The Power Tools Thread

[Perc]

I saw this for sale, €179 for the Z model (tool only, no battery). Would make a nice car vacuum.

Then I got a hold of myself and decided that €179 for vacuuming the car a couple times a year isn't worth it.

 

[leviathan]

I was looking at the Ryobi R18PV-0, same thing in green really. Supposedly really damn good, for the car but also for the workshop or generally around the house. Only downsides are the price (slightly lower but still above the 100€ mark), and the fact that it really needs big batteries - apparently even chews through 5Ah packs quickly, so my 1.5Ah ones would be quite useless.

 

[Perc]

I already have a cordless Dyson stick vacuum for around the home. It’s powerful enough to suck-start a Lada, but the battery is tiny and doesn’t last very long. Plenty for grabbing and vacuuming a couple of square meters when you made a mess, but it would need to last about 3-4 times as long for a thorough car cleaning. I’m sure my 6Ah Makita packs would do the job.

 

[Matt2000]

I looked that that vac but decided to get the Bosch GAS 18V-10L wet vac instead. Neither did amazingly well in the Project Farm tests (done after I had bought it) but the Bosch was better of the two. It's much cheaper, even when you factor in a Makita adapter, and the shape of the bin makes it really easy to clean. I think the Makita bin could be quite difficult to clean, given the shape.

It's been very useful, I used it yesterday with a hose adapter to suck coolant out of the Freelander header tank, it was good when the glass cooker cover exploded and when my sister's Mini leaked and the rear footwell was a small swimming pool. It does chew through batteries but it's the cost of power, much like a cordless heat gun.

I’m sure my 6Ah Makita packs would do the job.

People have done it, I think it's great. The V6 we have is still doing OK so I don't feel like butchering it. It's a pre-HEPA V6 Animal but I recently bought a replacement rear housing to fit a HEPA filter, works nicely.

 

[Blind_Io]

I saw this for sale, €179 for the Z model (tool only, no battery). Would make a nice car vacuum.

Then I got a hold of myself and decided that €179 for vacuuming the car a couple times a year isn't worth it.

View attachment 3564441

Oh, and I'm bought into the Makita battery ecosystem.

 

[Perc]

Oh, and I'm bought into the Makita battery ecosystem.

You got the vac?

 

[Blind_Io]

No, but I'm.tempted to get this or their wand vac since I already have the battery and charger.

 

[Perc]

No, but I'm.tempted to get this or their wand vac since I already have the battery and charger.

A wand vac to me needs its own battery and (wall)charger because it's going to be hanging on the wall ready to grab and I don't want to tie up a Makita battery for it. A portable shop vac on the other hand, that I don't mind if it uses a tool battery.

 

[jack_christie]

I was looking at the Ryobi R18PV-0, same thing in green really. Supposedly really damn good, for the car but also for the workshop or generally around the house. Only downsides are the price (slightly lower but still above the 100€ mark), and the fact that it really needs big batteries - apparently even chews through 5Ah packs quickly, so my 1.5Ah ones would be quite useless.

There was a 5Ah twin pack deal £140/€150 ish

 

[Blind_Io]

I have a small house, it's still easier to grab a battery powered wand vac from the shop than it is to bring up the large corded vacuum from the downstairs closet next to the garage.

 

[Matt2000]

Those things don't seem to very well designed compared to normal stick vacuums, they obviously miss out on motorised brushes too. They're a giant Dustbuster really, might be fine for you if you just have hard floors though and they seem to be pretty cheap.

Yeah, I watch all the Vacuum Wars videos. Tool & Stuff also reviewed the LXT vs XGT versions.

Oh yeah I'll mention now that Makita announced a 64V battery, I was worried about this as it inevitably means multi-18V garden tools will now get replaced with 64v.

There was a 5Ah twin pack deal £140/€150 ish

That's the standard price for 2 5Ah Makita batteries, they can be had for even less from an approved eBay seller when there's a discount on. Not many of those sellers stock Ryobi but there must be better deals out there.

 

[NecroJoe]

When it comes to home use vaccums, the tool brands do loose out to the consumer electronics brands when it comes to creature comforts like noise, weight, user-friendly features, etc...they tend to be pretty basic and often lacking when comparing suction to weight...but the battery situation is compelling, if you've already got multiple.

My "if I won lots of money" vac is the LG CordZero™ All in One Auto Empty Cordless Stick Vacuum. The charging stand houses and charges a spare hot-swappable battery, and it automatically empties the vac's canister into the stand when you dock the vac. $999 though.

 

[93Flareside]

If I won all the money, id probably have Miele Appliances.

 

[Perc]

After trying the €27 Fakita impact driver I decided to buy the real thing... or rather, I went halfsies with my father because I store my tires there anyway. We swap tires on all our vehicles every spring and fall. So, Makita DTW700. 700Nm, as the name suggests.

This is one step up from the (IIRC) 320Nm version that the Fakita is a knockoff of. 320 is about twice what you need for changing tires, unless the previous guy used all the ugga-duggas which isn't uncommon. This is why I went for the bigger version.

It has several settings. It has four torque settings, and I'm assuming these are rough numbers: 150, 200, 320 and 700Nm. It also has a mode where it shuts off automatically as soon as it starts hammering. This is probably handy for driving bolts that need to be properly torqued.

After tightening the lug bolts on the Passat using the 150Nm setting I applied some actual clicks with the €29 torque wrench I also bought the other week. Yes it's cheap crap, but lug bolts aren't exactly fine mechanics so I'm sure it's fine. Anyway, with the Chinesium torque wrench set to 130Nm the lugs did need a bit more torque before the wrench clicked so either Makita or the wrench is off.

 

[eizbaer]

since we bought a house… I now have all the excuses I need to keep buying Einhell 18/36V stuff. Starting with, because we will actually need it soon ish:

 

[NecroJoe]

since we bought a house… I now have all the excuses I need to keep buying Einhell 18/36V stuff. Starting with, because we will actually need it soon ish:
View attachment 3564812

I've been waiting for Ryobi to come out with a brushless version of their 13", but since there's been 2 generations now of the 16 without a 13, I'm probably going to just get the current one sometime this summer.

It would be fun to figure out how to convert my 36v Black and Decker to be able to use Ryobi 18v batteries. The charger for the mower takes forever, the port is nearly broken, and the battery doesn't hold a charge 12 years later...but it's just too big and heavy. For what we'd need.

 

[Matt2000]

It would be fun to figure out how to convert my 36v Black and Decker to be able to use Ryobi 18v batteries. The charger for the mower takes forever, the port is nearly broken, and the battery doesn't hold a charge 12 years later...but it's just too big and heavy. For what we'd need.

Theoretically really easy, the tricky part would be getting the sockets for the Ryobi batteries. There are lots of adapters to convert different brands to work with Ryobi tools or with each other, but the odd (technically outdated) design Ryobi uses doesn't lend itself to being compatible.

Lots of 3D printable options for sockets or things like this on Etsy, just nothing off the shelf as such.

 

[eizbaer]

So my 50€ 18V Einhell power saw did a surprisingly good job with the crap thuja hedge that was at the end of our garden. Less than an hour and one 4Ah battery later, all of those damn trees are down. Some of them did put up a fight with their 10cm diameter stem, but that just took a moment longer… this alone made the saw already pay for itself in my mind, because doing it all by hand would’ve suuuuuucked

Edit: just realized I didn’t even post about getting the power saw in some recent „buy a tool get a battery free“ scheme which is on all the time. I actually just ordered a 30€ leaf blower that comes with a free 2.5Ah battery and charger as well 🤷‍♂️🙈

 

[NecroJoe]

I wish someone made an air compressor that had some sort of ramp-up or even a beep to warn that the motor was about to kick in. The jump-scares every 10 minutes is really annoying.

I've been waiting for, like, 2 years for the 13" Ryobi cordless lawnmower to go on sale, and it never has It's gone up $20. The 16" brushless one, though, is now on sale for 25% ($40) LESS than the 13". But annoyingly, I have two pinch points that the 16" would be too wide for, and 8lbs savings for the smaller one would be handy.

 

[Blind_Io]

We just purchased a California Air Tools compressor and it's about as loud as a power drill. It's 4X the compressor I used to have and 20% of the noise