# Cordless tools, what should I buy?



## RaJoe (Aug 24, 2012)

My company does a lot of work for stanley black and decker, dewalt tools is all ive ever known. Ive had dewalt for almost 10 years now, im SICK of looking at dewalt products. Two batteries and a charger have already been stolen from me because so many other trades use them. Im looking to buy new tools and cant decide. Im very picky and alot of stuff out there seems cheap to me. Any suggestions?


----------



## CrpntrFrk (Oct 25, 2008)

Start here................

http://www.contractortalk.com/f40/makita-18v-bosch-18v-dewalt-20v-head-head-119159/

You can never go wrong with Makita but I really like Bosch. I have also heard some good things about Milwaukee and Panasonic.

Use the search feature and you will find a ton of info here!


----------



## RaJoe (Aug 24, 2012)

I owned a makita impact and sold it, it lacked power. I almost bought bosch today but the heavy duty drill driver seemed cheap and the specs were way lower than the other brands but i like a lot of their other tools. Hilti tools look great but are crazy expensive.


----------



## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

RaJoe said:


> I owned a makita impact and sold it, it lacked power. I almost bought bosch today but the heavy duty drill driver seemed cheap and the specs were way lower than the other brands but i like a lot of their other tools. Hilti tools look great but are crazy expensive.


:blink: what brand did you get instead? Makita last time I looked had the top impact driver and your the first person I heard say it lacked power.


----------



## RaJoe (Aug 24, 2012)

BCConstruction said:


> :blink: what brand did you get instead? Makita last time I looked had the top impact driver and your the first person I heard say it lacked power.


I had the all white makita impact that came with 1.5ah batteries and had bought a 3.0ah extra.I ended up going back to dewalt. I was doing 4 floors
of a government building at the time about 40 vav boxes per floor hung off 22ga. sheet metal hanger strap. The makita was having trouble drilling 5/16 self tapping screws into the boxes bottom plate through the strap. So i sold it, the guy that bought it said it was weak and used it while fixing up a old house he had just bought. It was a nice drill dont get me wrong just not right for what i do, the dewalt (at the time) blew it away. This was when the li ions first came out.


----------



## CrpntrFrk (Oct 25, 2008)

RaJoe said:


> I had the all white makita impact that came with 1.5ah batteries .


That is your problem. You bought the home owner model. You need to get the green model. NOT the same at all!


----------



## WarriorWithWood (Jun 30, 2007)

Saying the Makita lacked power is like saying a Ferrari is too slow. I'm guessing you either bought a bad one or borrowed a whooped one. The brushless has plenty of power.

Take a look at the  Brushless Version. 1460 in. lbs. of torque is nothing to sneeze at. 
I use it for everything except lag bolts, I snagged a  Makita 18v 1/2" Impact bare tool for those. :thumbsup:

There's always the Festool Wallet Impactor .


----------



## WarriorWithWood (Jun 30, 2007)

CrpntrFrk said:


> That is your problem. You bought the home owner model. You need to get the green model. NOT the same at all!


I think the 10.8v Makita would beat that one.:laughing:

RaJoe,
The white version has 1200 in lbs and the Brushless LXT has almost 1500. You're comparing apples and oranges.


----------



## RaJoe (Aug 24, 2012)

WarriorWithWood said:


> I think the 10.8v Makita would beat that one.:laughing:
> 
> RaJoe,
> The white version has 1200 in lbs and the Brushless LXT has almost 1500. You're comparing apples and oranges.


yeah, this was years ago when i bought it at homedepot, i didnt pay much attention to specs then. Im interested in this festool though.


----------



## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

RaJoe said:


> I had the all white makita impact that came with 1.5ah batteries and had bought a 3.0ah extra.I ended up going back to dewalt. I was doing 4 floors
> of a government building at the time about 40 vav boxes per floor hung off 22ga. sheet metal hanger strap. The makita was having trouble drilling 5/16 self tapping screws into the boxes bottom plate through the strap. So i sold it, the guy that bought it said it was weak and used it while fixing up a old house he had just bought. It was a nice drill dont get me wrong just not right for what i do, the dewalt (at the time) blew it away. This was when the li ions first came out.


The top makita and dewalts are all within about 2% of each other in power no matter if it's brushed or brushless. You would have to connect it to a tool Dymo to tell the difference as you wouldn't be able to just by driving screws. 

I have had my LXT impact since its day of release and I use it to put 5/8 lag bolts into 6x6 PT lumber and it has no problem until it gets right to the end but it still gets them tight enough. 

You don't want the festool as its half the TQ of the 18v impacts. I think it's Nader 700ftlbs last time I looked but I could be wrong.


----------



## WarriorWithWood (Jun 30, 2007)

BCConstruction said:


> The top makita and dewalts are all within about 2% of each other in power no matter if it's brushed or brushless. You would have to connect it to a tool Dymo to tell the difference as you wouldn't be able to just by driving screws.


Let's agree to disagree on that one.


----------



## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

WarriorWithWood said:


> Let's agree to disagree on that one.


So you can notice a 30inlb difference? A batt pack with a few high resistance cells in it could make more difference than 30inlb's a pack that's been charged 1x compared to 50x could makes 30inlb difference and even a hot pack could make a bigger difference. 30inlb is prob qtr turn of a screw more tight or less tight at its upper TQ range.


----------



## moorewarner (May 29, 2009)

The field supervisor was dogging the Bosch's battery life/reliability the other day.

To the OP, an important question to answer is what kind of cordless tools do you want, just drill/driver or others like saws/lights/grinders/etc?

If you want a spread then you wont find what you are after with Festool as they just have drill/impact. I don't know about Hilti off hand suspect they are the same?

And both Festool and Hilti are **expensive**, like $500 for the Festool drill/impact expensive. They are well made, they are fine tools, no doubt; but you will pay.

If I cared about more than a drill/driver I would probably look seriously at the Makita line.


----------



## WarriorWithWood (Jun 30, 2007)

BCConstruction said:


> So you can notice a 30inlb difference? A batt pack with a few high resistance cells in it could make more difference than 30inlb's a pack that's been charged 1x compared to 50x could makes 30inlb difference and even a hot pack could make a bigger difference. 30inlb is prob qtr turn of a screw more tight or less tight at its upper TQ range.


No but I did notice the difference between the brushless (1460" lbs) and the white (1280" lbs). I had them both for a while and it's pretty obvious.

(Fixed my quote above)


----------



## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

I can say the makita impacts are tuff. For over 6 years I have used the end of the impact to hammer studs, joist, posts etc etc into place and it's still going strong.


----------



## WarriorWithWood (Jun 30, 2007)

moorewarner said:


> If I cared about more than a drill/driver I would probably look seriously at the Makita line.


If all I cared about was the drill/impact I'd buy the  Panasonic tools. They make a VERY nice drill and driver. Sure you'll pay a little more but they're not as high as the Fesfool or Hilti and their batteries are arguably one of the best on the market.


----------



## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

WarriorWithWood said:


> No but I can notice the difference between the brushless (1460" lbs) and the white (1280" lbs).


No doubt with to different motor versions. What I'm saying is if you took the dewalt brushless and the makita brushless you would strugle to tell a difference. Same goes for brushed models. They are all so closely matched specs are the last thing to worry about. Ergonomics, weight, battery life, balance, features, charge time, charger quality etc etc are far more important. Some people even think the dewalts are more powerful because they say they are 20v.


----------



## CrpntrFrk (Oct 25, 2008)

BCConstruction said:


> Some people even think the dewalts are more powerful because they say they are 20v.


It's funny cause the DeWalt always seemed to be fast. That was something I noticed right away. But after going through the tests it didn't have the torque the others had and the was the first of many deal breakers for me.

My buddy gave the DeWalt praise for being fast too. He said he was impressed. When I told him my test results he was surprised how the DeWalt lacked. 

I think people choose tools for all the wrong reasons and really need to look at the "total package" before they choose.


----------



## moorewarner (May 29, 2009)

WarriorWithWood said:


> If all I cared about was the drill/impact I'd buy the  Panasonic tools. They make a VERY nice drill and driver. Sure you'll pay a little more but they're not as high as the Fesfool or Hilti and their batteries are arguably one of the best on the market.


I hear ya man. I'll be checking out a TI-15 myself. To each his own.

http://drills.festoolusa.com/cordless-drills/models/ti-impact/


----------



## CrpntrFrk (Oct 25, 2008)

moorewarner said:


> I hear ya man. I'll be checking out a TI-15 myself. To each his own.
> 
> http://drills.festoolusa.com/cordless-drills/models/ti-impact/


Wow. I am surprised at the specs. They are in the Craftsmen category being that low. Would be interesting to hear their reasoning for that.


----------

