Deleted.

[Huntn]

I like several of the brands mentioned in the poll but can't pick one as a favorite.

 

[millerj123]

I bought Craftsman tools before I knew any better, a "table saw" (bench saw with legs), corded drill and vacuum. They are all going strong and work as long as I account for their limitations. I bent the drill slightly out of true, so it primarily gets used for rough work or when the batteries on my Dewalt cordless dies. Given a choice, I'm using Dewalt, Porter-Cable and Milwaukee now. Still need to find the price/performance balance.

 

[steve knight]

I use the tool that works the best. You need to feel your hand held tools see how they feel in your hand see how heavy they are. sometimes you don't need the best and it will work well. I have makita cordless only three tools a rigid trim router that feels good in the hand. porter cable routers (don't use them much) a bosch chopsaw unisaw one festool sander so dc is good. Jet tools and my main tool a shopbot cnc router.

 

[senseless]

I like to know that blades, bits, sanding discs etc are easy to find and replace. I had a jigsaw that used weird blades and sometimes bought the wrong ones.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Thread resurrection; but I'm suddenly in the market for a new cordless drill.

Don't mind spending some coin if it gets me features and/or stoutness.

Been interested mainly in Makita and Milwaukee, both have decent 18v hammer drills it seems.

Any input from the readers here?

 

[chown33]

Thread resurrection; but I'm suddenly in the market for a new cordless drill.

Don't mind spending some coin if it gets me features and/or stoutness.

Been interested mainly in Makita and Milwaukee, both have decent 18v hammer drills it seems.

Any input from the readers here?

I'd price the replacement batteries first. I'd also look at 3rd party aftermarket replacements, visiting a Batteries Plus store if there's one near you.

The Makita cordless drill I used to use worked fine, and I had it for a a number of years. I never had a mechanical or feature complaint about it. Then the batteries started failing (I had 2 bat packs), and I went shopping for replacements. Well, it turned out that it would cost me more to replace one battery pack than to buy a mid-to-low-priced complete drill set, and the set included 2 battery packs.

That's when I went out and priced batteries first. I ended up with a DeWalt cordless drill, which I bought in a set with 2 battery packs and a charger. I've probably had it for a decade now, and I can still get 3rd-party batteries for it, which are somewhat reasonably priced (below drill-set cost). The main down side is the batteries are NiCd, not NiMH or Li-ion, so that's probably going to raise the cost next time I have to replace the batteries. That might be the time to replace the whole drill set with something that has more modern battery technology. However, I'm still going to do it by pricing the batteries first.


If you use a hammer drill a lot, then it's probably worth getting, otherwise I wouldn't. Personally, I wouldn't buy a cordless hammer drill, only corded. As rarely as I use one (last time I just borrowed one), I can manage the cord inconvenience, as compared to having the batteries die and have to be replaced (costly).

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I'd price the replacement batteries first. I'd also look at 3rd party aftermarket replacements, visiting a Batteries Plus store if there's one near you.

The Makita cordless drill I used to use worked fine, and I had it for a a number of years. I never had a mechanical or feature complaint about it. Then the batteries started failing (I had 2 bat packs), and I went shopping for replacements. Well, it turned out that it would cost me more to replace one battery pack than to buy a mid-to-low-priced complete drill set, and the set included 2 battery packs.

That's when I went out and priced batteries first. I ended up with a DeWalt cordless drill, which I bought in a set with 2 battery packs and a charger. I've probably had it for a decade now, and I can still get 3rd-party batteries for it, which are somewhat reasonably priced (below drill-set cost). The main down side is the batteries are NiCd, not NiMH or Li-ion, so that's probably going to raise the cost next time I have to replace the batteries. That might be the time to replace the whole drill set with something that has more modern battery technology. However, I'm still going to do it by pricing the batteries first.


If you use a hammer drill a lot, then it's probably worth getting, otherwise I wouldn't. Personally, I wouldn't buy a cordless hammer drill, only corded. As rarely as I use one (last time I just borrowed one), I can manage the cord inconvenience, as compared to having the batteries die and have to be replaced (costly).

Thanks.

Do you have a current recommended model. The Milwaukee Fuel seems to get the best reviews, and their batteries are $$$ but are reportedly very high quality and very durable/long lasting. But plenty of people have great things to say about Makita, Dewalt, even Ridgid. Maybe it's one of those situations where they're all perfectly good units and I should just go with one and stop stressing?

My previous Black&Decker model was a 12v NiCd and the batteries wouldn't stay charged long enough and frequently wore out completely. I think I went through 7 or 8 batteries in the 15 years I have had it. It's just not strong enough for some of the stuff I've been trying to recently though.

 

[0388631]

Makita, Hilti, Stihl and Bosch. These are my go-tos. I wouldn't touch a modern DeWalt with a barge pole. Rigid's a good company, too, depending on what you get. They have a lifetime repair warranty on their products. You can drop it off at your favorite big box store and they'll ship it to the company to fix it or replace as they see fit.

Stihl is a great company for power garden tools. Excellent build quality, very easy to service, takes severe abuse very well, "cheap" to have fixed professionally, good warranties. Manual tool wise, Fiskars is great if you can get US made or Finnish made. Avoid the Made in China trash.

One tool you don't need and will do fine with a rental is a Ramset or other powder nail gun. I've only needed to rent one twice.

 

[chown33]

Thanks.

Do you have a current recommended model. The Milwaukee Fuel seems to get the best reviews, and their batteries are $$$ but are reportedly very high quality and very durable/long lasting. But plenty of people have great things to say about Makita, Dewalt, even Ridgid. Maybe it's one of those situations where they're all perfectly good units and I should just go with one and stop stressing?

My previous Black&Decker model was a 12v NiCd and the batteries wouldn't stay charged long enough and frequently wore out completely. I think I went through 7 or 8 batteries in the 15 years I have had it. It's just not strong enough for some of the stuff I've been trying to recently though.

I don't have any Milwaukee power tools, but my brother does and he thinks they're a good balance of durability and price.

I think it comes down to frequency of use vs. years of use. I suspect the battery is the part most likely to fail first (or degrade to an annoying level of decrepitude). If you used the tool all day every day, mechanical failure might come first.

All batteries have a lifetime determined by cycles (charge/discharge to full capacity), age (older is worse), and heat. It all comes down to chemistry, and the reversibility (or unreversibility) of chemical changes to the battery. Storing batteries in hot places kills them much faster. Heat can expand battery materials, leading to a leak, and then the electrolyte dries out.

I'd probably find the one that had a decent battery lifetime for the price, and buy that one. A battery that lasts twice as long in years or cycles, but costs twice as much, probably isn't worth it. If it consistently lasts 3 times as long but costs 2x, that might be worth it. Hard to say, honestly, because battery price 3 years from now could be a lot higher. That's the main reason I looked at 3rd-party batteries, because they tend to keep prices down and stay in production.