Way back in '81 or so, the neighbor was showing off his new Makita 'stick' cordless drill. Even with NiCad batteries it was amazing. I was doing more and more work on cars, and having such a tool without a cord was quite welcome. I wanted to get more over the years, but with the P-Car, I went with compressed air, mostly to run a beastie impact and a floor jack.

Eventually, starting going the the higher-voltage (18vdc) Milwaukee stuff, and haven't looked back I've got over a dozen now, and the only one to give me any trouble was their version of the Dremel tool, which was just dead out of the box. The drills, grinder, impact and saw all work great, but I probably get more time with this little devil:

https://i.imgur.com/u6BayUo.png

It's a small inverter, and will provide USB voltage in both styles, plus a nice 120VAC outlet. Granted, it won't run any motorized device for hours on end, but it does a fine job when an outlet or extension cord isn't available. Can't see it in the pic, but there's a swing out hook for hanging it on a rafter. Kewl!

Me too....

Long ways back (early 90's) I had Makita cordless drills that I used for driving screws. I always used air powered impacts and ratchets for nuts and bolts along with an old used big snap-on cordless impact driver for my race car lugs at the track.
For drilling I had a 1/2" corded Milwaukee which I still have. About 5 years ago I decided to build a lean-to on my shop and decided I needed to modernize with a decent cordless drill and impact.

Ended up picking a up a Dewalt drill and driver combo with large batteries that was on sale at a local home improvement store..... OMG these things are great!!!!!
I built my whole 12' x 56' lean-to over several weeks of part time work using the driver for all screws and never had to recharge the two battery packs that came in my package. :eek:

In the 5 or so years I have had these 2 Dewalt cordless tools, I have probably only charged the batteries maybe 5 times and I use both the drill and driver for every DIY project I work on.

I am sure other brands work great too nowdays. I wish I had not waited so long, but I never liked the cordless stuff I owned from the 90's and early 2000's due to poor battery life and poor performance. I was firmly in the corded tool camp.... Not any more when it comes to small power tools.

You can simply pick up a tool and tell if the balance and fit feels "right".

Most of the cordless tools pass that test fairly well as I see it. The little things like the placement of the reversing switch can make the difference.

At this point I could get by with a HF better driver. Not the cheapy. The problem is battery interchangeability. I see now that there are adapters to use one battery with another tool. Most are +-$15.

So there is no reason I can't buy a deWalt next time I need a cordless tool and the Makita isn't the one I want. Of course I would buy the kit rather than tool only.
I do see a lot of tool only units for sale and I thought no deal because buying the charger and battery costs almost what a new kit costs. Now that is not so much an issue.

same

I imagine most brands have this now but one thing i like about my dewalt stuff is i can use the small, thin battery for the drill most of the time and use the bigger batteries on stuff like the impact and trimmer. Love the battery charge light on the front as well.

That really does look cool and would make virtually anything "cordless" for at least a little while. But I have to chuckle at the "grounded" outlet. I assume that's just an empty slot for that third prong?

Looks like you are correct; the outlet tester says 'open ground.'

https://i.imgur.com/FvS2W6S.png

I've used it most often with USB cords to charge cell phone, headphones, etc. The 120V receptacle and larger-size battery will fully charge an otherwise dead laptop.

Finally, in the quiet of my den, I could hear a small whirring sound when the 120V receptacle was switched on, and sure enough, there's a tiny cooling fan and vent slots on the sides.

I just picked up a DeWalt 20V 1/2" hammer drill and an 8ah battery for my ice fishing auger.
Pretty sure I can drill a 9" deep hole in around 1 second. I can see this having more power than my 1/2" Makita corded hammer drill.

I just received a email sale ad from Rigid as I am a registered owner . If ordered via online the promotion for the 1300 ft lb impact , two 4.0 ah batteries and a charger for $199.00 .

At that price I may have to pull the trigger . That would get me to two chargers , four 4.0 batteries and two 2.0 batteries . And all covered by lifetime service warranty including the batteries .

I have the big dewalt impact driver but by far the most useful tool is the mini one meant for putting screws in the wall. You can whizz just about any nut or bolt off in seconds with that and with much less risk of breaking anything. Such a time saver.

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I'll still buy Makita although it rates badly. It's kind of like changing banks. You know you should but you don't.

Have you ever seen the "Friends" clip showing Monica getting spun around by a floor polisher? That'd be me with an ice auger!

Where's the girl in the thumbnail ?

I own all the Makita LXT 18V impacts. That 1/2" is an animal.

rjp

I bought this one in 2008.

It works like a champ. Still using the two original batteries it came with. They amazingly hold a charge like the day I got it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1708621812.jpg

I dee what you did there.

You caught me 😁