The Power Tools Thread

[leviathan]

Oh, and another minor thing - it looks like it has battery charging built in. It has contacts for all 4 battery terminals like the charger does, not just the 2 for +/- like both my other tools, and it seems there are flat contacts built into the "rails" that it attaches to the wall mount with. The wall mount however is just a piece of plastic. I assume there will be a "charging" wall mount accessory available at some point. For now, I have to swap the batteries like in the other tools and charge them separately.

So yeah, I saw this back when I got the stick vacuum, but never bothered to look into it further - charging the batteries externally was fine for the time being. However, now I've rearranged some stuff in the apartment, and the vacuum now lives in the kitchen, while the other tools and the charger are in another room, so I've looked into it again.

Apparently this is called "Ryobi Evercharge", and they offer the wall charger in North American markets, but not in the EU. This is a bit annoying, especially since it's not the first thing of theirs that I can't get because of this - the P3100 hybrid soldering station is also only available stateside, and even if imported, would be useless here since it apparently only runs on 110V:

So now I'm thinking what to do about it The Evercharge wall mount thing may even be DIY-able, possibly, if it's just a DC PSU with some rails providing power and the vacuum charges itself - need to further research that. Or at least it for sure it importable, since it looks like it takes DC power from the wall plug, and that can definitely be DIY swapped for a local 230V-compatible one.

 

[Matt2000]

Only selling things like that in the US is dumb. I found someone selling an Evercharge station on eBay and the stupid wall wart is indeed ~120V only and 60Hz only (you can just about read it on the sticker), but it's 18V output and only 7W so you can just cut the wart off and replace it with a 230V version.

That particular one might be a good way to get a cheap station to modify. If you're buying an 18V DC power supply, may as well get one for the soldering station and just run that from DC power. Looks like a decent soldering station.

 

[eizbaer]

Just for some fun and because it fits so nicely in here: I can't for the life of me remember where I got the info from, but there are rumors about a 2x40V makita battery powered microwave coming in 2022

 

[jack_christie]

This wall chaser is good:

(almost a hilti add)

But this three blade wall chaser is a beast:

That first channel sometimes reviews, and have separate tool channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/Tools4Sparks/videos

 

[Perc]

Just for some fun and because it fits so nicely in here: I can't for the life of me remember where I got the info from, but there are rumors about a 2x40V makita battery powered microwave coming in 2022

What job site doesn't have access to electricity?

I googled "makita microwave" and found an old april fools joke.

 

[GRtak]

What job site doesn't have access to electricity?

All sorts of job sites don't have power at the start. That is part of the reason there are power inverters built into trucks these days.

 

[gaasc]

What job site doesn't have access to electricity?

I googled "makita microwave" and found an old april fools joke.

View attachment 3563688

For real though let me have one of those so I can make less sucky picnics

 

[leviathan]

Well, this wasn't a thing I expected... found a recent review of the abovementioned Ryobi hybrid soldering thing:

Spoiler alert: it actually uses a normal, fully enclosed PSU for AC input inside - and it's rated to 100-240V and not just 110V, meaning I just need a plug adapter to use it here! Off to the eBays to find one.

Also yes, the review is actually somewhat scathing and doesn't exactly recommend the thing. However, I have no issue with the PSU being solved as it is - the Youtube comments actually explain it fairly well, it's likely a certification cost cutting measure, and I don't really see why it would really be a problem. The only real issue with this thing is the shitty PVC wire with only an 80°C temperature rating, but my current soldering station has the same so I have no problem with that either.

 

[eizbaer]

After a lot of research, watching youtube, reading some other stuff... I got thoroughly annoyed. I hate Bosch for having two different 18V systems, so they're out. I'd love Makita simply for making crazy meme products, but their batteries according to test aren't very good... And also, I'm a bloody hobbyist I don't need professional grade tools for the 3 screws a month that I put into the wall or whatever.
So I decided to just say screw it and dip my toes into the Einhell PXC system. 2x2.5Ah batteries cost me 42€, a 4Ah + charger less than 30€. If the tools aren't 100% craptastic in their handling, I'll be happy. Currently, because amazon had a sale, I am waiting for the hammer drill (2.2J should be fine, honestly) and both a large and small sander. Still waiting for a deal on the battery drill/driver, until then, my old 12V Metabo will do just fine.

Oh, another reason I forgot to mention for this system: they bloody well provide everything (see below). Insane number of garden tools and stuff - which, if we're being honest, will probably see a lot more use than the other tools, as soon as someone finds it in their heart to sell us a god damn house already! Not yet on the meme-level of makita, but very solid selection. and according to the reviews I've seen, the tools are actually quite good for the price. not on a bosch/makita level and you can feel they're cheaper, but they perform well enough.

 

[jack_christie]

Project Farm Multi tool shootout:

Some of these models may be USA only.

 

[jack_christie]

So I decided to just say screw it and dip my toes into the Einhell PXC system. 2x2.5Ah batteries cost me 42€, a 4Ah + charger less than 30€. If the tools aren't 100% craptastic in their handling, I'll be happy.

Battery internals are so similar, it wouldn't take much to have a universal attachment:

 

[eizbaer]

Battery internals are so similar, it wouldn't take much to have a universal attachment:

Yeah, IIRC @Matt2000 has quite a few adapters around and could share experiences, if I ever needed to run something else So far I am very happy with the quality of the tools, to be honest. Better than I expected at the price.

 

[Matt2000]

I do indeed, I have adapters to use my Makita batteries with Ryobi, DeWalt and Bosch 18V systems. From my experiences so far they just work, I'm not using any for super high current tools at the moment though. The DeWalt/Bosch are the standard eBay ones and are fairly chunky, the Ryobi is a Badaptor and is much slimmer

I'm sure those Einhell tools are fine, they certainly look decent. If I was starting out now I'd probably go with Milwaukee, not only because that Fuel oscillating tool wiped the floor with most of the others (I have the Makita one he tested, it's fine for my use and Makita does actaually have a new one now) but the batteries go up to 12Ah now.

 

[Perc]

I bought a "badaptor" to make my 18V Makita batteries fit the Ryobi glue gun. So far the only thing I own from the Ryobi universe. It works absolute fine and the adaptor (which seems to be the same on all the Chinesium sites I've seen) is solidly built and fits very well.

I do take care not to leave a battery in the glue gun in case something unpleasant would happen, just like I don't buy Chinesium batteries or chargers. The €27 Fakita half-inch impact (as made famous by AvE) is also never left unsupervised with a battery in it.

 

[Matt2000]

My Ryobi is also a glue gun, however mine is the mini version that I took apart for fun so I could see how it works. I use it for small jobs so favour its light weight over power, also the stand has a surface built in for catching drips. Batteries are all kept on the pegboard mounts, sometimes I leave one on the portaband because it's a pain to get to.

I was trying to remember earlier why I had heard of Flex before and which tool I once wanted, it was a cordless polisher. Makita now have one of those but right now I have no need or desire for one.

 

[jack_christie]

If I was starting out now I'd probably go with Milwaukee, not only because that Fuel oscillating tool wiped the floor with most of the others (I have the Makita one he tested, it's fine for my use and Makita does actaually have a new one now) but the batteries go up to 12Ah now.

For somethings one 12Ah battery is not enough:

 

[RdKetchup]

 

[jack_christie]

Just scary the amount of locks he defeats

 

[Matt2000]

I mentioned the eBay sale in the Things that annoy me thread, well once I figured out how to actually get to the stores the inevitable happened and I bought another power tool. This time I did the unthinkable and bought my first tool from Team Red.


Milwaukee M12FPD

I've been looking at lightweight drills since around September, after seeing how Adam Savage used his old 12V Makita drill for delicate work. Makita don't make that drill/driver set any more and used ones go for silly prices, so I was looking at the Bosch GSB 12V-15. It's lighter and slightly smaller than the Milwaukee, but I didn't see any other Bosch tools that I wanted. If I'm going to buy into a battery system I need to know I'm going to have more than one tool, fortunately I've also been looking at the right-angle impact wrench Milwaukee make (after that fiasco with the caliper bolt on the Disco) so there won't be a shortage of other tools I can use the batteries with.

This is much lighter than my Makita drill and is also brushless, which is nice. A 13mm all-metal chuck on a drill this small is something none of the other brands could offer, despite none of them being significantly cheaper than what I paid for this.

So I'm on two teams now, apparently. It hasn't helped that in the Project Farm tests, Milwaukee just keeps dominating.

 

[eizbaer]

So I decided to just say screw it and dip my toes into the Einhell PXC system.

Aaaand one more: the big cordless drill TE-CD 18 Li BL. The added handle seems a bit weird and overkill, but it’s supposed to do up to 60 Nm so what do I know. Will probably still never get used. Surprisingly solid for the price, again, as were the others before. it goes brrrr very nicely and fast, that’s all my testing has shown so far