Addicated to power tools

Anyone else addicted to buying power tools?

Before moving house a year ago I hadn't invested in many decent power tools as being in a new house I didn't need to do too many big jobs. But now we have moved into a 1930's house that hasn't been touched in over 40 years I started needing to buy some much better power tools.

A friend of mine has done a lot of building jobs and is now a qualified electrician, and has always been into Makita tools, and I've always wanted an excuse to start buying some decent professional power tools. Researching all the brands/makes I decided Makita was one of the best and so was going to mainly invest in those as I needed them.

Before moving I only had:

Black and Decker cheap cordless drill.
Bosch Jigsaw
Evolution Fury Circular Saw.

Since moving I've been purchasing a lot:

Makita Palm/Detail sander
Makita 18v Cordless drill and impact driver
Makita 18v Cordless Reciprocating saw
Makita Multitool
Titan SDS Plus drill/chisel
Evolution Rage3 Sliding Mitre Saw

And in the garden:

Qualcast self propelling petrol mower
McCullock petrol Strimmer/brush cutter

Is anyone else into their power tools?

The need!

As I said, I was living in a new house before so only needed to do very small DIY jobs like drilling a hole, so no need for investing in expensive tools. But after moving I instantly realised the electric mower and strimmer were not going to be up to tacking the much larger garden so petrol mower and strimmer were needed. So much faster.

I then needed an electric sander as I discovered once stripping the wall paper off I needed to fill cracks, holes and uneven surfaces in the old plaster using Dry Wall jointing compound and sanding that smooth by hand was taking forever, Why didn't I invest in an electric sander earlier! Amazing tool.

My cheap cordless black and decker drill was great when I originally bought it, for what I needed, but the batteries took hours to charge and it wasn't that powerful. Investing in a Makita bundle with a really nice 18v cordless drill and an impact driver with 3 batteries and a 23 minute charger meant I could then buy cheaper future bare Makita tools without batteries. I'd also wanted an electric screwdriver for a long time so I didn't have to keep swapping drill bits and screw driver bits every few seconds. Amazing tools and worth buying pro tools for drills. I don't know how I lived with the cheap one now.

The multitool was something I had wanted for a long time and finally had an excuse to buy one for cutting floorboards, under doors, and skirting etc. Also great for cutting metal. The Makita kit I purchased also came bundled with a load of different blades for various jobs including grout removal. Will come in very handy.

The Titan SDS Plus drill was a departure from Makita due to cost and recommendation. Titan is Screwfix's own brand and they are nice solid tools at a great cheap price. Most of the pro SDS drills started over £100 for a bare drill and no SDS bits. Those costing £20+ in addition. The Titan was only £50 with a lot of bits and chisels. I needed it for chasing out walls for plug sockets and for drilling through a double skin exterior wall for a dryer vent. Great value and a very heavy drill that will go through anything and can also be used to chisel concrete around fence posts and other jobs.

The Mitre saw was a recent purchase as I need to cut mitre corners for picture rails I'm reinstating in the house and also for skirting board corners. It will also be useful for cutting wood flooring I'm going to be laying. I decided on an Evolution saw again because their blades cut through wood, metal and plastic and are good value for money compared to other makes. It also has some great features for the price, including a laser line guide for lining up the cuts.

And finally I just purchased the reciprocating Makita saw as it uses the same batteries I already have, as I need to cut down a lot of small trees and trim branches in the woods and garden, and a chainsaw is too big and overkill for this. Will also be good for cutting logs for the wood burner and kindling. Arriving tomorrow! :)

0 interest for me, always has been, always will be, I'm more the tech guy.

I enjoy both. I enjoy working on the house as much as building a pc. I would however state I only enjoy doing it on my own house as I know the work and finish will be to my satisfaction. I wouldn't want to be a builder or other tradesman for a job. Would much rather build computers and design stuff.

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I don't have much in the way of power tools. I do have an inexpensive cordless drill which works fine for my occasional use. I also have an electric sander which I haven't used in a long time.

I do agree that the higher quality tools are much better, but that's probably more applicable if you are using them a lot, rather than just occasionally.

How are you getting on with the self-propelled lawn mower? At our old house, we had a big petrol lawn mower, which you had to push yourself. It was quite difficult, but no big deal. I recently started using my grandfather's self propelled mower, and it took a lot of getting used to. It was the other way round to our old one; it pulled me along. I got the hang of it after a few goes though.

I use an electric mower here, but we only have a little bit of grass.

I use power tools professionally of course, and having access to those means I've never bought any of my own. Makita is a good brand, many professionals use it and I've used them myself earlier. Good choice. :)

The company I work for buys mostly Festool. These are great tools that are probably way too expensive for the layman, especially for hobbyists. These are tools that will run for thousands and thousands of hours without needing servicing and still work fine. We use our cordless drills all the time, and the last one I had lasted seven years before I needed a new one. Never even needed to get new batteries for it. It also comes with several special chucks, which you can quickly change around with a quick-lock mechanism which means you just pull them right off and click another one on just like that. There's the regular chuck, there's an off-center one for screwing straight inside a corner, there's a 90 degree angled one that let's you get inside tight spaces. I use these all the time, would never want to be without this tool.

Our hammer drills are Hilti. Always. They're bulky and heavy which I don't really like, but they are extremely powerful and will drill holes in concrete as quick as anything. They also last forever, they in fact come with a 15 year factory warranty. I'm glad we get them because we do a lot of drilling in concrete. Some weaker tool or even just a regular drill with a hammer function would be a nightmare for us to use.

We also use Festool for cutting saws which come with a ruler the saw slides on giving you absolutely straight cuts. We need to do that a lot as well so these are brilliant for us. We also use Festool vacuum cleaners to keep our workplaces neat and tidy and these slot on to most other Festool tools so they catch most of the dust from them.

For miter saws we mostly use DeWalt. Which I don't like. They're just not that accurate and will be half a millimetre off or half a degree off when cutting angles. They also fall apart fast, their dust catching system always breaks and isn't very effective anyway. Why we still use them I don't know. Wish we had Festool there as well but they are much more exspensive.

Aye, I guess boys will be boys when it comes to their toys. :yesyes:

I built a small Kitchen Extension & re-built my rear outside sheds adjacent to the extended kitchen. Plant tools were hired where needed & I even managed to borrow an electric Cement mixer from as friend, but two choice buys were an 18V Makita Drill (What a Tool) a Metabo Table Top Chop Saw (Priceless)
Without either of them, I could not have dry lined everything I did as quickly as I did.....
Aside from the time saved factor, it was almost effortless. That Makita Drill put a 25mm Stub Roto-broach cutter through 6" x 2" Tanalised Timber 96 times on the same Battery to make breather holes through the Flat Kitchen roofs Noggins. I was truly gob-smacked. :o

However, I am sensible to the point of having the right tool for the job, but making do if it's a one off. My 240v Metabo Hammer Drill is now 20 years old. Expensive @ the time for £125 but good tools last. When it comes down to buying a Good Power Tool, consider the Motor Quality & gearbox Quality if applicable. More Cost usually means Better Quality. :thumbs:

Industrial Tools were always Hilti back in the days when I was on a site. As Teho mentions, they are bulky & Heavy but the gearboxes in those things are almost Bomb Proof. They use a Quick release mechanism called SDS which smokes conventional Chucks that require a key. When you're up to your neck in mud & freezing cold, the last thing you want to be trying to do is fumble with a chuck key to swap bits around. Pull the collar back, pull out the tool bit & insert another so you're good to go. Switch from Drilling to a Chisel Tool with Hilti meaning one tool in the hole you're in & not two.

I dare say there might be other modern runners with Hilti these days, but I've not had any site work as such in over 20 years now, yet most of the tool hire companies round here still appear to to like Hilti.

Anyhow Harrison, I'd say you are a proper Power Tool Addict if you gotta come in here & brag about it. :p :lol:

I agree with the SDS drills. I'd never owned one before and the old style drill chucks are a nightmare. Thankfully most these days are toolless chucks but the bits still loosen during use.

The cheap Titan heavy duty drill I purchased is an SDS Plus drill and I love how easy it is to change bits. The design with the grooves in the bits also means you have none of the issues with bits getting loose in the chuck or being off centre.

Mine also came the a chuck converter so I can use conventional bits if needed.

Only downside of the Titan is it's 5KG weight, but that works well for chisel or heavy drilling work as the weight behind it helps .

I might eventually also get a lighter cordless Makita 2KG SDS+ drill for when I'm up ladders etc.

@Teho. These drills sound great with the different chuck configurations. Having a 90 degree angle one would definitely be useful for under floorboards between joists. I might just grab a cordless Makita 90 degree drill if needed.

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I've also noticed the make Milwalkee has started getting good reviews and ratings recently.

One make I won't touch is DeWalt. I see quite a few tradesmen using their cordless drills but the build quality doesn't seem great and I recently read manufacturing moved from the USA to Mexico, which might explain a few things.

Now when I have to go into B&Q, Homebase etc I see their range and think how cheap and rubbish it all looks. Wouldn't touch anything like Black and Decker now, or even Bosch. And stores these days try to rip off customers by branding their own make cheap tools. B&Q and homebase now have direct partnership with Ryobi for example and if you ask a staff member they also try to steer you towards them. Marketed as professional tools at affordable prices. Yeah right. They also have own brand B&Q called Performance Power Pro tool. They are complete rubbish unbranded Chinese made and you can expect them to last for one job.

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Harrison. Our Resident Tim Allen. More Power. Ugh ugh ugh ugh.

Heh, Black & Decker. Here it is often called Blakk & Drekker. Which means Broke & Drinkin'. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buleste

Harrison. Our Resident Tim Allen. More Power. Ugh ugh ugh ugh.

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Initially, I was bent towards Jeremy Clarkson - "More Power"....

But then again, perhaps more like a Tommy Walsh :lol: http://www.nmplive.co.uk/tommy-walsh


Maybe we should start calling Harrison "Bob" for short. :D