meathead":390x7rtm said:
also the kity when started up the lights in the workshop would fail because the draw of energy, and say for example the dewalt 745 as a more powerful motor than the kity so guess i would be better off going cordless
I'm slowly adding 16A power inlets to my machines as I refurbish them. Presently that's the P/T, the airless sprayer and the MIG set. On the to-do list are my 240-110V site transformer (for the chop and rail saws), the DX, the table saw, the router table*, and the fan heater (it's that time of year!).
Obviously, I have a 16A circuit available, and long ago went over to using 16A extension leads as much as practical. The three big advantages are:
1. you don't have a string of poor plug-socket pairs and fuses in the circuit, just one breaker.
2. 16A copes fine with the inrush current. The quality of welds from my MIG set improved dramatically, incidentally.
3. For the units that have them fitted, proper inlets are great (rather than just a plug on the cable), because you don't trip over the power cable when moving/carrying awkward things around the workshop.
You can always have 16A-to-13A tails if you need them. I have them for my 16A long extension cable, which is on a high-quality drum, and made of heavier cable than is usual. It's also set up "back-to-front", so that the inlet is on the drum. That stays next to the mains outlet (with a 13A plug to 16A socket short tail), so up a ladder I've only got the power tool and a single 13A trailing socket - safer and easier.
It's also something I learned from broadcasting decades ago: when it comes to the de-rig, cable drums with winders win hands-down, and keep the drum next to the socket(s). If you have, say, fifty mic cables to stow, you can clear an orchestral rig in around 5-10 minutes, compared to 30+ if you're coiling each cable individually. Drums, used properly, also place less stress on cables and connectors, so they last longer. So a proper drum, with some leather rigger's gloves, stows the mains extension usually in seconds.
And since we want to save the planet, I'd also mention that cordless kit is about as "green" as a bright red thing, incidentally. Battery packs have a limited life, are hard to recycle, poisonous if not correctly disposed of, and the energy use is not efficient (waste in the charger, waste in use, waste in the dust-to-dust cost of the system). I love my 10.8V hand tools, but they have a specific purpose. - going where corded kit can't easily get. For any other given task, a corded power tool (at mains voltage) ought to be more efficient.
E.
*not for the extra current, but because it already has a nice 13A plug-in-line NVR box, so that's a fuse duplicated on a ring circuit.
