Which cordless system are you going with..if any?

[Caldosan]

.

 

[hairy]

A friend of mine has a huge amount of Einhell cordlees tools, mainly because he used to live near the factory shop I think near Munich, 50% off kind of thing. That includes a push bike which uses the same batteries. Not top quality but works well for the price.

 

[Lonsdale73]

At one point, I owned a number of tools tools by Ryobi, supplemented by options from Erbauer, Makita and Festool, each of which required their own bespoke batteries and chargers (except Makita which had two different battery types!). I owned something like nine Ryobi batteries and three or four chargers but they were terrible for holding a charge. When I bought the DeWalt Flexvolt Tablesaw I decided to standardise on the DeWalt XR range. Parting with my Festool drill was a wrench but that bought two Dewalt drills, an impact driver and a selection of batteries from 2a the 5a; plus they'll run of the 6a Flexvolt batteries. I still have one compact Makita used mostly as a driver of screws into wood and I do have their DAB radio which I run off the mains. My Dewalt range has been supplemented by a jigsaw (probably weakest and least used in the line up), planer, angle-grinder, multitool, palm router and track saw; the latter cuts better than the Festool TS55 I used to have.

 

[Woodchip Wilbur]

I, too, am mainly Makita - but I have others, for example, Ryobi brad nail gun. But that is adapted (Badaptor) to take a Makita battery. I don't know how well other combinations work - but the Makita to Ryobi one is near seamless.

 

[xLrc]

I'm mainly a dewalt user: drill, impact driver, multitool, jigsaw, circular saw, job-site table saw. Can usually get 2x5A batteries on Powertoolmate so its a decent ecosystem to be on.

 

[Stevebod]

Hi all and thanks for all the replies.
Probably not of interest to most on this forum, but I was looking at cordless polishers (ie for cars). Noted that the Aldi Ferrex one (£30) is almost identical to the Worx one (£60)?....just wondering if the batteries are interchangeable as well?

 

[houtslager]

Hi all, just to add my sixpence worth to this conversation. I tarted out like most here - DW 12v syetem - had the trim saw,drill , driver , right angle drill, grinder and jigsaw. thet all got nicked out of my shop , LOL just as the batteries were dying, so weren'tthat great a steal. Stepped over to the purple blues tooling - otherwise known as Makita 14.4v as 18v were being nicked overall but these got stolen so I stepped up to the Makita 18v and had a similar set up to the DW. After a year these were nicked out of the boot of the car despite being hidden . Now a ryobi 18+ user as I had the old blue ones whilst working in the USA. Pretty good tooling for the price, fantastic range from woodworking ,metal working and gardening [ not that I do any ]
Increased my cordless tooling to finish nailer, auxilery powerbank, jigsaw, recip saw, trimsaw, impact driver - which are the quietest on the market, handy when doing early morning work , drill , sds drill , biggest bugbear, is the Ryobi EU will NOT honor their garantee as "pro-users" are NOT covered
Hope this helps someone.
Karl

 

[nickds1]

Bentley is owned by Volkswagen. Who ultimately owns the brand is a rather pointless thing to think about.

Disagree completely. Corporate culture trickles down and in some cases is enforced.

I'm not a huge fan of B&D these days - the fact they're the owner is an observation, make of it what you will...

 

[Auldfart2010]

Makita LXT angle grinder and recipricating saw. Einhell cordlees drill, jig saw, srimmer and long reach garden set. I'm very happy with both systems.

 

[hairy]

Bentley is owned by Volkswagen. Who ultimately owns the brand is a rather pointless thing to think about.

I haven't bought a Bentley since VW bought it.

 

[Oaktree11]

I have several Hitachi drills, drivers and a circular saw. They are now Hikoki. The drills have been flawless apart from the chucks which are vastly inferior to my one Festool drill and the saw, though rarely used is excellent. If I do eventually change platform it will probably be to Makita because I like the brand and the vast range that they do. Hitachi is very limited in their range.
john

 

[Dabop]

I run Dewalt myself (from my old tradie days- Bosch, Milwaukee and Dewalt were the 'goto' brands for heavy industrial level users here in Oz)

Initially bought a couple of their drills to try out and stuck with them ever since, I bought the 'tradie pack' about 2008??? the big 10 piece one that basically has everything in it

(a previous poster said their radio ran off the battery- mines got a charger built into it- yeah it can run off the battery but should mains be available, it also charges them lol)
It came with 2 fast chargers, the one in the radio and the 'normal' desktop one, and 2 batteries, I have expanded that out from the original 2 (long since gone) and I now have 6 (all aftermarket) ones

Shame they went to the '20v' slideon packs, I noticed that the tradies actively seem to be avoiding them and buy the bare '18v' tools instead to retain single battery compatibility- maybe a newbie might go the '20v' route, but older guys with existing gear tend to try and stick with the same one

(madness- especially as the '18v' plugin and '20v' slideons are actually exactly the same number of cells inside so there is no 'power' difference between the two ranges and indeed you can buy adapters that allow older tools to use the newer battery case or vice versa- but it annoyed the hell out of their biggest market.... crazy)

 

[Chunkytfg]

Makita Cordless user here.

Got a pretty extensive 18V collection including a twin 18V lawnmower. Recently picked up the 18V trim router along with a plunge base and Other than when I'm template routing my corded 1/2'' Erbauer one hasn't even been considered for use! How I ever managed without it before I dont know!!

I also use the 12V CXT Makita stuff owning the Drill, impact driver, multitool and SDS drill. The little SDS drill is fantastic. For repeated small holes into masonry it is far better than a larger drill as it's perfectly powerful and light enough to easily use single handedly up a ladder.

I've been eyeing up the 40V range recently as I'm in need of a new Mitre saw. The 36V version is just enormous so thats out of the question but the 40V version looks really great I just cant decide if I want that one or the Festool Kapex

 

[Doug71]

I have used Makita for years, always been happy with it. Have heard a few people moan about the Makita multi tool but they have just released a new one which is meant to be very good.

I think there isn't much between the brands these days, just try to work out who does the best versions of the tools that you want, for example DeWalt seem to do the most popular nail guns.

I recently got one of the Badaptors so I could use a Ryobi nail gun with my Makita batteries, seems to work well.

I've been eyeing up the 40V range recently as I'm in need of a new Mitre saw. The 36V version is just enormous so thats out of the question but the 40V version looks really great I just cant decide if I want that one or the Festool Kapex

Obviously you need both!

I am a bit miffed about the 40v Makita stuff, I have a Kapex but need something more portable to complement it. I would definitely get the new Makita saw if it took 2x18v batteries but won't be paying the extra to join the 40v platform for just that one tool.

 

[Chunkytfg]

Obviously you need both!

I am a bit miffed about the 40v Makita stuff, I have a Kapex but need something more portable to complement it. I would definitely get the new Makita saw if it took 2x18v batteries but won't be paying the extra to join the 40v platform for just that one tool.

Haha I wish! I dont do any work on site other than assembling the things I've made at the workshop so I really don't need the cordless function of the 40V system but I also am not sure I can bring myself to have to plug the kapex into an extension lead all the time I need it as it generally gets used on a stand wheeled outside the workshop.

Its a difficult choice especially when the Kapex is cheaper than the Makita (Ha!! when has Festool ever been the cheaper option!!!)

 

[glenfield2]

Ryobi jigsaw and nail gun (which was promptly replaced when it went wrong). I’d get a matching drill but my faithful 20v Lidl drill just soldiers on after three years of heavy use drilling wood and steel during boat building. The batteries are holding charge too. I put my hand on a replacement in Lidl the other day but put it back - it would be like getting a replacement dog while the faithful old hound is still there.

 

[Krome10]

Hi all, just to add my sixpence worth to this conversation. I tarted out like most here - DW 12v syetem - had the trim saw,drill , driver , right angle drill, grinder and jigsaw. thet all got nicked out of my shop , LOL just as the batteries were dying, so weren'tthat great a steal. Stepped over to the purple blues tooling - otherwise known as Makita 14.4v as 18v were being nicked overall but these got stolen so I stepped up to the Makita 18v and had a similar set up to the DW. After a year these were nicked out of the boot of the car despite being hidden . Now a ryobi 18+ user as I had the old blue ones whilst working in the USA. Pretty good tooling for the price, fantastic range from woodworking ,metal working and gardening [ not that I do any ]

Crikey - are you just really unlucky? Or do you live in some kind of gangland?

 

[Sideways]

I'm a best tool for the job guy. Fein cordless multitool because it's the quietest, their big 4 speed drill too because it has a crazy high top speed which is good for pilot holes into steel, but Fein desperately need to step up to the next gen 18V lithium batteries.
Bosch cordless combi drill driver because it has hammer, "freak" impact driver because it takes both sockets and hex bits, is super ergonomic and has choice of 3 impact settings, brushless angle grinder is just awesome and a cordless circ because it came free and is actually v decent. Bosch ProCore batteries in 4Ah size are top notch. so you get useful power in a compact light pack.
I do/have owned and like Elu, bosch,, metabo, festool and mirka corded tools. Corded gear will last for decades. It is far better value than cordless. I wish more corded tools were available with brushless motors.
Of the big 3, I dislike Stanley / Black & Decker / DeWalt so avoid except for a few good accessories (their toughboxes, mitre and other mobile saw stands are solid). Milwaukee are impressively tough and popular with local trades people. Makita have a huge but confusing range and with odd exceptions, rarely seem to be best in class.
Japan makes some excellent tools including Hitachi / Hikoki and the the better Panasonic drills and impacts.
Trumpf (Switzerland) make very premium metal prep tools and I think use the Makita battery platform as do Cebora for cordless crimp tools.
Hilti are also very nice but more about concrete than woodworking tools. They also need to update their battery tech.
Mafell are very nice with a price to match. At least some of their cordless kit is made by / in collaboration with Metabo. No problem with this as Metabo battery tech is one of the very best.

Don't get too wedded to a single brand. There are a number of very niche tools that one day may be exactly what you need, and you may well be persuaded to take on a second or third brand because of this.

 

[seanf]

I’m fairly new to woodworking, but a keen DIYer for many years. I originally just bought cheap corded tools from the Aldi Workzone range and they really did well to get me started. I then moved to their Ferrex cordless tools, but was not overly impressed. The multitool failed on first use and took about three months of hassle to get a replacement from the manufacturer. After this I stuck all of the Ferrex stuff on eBay, sold at quite a nice profit and used the money to invest in Makita's 18v range. They are fantastic tools, fairly reasonably priced and bonus I love the colour! I purchased Makpacs and kaizen foam to make my own inserts and can easily grab what I need and transport to family when helping them out etc.

Sean

 

[houtslager]

Crikey - are you just really unlucky? Or do you live in some kind of gangland?

working in Amsterdam when the last 2 happened the dewalts got nicked out of my workshop in Chipping Norton - bleeding sparky left the door unlocked whole having lunch