LOL! I ended up with so many because of a couple of reasons. One is I used to have a side job at Home Depot. Every so often they would discontinue a drill or set of drills to a ridiculously low price that I couldn't pass up. I mean it was worth it to buy it just for the batteries. The 12V Makita Impact Driver I got for $35. It was brand new and used as a display. The only problem was that Home Depot glues the batteries to the display tools. A sharp rap on the counter broke the glue away and it was good as new. I still do carpentry work and like to leave some tools on the truck and some in my garage/shop.
The only Bosch one is the little impact driver all the way on the left. It's a great tool and gets a lot of use. The other two blue ones are Makita, one impact & one drill. The grey one is a Porter-Cable about 10 years old. Still works great and one original battery is still working (that's a battery record for me).
I hate to hijack this thread with long posts about my boat. But the answer is yes, I have tons of photos. I designed and built the entire thing myself with a bit of help from my wife. Of course, I didn't fabricate from scratch obvious items like the radar, engine, propeller, anchor chain, etc. I don't have a lathe, so anything requiring turning and/or machining, like the prop shaft, I farmed out. My wife and I did absolutely everything else including: building the boat shed, boat design, fabrication, welding, painting, and even launching. I designed and built my own hydraulic system which drove a powerful bow thruster (which I also fabricated), a big anchor windlass, a hydraulic driven electric generator, and a high pressure wash down pump. First I had to read a stack of hydraulic design books literally 18 inches high, but the hydraulic system, capable of extracting up to 60hp from the main engine, worked perfectly. Power was a single John Deere 4.5L 130hp turbo diesel which drove the boat at a normal cruise speed of 9.5 knots burning around than 3 gallons per hour. That's WAY better than normal for a 53 foot cruising boat. It was a great live-aboard cruising boat and because of the shoal draft, we explored a lot of places not accessible to most cruisers. Everything on the boat was first class and robust with over sized anchors, both a diesel and a hydraulic gen set, two huge custom freezers, a giant custom refrigerator, big solar panel array on the top, SAT TV, radar, a giant spot light, huge fresh water tanks with a watermaker, fresh water flush electric toilet (no funky smell), shower and bath tub, big stove and oven, home sized sink with garbage disposal, giant battery bank, two dinghies, propane heat, king sized bed, etc. i.e. all the comforts off home. Wives traveling on sailboats with limited everything would always give their husband the stink-eye when they learned about our fresh water and freezer capacity. The tinkle of ice in our rum drinks would echo throughout remote anchorages where some fellow cruisers had not seen ice for many weeks. People begged for invitations to happy hour. I used to say she parties 20, feeds 6, and sleeps 2. In truth, we have feed fancy dinners for up to 10 and there are guest sleeping accommodations for two more in the pilot house, but we tried to keep that fact hidden. It was a sad day when I sold this boat, but some of the money eventually ended up invested in my Ferrari, so it's not all bad.
I have used cordless professionally since they came out. I have tried many but the only thing that goes into my tool truck today is Dewalt. I don't know many pro contractors that use anything else. Try dropping a Makita off the top step of a 8' step ladder some time and let me know how it goes!!!!
Whoa, wouldn't mind taking them for a spin! Nah you're not hijacking anything, thanks for sharing! I was going to ask about a bow thruster, the 72 footer we were on could have used one of those. Took me two tries to dock her one evening in her slip (~4' wider than the boat and ~25' deep) with a stiff crosswind blowing. Also would have been nice to have a rear view camera for backing out but a second pair of eyes on the poop deck did the job. If you've got more pics handy I'd sure like to see them as would others, don't mind at all if you put them in this thread or start a dedicated one. Bravo on fitting a king sized bed Did my first job with the new Boschs yesterday: put a 3x3 window in the previously windowless garage. Today doing a second on the opposite wall. Really nice having the 1/4 impact gun with a phillips head bit to effortlessly drive 2-1/2" screws in the new studs and 2x8s. The drill would have done it too but having both made the job much quicker. After that looking forward to building a workbench or two, then shelves. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Dewalt is my preference too. Came home yesterday with a 20V Like ion drill/impact driver combo to finally replace my old Dewalt 12 V NiCad drill.
Most people overlook what I consider the most important attribute of a cordless tool - the amperage of the battery. So many drills out there are powered by 1.5 amps, not nearly enough for most of my continuous uses anyway. I've had Makita which was ok, and one Ryobi (agree with ilconservatore that battery life is minimal). Just bought a new one and went with Panasonic. Why Panasonic? The 3.3 amp battery and it is a really quality tool.
resurrecting an old thread, because lately my trusty cordless drills have stiff competition for favorite power tool in the arsenal. Picked up an E-Go 56V cordless blower and holy cow... this thing ROCKS. E-Go recently came out with a 2016 model with brushless motor, ~25% bigger battery (2.5A vs 2A) and a ~10% more CFM airflow for $230 and Home Depot cut the price of the still kick ass 2015 model to $150. Sure it's a luxury (my old Toro corded blower worked fine for 5 years) but jeez it's SO nice to just pick up the cordless blower to clear leaves/pine needles/kids toys off the patio, front walk, driveway, sawdusty miter saw, garage, workbench, car after washing it, etc without dragging around a long cord. It's nicely balanced, fairly lightweight and comes with a big honking charger with cooling fan that's wall-mountable. Wish I needed an electric lawnmower, weed wacker or snowblower to share batteries but just having a cordless blower is nice enough. It's basically an electric ducted fan like I have in some RC planes (90mm maybe?) with an electronic speed controller hooked up to the slider lever and "turbo" button. Tempted to tear it apart and check how many watts it's pulling, but am too lazy. The fan looks to be at least 12 blades, so while not as efficient as something like a 5 blader it's much quieter. Seems pretty nicely balanced as well. Highly recommended! EGO 480 CFM 3-Speed Turbo 56-Volt Lithium-ion Cordless Electric Blower-LB4801 - The Home Depot Here's a pretty cool comparison test of the 2015 vs 2016 model. I tried the "beach ball test", and got mine to go about twice as high using the Turbo button [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohiKjxc5ZrU[/ame] Image Unavailable, Please Login
This Canuck does funny and technically detailed tear-downs of tools. Today he uploaded the Rolls-Royce of cordless drills: HILTI [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwX6qLIoj3s[/ame]
Not shilling for Amazon or Bosch, but there's a one day deal on a 4-pack of great Bosch tools today for $285: https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-CLPK420-181-4-Tool-Combo-Blue/dp/B06ZY8RVS5/ref=gbps_img_s-3_1712_dd99e0e8?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=d3152026-148f-4b24-a686-6518d33b1712&pf_rd_s=slot-3&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_i=gb_main&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=RWYN5K45CEDRW6R716HY&tag=kinjadeals-20&ascsubtag=aa3a4840c1f5ae1d6744c7d695fa6860d83d0833&rawdata=%5Br%7Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdeals.kinja.com%2Ftodays-best-deals-bosch-tools-portal-router-star-tre-1797674240%5Bt%7Clink%5Bp%7C1797671556%5Ba%7CB06ZY8RVS5%5Bau%7C5727177402741770316%5Bb%7Cdeals Just the driver and drill cost me nearly $200 and they're worth every penny. The two saws for $85 is an awesome deal. Really tempted to add this bad boy to the arsenal. Would make changing tires a lot quicker and easier on the old back... yeah that's how I'll justify it https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-IWBH182B-Bare-Tool-Brushless-Square/dp/B015XPRUUY/ref=sr_1_5?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1502300955&sr=1-5&keywords=1%2F2%22+bosch+18V