New toy!

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
...or making lemonade out of lemons. But then what else would you make lemonade from? :rofl:

Anyhoo. In my haste in packing to move last week, I foolishly packed away - deeper than I care to dig - my cordless drivers. So I am in HD and look at the new drivers with Li-on batteries. Mind you, I still have my 12V Makitas from ~15 years ago! So I was surprised at the choices!

I came home with a DeWalt 12V driver kit. Driver, 2 batteries, charger, and case. I like it. It is light, small, and plenty powerful. It even has LED lights in the nose, which turned out to be very handy while scrunched in an RV closet trying to fasten a plastic shelf to the wall. I especially appreciate how light it is. And well balanced. My arthritic hands are happy. $119. I can live with that.

And the camera batteries are dead. I am caught without spares. So for your picture, visit your nearby HD.

As for the lemonade analogy, any excuse for a new toy!
 
I got the 18v Ryobi drills, and the Li-ion batteries last forever, or several days of moderate usage, or several weeks of light usage. They are so much better than my old cordless drills I couldn't believe when I first used them that they could lalst that long. Good purchase?
 
Very nice Carol I did the same this past weekend. I picked up a deal i have never seen the likes of in Canada at Home Depot.

They had this Milawaukee 12V Hammer Drill and Driver and bonus 90degree drill with Milwaukee toolbag two lithium ion batteries and charger all for $175 plus our taxes.

What a sweet tool and deal. Was gonna use the same coin to replace my batteries on my Panasonic but now i think its gonna retire instead. These are super cool tools. Finally at a reasonable price.
 
Yeah, Rob, when the Makitas turn up, likely they will be retired. There was not much choice in the 12V range and I really didn't want 18V, either the weight/size or the cost. I can't remember ever having thought "I wish I had gotten the 18Volt instead." DeWalt may have been the only 12V available. Definitely not Ryobi or Rigid. Maybe Milwaukee, don't remember. I've gotten other DeWalt tools and have been satisfied. Good purchase? Yeah, I think so. Always fun to add to the toy collection.
 
Hitachi has 12v Li-on units... but it is really marketing/labelling. I read somewhere that these are basically 10.8v units, and are labelled as that in some areas (Europe?)
But like you, for around the house and in the shop, I love their light weight. Actually I like my Rigid 10v drill also, a lot.

...art
 
Carol, I love the Lithium Ion batteries. If you haven't had them before, just know when they run low and need to be charged, they just stop, no slowing down of the tool, just stops. Weirded me out a little the first time it happened. ;)
 
Congrats. Carol. I have the same Milwaukee M12 drill and driver set Rob mentioned (minus the right angle drill) and I'm sold on the 12v lithium platform. Like your DeWalt, the drill has an LED light, and that's proven to be very handy often. We carried the M12 drills on our tool belts when I was doing artwork installation, and we used them a lot daily. Still, we only had to charge the batteries every few days. About the only time the 12v units have not had the power I needed is when I'm driving 2 1/2" lag bolts into a green turning blank (without pilot holes) to mount a faceplate. For that, I end up grabbing my Hitachi 14.4v impact driver, but these days, after eight lag bolts the old Hitachi NiCad battery is ready for the charger.
 
kinda like you vaughn,, got 2 panasonics that when fresh and even years later wouldnt leave my possession, but now they seem to both gotten tired battery's or charger.. spend more time charging than using almost.. so would i be better off getting lith-ions set up than getting the bats or chargers fixed?
 
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