On 7/20/2016 10:22 AM, The Voice wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:45:33 -0700, Rudy Canoza
wrote:

On 7/19/2016 4:35 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:
Fab Shop magazine just published an article on the state of the art in
cordless tools:

http://magazine.fsmdirect.com/2016/july/d/#page7

RCM members should find it interesting. (How about a 2,500-Watt,
battery-powered, 9-inch angle-head grinder?)

Good stuff, good article.

I don't do enough work using power tools to justify buying new cordless
tools to replaced my corded ones. I have a drill, a circular saw, a
jigsaw and an orbital sander, all corded. I have given some thought to
replacing the drill, the tool I use most often, but the use is still
seldom enough that I can't quite justify it.

In your view, are the brands typically available at, say, Home Depot all
of roughly comparable quality? Off the top of my head, I recall seeing
DeWalt, Milwaukee, Makita, Ryobi, possibly Black & Decker; I imagine
there are some others I'm not remembering. I'm sure the vast majority
of them are manufactured in China, regardless of the national domicile
of the brands.

I've been using cordless tools for something like 30 years, beginning
with one of the original Makita 6 volt drills. Indispensable. Mostly
I've had Makita and Dewalt stuff. But I've given up on buying
expensive models. The last straw was when a Makita battery electronics
failed, forcing me to charge it manually with a power supply. A
replacement battery cost as much as a Ryobi drill/ battery/charger, so
I switched to Ryobi a few years ago. I have 5 chargers, 11 batteries,
and 9 tools. Mostly purchased as combo sets on sale, which means I
ended up with extra drills that I gave away. Surprising even myself
(an admitted tool maven), all those tools, batteries and chargers were
occasionally in use at the same time with 3 of us working. A friend
(large professional shop) has a similar setup, but perhaps three times
as much stuff. Sometimes he has a dozen people working. We agree, none
of these tools owes us anything, and we wouldn't lose a minute's sleep
if any of them expired. My friend (longer history with Ryobi) has had
a few failures. I've had none, but another friend had a side grinder
die recently. It always ran hot though, probably a defective brush
holder. Bottom line, the Royobi cordless tools are the best value for
this amateur and at least one professional.

Thanks for the tip. By-the-by, I would not have guessed that cordless
drills (or other serious cordless tools) had been around that long. I'm
not sure when I first became aware of them - maybe in the 1990s when I
saw my younger brother using them.