Power tools

[jansman]

Came home this afternoon to a downed curtain rail,damaged door handle and a broken drawer. All in the back bedroom.I can tell daughter is back!That's the Dad Rant over!

So it had to be fixed.Now,I see prepping as more than just having a stash of grub and batteries.It's ( for me) being as self- reliant as possible.And not just in a post apocalyptic scenario either.So today,like most days,the power tools came out.I love power tools,they save so much effort.I used to use Bosch,but frankly,I came to the conclusion that as a brand,it's Shi£e.Not durable enough. I migrated to DeWalt. My Go To tools are my cordless drill and impact driver. On top of that my chainsaws.Now,I have a Stihl petrol job.Great kit for off site or big jobs.However,I tend to use my cheap Screwfix Titan electric job,just to keep on top of the bits and bobs that come my way.

I have numerous other power tools,but the above are my most- used .Do you have favourite power tools?

[Stonecarver]

DeWalt through and through

[Yorkshire Andy]

Came home this afternoon to a downed curtain rail,damaged door handle and a broken drawer. All in the back bedroom.I can tell daughter is back!That's the Dad Rant over!

So it had to be fixed.Now,I see prepping as more than just having a stash of grub and batteries.It's ( for me) being as self- reliant as possible.And not just in a post apocalyptic scenario either.So today,like most days,the power tools came out.I love power tools,they save so much effort.I used to use Bosch,but frankly,I came to the conclusion that as a brand,it's Shi£e.Not durable enough. I migrated to DeWalt. My Go To tools are my cordless drill and impact driver. On top of that my chainsaws.Now,I have a Stihl petrol job.Great kit for off site or big jobs.However,I tend to use my cheap Screwfix Titan electric job,just to keep on top of the bits and bobs that come my way.

I have numerous other power tools,but the above are my most- used .Do you have favourite power tools?

Bosch used to be good in the late 80s by the end of the 90s it had split into green (DIY grade) Bosch and blue (industrial)

Makita also used to be blooming brilliant but come around to about 2010 the quality just vanished... Their old grinders run forever dad replaced one with a new one and it lasted probably half an hour before the armature went in the late 90's I worked as a Saturday lad in a independent tool shop....

We used to get proper tradesmen in what drill driver would you recommend.. they used to be given a 7mm maisonary drill and I'd take them into the box room in the back with a selection of drills and they'd have a go... Nearly everyone after that chose DeWalt the hammer action was the best then until Bosch launched the gbh24 monster SDS drill

Hilti is expensive but very good

Metabo overpriced pish (we have a almost full set at work in the past month I've killed the high torque blacksmith drill (handle snapped off in use) an half inch impact wrench which removed 8 bolts before it burnt out and the torque selector drop off a combi drill) oh and the torch just stopped working

I've a few Lidl tools for the money you can't grumble burnt out a sds hammer drill stripping a large hot poured tar fiat roof at my dad's took it back with reciept and instant refund had about 2sq ft left and it started stinking


My black friday £65 DeWalt 18v drill driver has had some real hammer and still runs sweetly...


Then onto bits

Joran and dorma are my go to drills not cheap but they work...

Driver bits geodore not cheap but you know the score


Hand tools I've got 3x Britool socket sets 1/4 3/8 and 1/2 inch when it comes to cars there's enough to do most jobs the 1/4 has screwdriver bits including torx and a driver handle... The 1/2 goes upto 36mm enough for the hub nuts on most cars

[The Green Man]

Many years ago we always used Makita power tools at work, it was heavy duty work removing fireplaces & installing new ones.
We noticed that over the years the Makita stuff gradually became poor quality, we moved over to Hitachi towards the end but generally most things aren’t as good quality as they used to be.
This is noticeable in the heating industry with boilers, a lot of components are now made from plastic which fail frequently, so much so that many parts are now being “upgraded” to brass and metal! (like they used to be made from!)
I have some 40 year old Abu Garcia fishing reels that are made entirely from metal components (internally) they are bomb proof and are still going strong today, the modern equivalents are often made in such a way that they cannot be opened to be serviced as they are all plastic.
Back on topic with power tools, I only have them for DIY jobs now, but I only use DeWalt stuff.

[jansman]

Many years ago we always used Makita power tools at work, it was heavy duty work removing fireplaces & installing new ones.
We noticed that over the years the Makita stuff gradually became poor quality, we moved over to Hitachi towards the end but generally most things aren’t as good quality as they used to be.
This is noticeable in the heating industry with boilers, a lot of components are now made from plastic which fail frequently, so much so that many parts are now being “upgraded” to brass and metal! (like they used to be made from!)
I have some 40 year old Abu Garcia fishing reels that are made entirely from metal components (internally) they are bomb proof and are still going strong today, the modern equivalents are often made in such a way that they cannot be opened to be serviced as they are all plastic.
Back on topic with power tools, I only have them for DIY jobs now, but I only use DeWalt stuff.

I also have an Abu reel. One of the original closed face ones. It looks a little dated, but it knocks spots off of anything else for trotting a stick float on the river. Also very interesting what you say about heating components going back to brass!

[The Green Man]

I also have an Abu reel. One of the original closed face ones. It looks a little dated, but it knocks spots off of anything else for trotting a stick float on the river. Also very interesting what you say about heating components going back to brass!

Great reels, built to last.
With regards to boiler parts, the plastic components are perfectly fine when the appliance is new, after a few years of use some of these components develop hairline fractures resulting in leaks and sometimes serious damage if they aren’t spotted in time.
You tend to find the replacements are made from a different material as the manufacturer’s realise their mistakes, it’s just another example of false economy, cutting corners ends up costing the manufacturer more money in the end these parts fail under warranty and the cost of replacing them becomes expensive as it requires an engineer visit.

Power tools, appliances & general hardware suffer the same, it’s a race to the bottom to compete with cheaply manufactured products, Joe public generally don’t care as it’s a throw away society.

[jansman]

I also have an Abu reel. One of the original closed face ones. It looks a little dated, but it knocks spots off of anything else for trotting a stick float on the river. Also very interesting what you say about heating components going back to brass!

Great reels, built to last.
With regards to boiler parts, the plastic components are perfectly fine when the appliance is new, after a few years of use some of these components develop hairline fractures resulting in leaks and sometimes serious damage if they aren’t spotted in time.
You tend to find the replacements are made from a different material as the manufacturer’s realise their mistakes, it’s just another example of false economy, cutting corners ends up costing the manufacturer more money in the end these parts fail under warranty and the cost of replacing them becomes expensive as it requires an engineer visit.

Power tools, appliances & general hardware suffer the same, it’s a race to the bottom to compete with cheaply manufactured products, Joe public generally don’t care as it’s a throw away society.

It is a race to the bottom isn’t it? I am getting to the point where I spend on quality now.

[peejay]

I have a growing inventory of Ryobi One+ tools as I like having a single battery model fitting all my tools. not had any issues with them so far after a few years (though the small hand-held vacuum is pretty crap but TBF I think all of these little vacs are anyway).

[Yorkshire Andy]

I'll add my mig welder + associated bits the magic automatic welding mask is a god send

It has now 100% X2 plus interest paid for itself bought it 5 years or so ago to sort out a not failure garage quoted £500 to weld the floor pan welder cost me about £250 and £90 for the gas bottle deposit + fill



The wife's car is coming up for MOT she got the 6 months extension by a day! But it's 15 years old so is getting a bit tired on the bodywork front noticed last year one of the sills was bubbling well today I gave it a pre mot look over (pre as in before I book it in "early" 6 month extension expires between Christmas and New year so I'm not doing that....

Sill today gave under my firm finger pressure at the rusty area so bit more force it went through so had to do more grinding and cutting to find good metal.. so yeh the ability to stick bits of metal together is a handy bit of kit to have

[grenfell]

I've worked with several makes over the years and broadly agree that power tools were probably better in the past. Bosch , Makita and Dewalt have all seen a bit of a drop in quality . Saying that i still have power tools from all of them . My dewalt cordless drill i still use on an almost daily basis is now 15 years old , a 14.4v with ni-cads. My dewalt sds drill is newer but now won't go in reverse and doesn't hold the bits as well. I also have dewalt planer and 1\2" router which are great. I have other drills from bosch and several old black and decker ones that are all still working. I have an old Wolf drill that looks more like a prop from a Flash Gordon film but that too is going strong. I have makita sanders and an angle grinder and sthil for petrol powered tools. My oldest sthil combi is 15 years old and has recently been looked at and declared uneconomical to repair. It needs a new pot and piston set and i'm in two minds about what to do with it. The guy who looked at it priced it up and it's around £90 in OM parts but did say that i could probably find a Chinese knock off far cheaper and do thejob myself.
Then i have some of the cheap supermarket tools , the reciprocating saw i brought from aldi ages ago still keeps working. I recently brough the 9" angle grinder from lidl and also succumbed to temptation and brought the chain sharpener.