that people have given me as presents and I have never used!

The tools in them are total crap, in most cases, and most of them don't even function properly. I would avoid most of them!

Just because something resembles a wrench doesn't get the job done unless it functions properly. :laughing
 
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NorCalAthlete said:
Pretty much every major cordless tool manufacturer has jumped on board the shared batteries train. I'd recommend DeWalt if you're doing lots of heavy duty DIY, Milwaukee if you're doing medium amounts of medium duty DIY, and Ryobi/whatever's cheapest if it's gonna sit in your closet for most of the year. All 3 manufacturers have 5-in-1-bag kinda kits that come with several tools, a couple batteries, and a charger. You may want to buy individually though if you have specific purposes in mind that the 5 combo won't help on. It'll be a bit more expensive though.
Click to expand...

Ryobi is great for most home owners. If you want to go the cordless route, they have an enormous selection of tools that can operate with that battery system

https://www.ryobitools.com/power-tools/products/list/family/one-plus?

Things that you might not even think of and some that are common.
 
I'm just not a fan. The only Ryobi sets I ever worked with broke pretty consistently from moderate usage (in a data center).
 
SM610 said:
Dewalt had the best tools for a while, but I think that they've been caught and passed by others for various reasons. Still pretty good, but as I said, you can't really go to a "Dewalt" store. You go to the place that sold it to you, and they tell you to jump thru THAT company's hoops for the warrentee, or the parts... I can't buy ryobi, they're just not construction grade, but Milwaukee, ridgid, dewalt, and a few others are all really good tools now. I just wanted a brick and morter place that stood behind the tool.

I'm usually not disappointed when I have to replace stuff like this, as the newer product has improved so much that it was time to upgrade anyway. Battery life is the thing for me. The new hammer drill is noisy, but man do they perform compared to the regular drill. Drive a thousand 3" screws into a deck and you'll see what I mean. The new ones have a LED light that lights the way for you, its great in low light situations. Little things like that are great.
Click to expand...

DeWalt is sold through Home Depot...OSH...Lowe's...etc...
 
NorCalAthlete said:
I'm just not a fan. The only Ryobi sets I ever worked with broke pretty consistently from moderate usage (in a data center).
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This. Not good money spent in my opinion. They LOOK like the other tools, which is not enough in my opinion.

NorCalAthlete said:
DeWalt is sold through Home Depot...OSH...Lowe's...etc...
Click to expand...

As I said in the quote, they're not bad tools, but ridgid is HDs own brand. You can deal directly with the store that supplies them. Not the store that supplies someone else's product. It is a distinct advantage that none of the other cordless companies have.
 
I'm a big fan of Bosch cordless power tools. I have a 18V 1/2" chuck drill/driver and 1/4" hex impact driver. I can't believe I went so long w/o an impact driver. I drilled a 3-1/4" hole through stucco with the Bosch drill.
 
I guess I can't say I've ever had to deal with that with DeWalt. They've never broken on me.

I had a really solid and powerful 36v set I sold here on BARF a while back. I kinda regret that now. Can't remember if it was Papi or Cincinnatus who snagged it but they no longer make 36v stuff. I needed cash at the time and figured since I didn't have an urgent need for it I could always re-buy it later when I really needed it and was in a better situation. Now it's no longer available even on Amazon from what I can tell. :(
 
Mr. White said:
I'm a big fan of Bosch cordless power tools. I have a 18V 1/2" chuck drill/driver and 1/4" hex impact driver. I can't believe I went so long w/o an impact driver. I drilled a 3-1/4" hole through stucco with the Bosch drill.
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Bosch, Hitachi, and in some cases, Skill are pretty good in my experience.
 
^ The Skill Mag 77 Worm drive is pretty much the carpentry standard for hand held circular saws.
 
jt2 said:
I used to think that, but check out some of the newer lithium stuff. A while back I put in some cabinets and was running a 5" hole saw for a vent tube through several layers of particle board and subfloor with a Craftsman C3 drill and XCP lithium battery combo. Had enough torque to easily run the hole saw, and I wore out long before the battery did.
Click to expand...

True, but a $50 corded drill has equal or better performance in a lot of cases. I haven't had a need to spend the scratch to get something like that. They're good, I've used them, but they are way low on my list of shit to get.
 
TylerW said:
Soldering Iron. Never replace another $80 laptop charger because the cable got pinched.

Safety glasses
Respirator
Hearing protection

Also, if you have a circular saw, a drill and a sander you can basically build anything. Just depends on how patient you are.
Click to expand...

Two soldering irons... one for big stuff, one for delicate stuff. Orbital sanders rule.
 
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