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Tools Tools Tools

What is your Tool Brand of Choice?

  • DeWalt

  • Makita

  • Bosch

  • Milwaukee

  • Festool

  • Hilti

  • Black & Decker

  • Ryobi

  • Titan

  • Mac Allister

  • Erbauer

  • Silverline

  • Aldi

  • Performance Power

  • Clarke

  • Einhell

  • Eebauer

  • Worx


Results are only viewable after voting.
Twice a day? How fast is your grass growing?!
Haha - it works by moving randomly, so I guess it needs two cuts to make sure it covers everywhere (it works out for itself how often it needs to go out based on size of lawn, weather, time of year, etc). Also, the recycling/mulching relies on it only cutting off a tiny amount each cut - the lawn's immaculate all the time though :)
 
Revisiting my tools as I have some time on my hands and some tasks to be done. My old green Bosch corded drill has become annoying as it's chuck isn't replaceable, it has worn and become temperamental and it is limited to 10mm.

Looking to go 18V cordless and my budget is around £150 unless some steers me to a clear better option. Screwfix has some good deals until the 8th so want to take advantage of them.
These are the comparable versions of the top brands in the original vote.

Screenshot 2023-01-02 at 21.11.23.png

A few observations:
  1. The Milwaukee has a brushed motor (not brushless like the others) but it has good ratings
  2. The DeWalt has the most powerful batteries, highest torque and impact ratings
  3. I usually buy Bosch, £10 less but not looking a winner in this line up
  4. The Makita has no discount (and has the weakest batteries) (B&Q have it for £185)
Tool lovers, which one should I steer towards? Which eco system should I buy into?
 
I wouldn’t fuss too much about brushes.
Everything’s going brushless but it takes a lot of hard use to get through a set of brushes and they are easy and cheap to replace.
Plus the other benefit of extended battery life etc as brushless is more efficient probably won’t be noticed in non professional use (ie hours of use daily.
I personally voted for makita but Milwaukee is the best deal on that page in my opinion.
Plus I’ve heard good things from other people on site about them.
 
All Much of a muchness on the modern stuff I tend to find... Last battery Drill i bought was a "Stanley Fatmax" (Looks just like a dewalt - same colours).... So far has built several gamesrooms, day-day stuff, 3-4 room "renovations".... had a hard life, however still going strong.
The only things i look for are Battery life and availability (18V and above, 4AH), and a keyless Chuck....

(Just reading up, Stanley are owned by the same parent company as Dewalt - interestingly Stanley are called "Stanley Black and Decker" - Monopoly much?!)
 
Revisiting my tools as I have some time on my hands and some tasks to be done. My old green Bosch corded drill has become annoying as it's chuck isn't replaceable, it has worn and become temperamental and it is limited to 10mm.

Looking to go 18V cordless and my budget is around £150 unless some steers me to a clear better option. Screwfix has some good deals until the 8th so want to take advantage of them.
These are the comparable versions of the top brands in the original vote.

View attachment 190210

A few observations:
  1. The Milwaukee has a brushed motor (not brushless like the others) but it has good ratings
  2. The DeWalt has the most powerful batteries, highest torque and impact ratings
  3. I usually buy Bosch, £10 less but not looking a winner in this line up
  4. The Makita has no discount (and has the weakest batteries) (B&Q have it for £185)
Tool lovers, which one should I steer towards? Which eco system should I buy into?
Godammit, as much as I'm trying successfully not to talk pinball....this cannot go without comment. Makita. End of story. It's not even debatable.
 
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I started off with Bosch Professional about 12 years ago. The batteries were absolute rubbish.

My electrician suggested that I move to Makita and I have never looked back. Battery and tool quality is excellent.

Purely by chance, Makita now does an excellent range of 18v kit that I can use my various batteries in like these impending powercut lanterns.


I can't really speak about the other brands, but my joiner told me years ago that Dewalt is now Black and Decker and that quality now is nothing like the Dewalt of old.
 
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DeWalt were bought by Black and Decker back in the 60 and whilst they have had organisational changes since, I heard from someone that DeWalt had recovered after losing their way. Their eco system seems the largest and the tool seems the best on paper.

The Makita doesn't stack up at that price, especially with the weaker batteries, but has a great eco system. If I chose to go this route, then I need to wait for a better deal.

The Milwaukee looks good but I think there are various versions of the batteries, which further reduces the ecosystem.
 
As I said somewhere earlier in this thread, I live in DeWalt world, it works well for me.

My personal opinion is with battery power tools to some degree you get what you pay for. DeWalt do some cheap 18V tools, but along side these they do some which are significantly more expensive, they're not the same, fact! I originally went the DeWalt 18V route and it served me well, however now when buying I've gone 54V where available, they are amazing, but for occasional DIY use the cost justification may be difficult. But if I want to drill a 30mm hole through concrete my 54V DeWalt battery hammer drill is the way I do it (and yes I do it!) Even hanging a TV on a wall bracket the other day I used my 54V pistol drill, it goes through brick like no other drill, corded or battery that I've ever used before.

That all said I wouldn't dismiss 18V tools, I have a 18V impact screwdriver I use a lot, 6mm 150mm screw into timber, its like screwing into butter. An 18V 1/2" impact driver, removes plenty of things a breaker bar wont budge, the best of it when doing machinery installations where the machines are bolted down with large threads, what used to take maybe 2-3 hours with a ratchet, the 18V 1/2" impact driver has them all done in minutes.

One of my pals swears by Milwaukee, but as you correctly say @Calimori they use more than one battery style, which I see as a little annoying.

Just recently got myself the DeWalt (18V they don't do a 54V and if they did the batteries would be too heavy) battery heated jacket, it's a nice but of kit, very welcome on the colder days we were having a few weeks back.

Pay your money, take your choice....

Chris.
 
I generally use Bosch blue kit - both corded and 18v and have been happy with them, but I think any of the major suppliers - Makita, DeWalt etc.. all make decent stuff.

I have noticed that the range of different tools in the Makita 18v range is much wider than Bosch, so for example I have an 18v Makita tyre inflator which is excellent, and just got a battery adapter from eBay which lets me use this with the Bosch batteries I already have. Makes it a little more bulky, but at least I'm not buying different batteries.

Adapters are available to convert pretty much any of the manufacturers' tools for use with any batteries, so it's not like you are having to buy into one make only.

Having said that, if I was starting again, I'd likely lean more towards Makita I think, mainly due to their wide range of tools.
 
I certainly do need a new drill. Or else what am I going to do with all the sheet boarding I plan to cut with the new Table Saw that I bought that I probably didn’t need?
 
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I'm looking at buying one the drills you listed and don't even need one!
There's a long-running thread titled "Tools you wish you'd bought sooner" on a motoring forum in their "Homes and DIY" section, which has cost me a small fortune over the years!

Having said that, I have picked up some rather useful stuff, including, as it happens, both an 18v combi drill, and also an 18v impact driver - the latter being invaluable for driving in, and also removing stubborn screws that the drill with screwdriver bit may struggle with.

Not that I'd encourage scope creep, but you can quite often get decent deals on a set of both if bought at the same time!! LOL!! :)
 
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Yep - exactly like that!!
Obviously also available from the other manufacturers as well.

They are especially useful when doing stuff like fixing sheet boarding using the drill to drill the pilot holes, and the driver to put the screws in - much faster than swapping a drill bit and screwdriver bit using just the one tool !!

Oh, and Wera do some really nice impact driver bit sets with magnetic bit holder too.

:)
 
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Oh FFS.
Just after I found a dealer who does Makita but you can chose the number and Ah of batteries.
 
I have gone Makita, combi drill plus an impact driver. 2 x 5Ah batteries.
Budget totally ignored.
Excellent - you won't regret it!

Make sure you also get proper impact driver bits.
Don't get normal (softer) screwdriver bits designed for use in drills, as the impact driver will kill them in no time.
 
Excellent - you won't regret it!

Make sure you also get proper impact driver bits.
Don't get normal (softer) screwdriver bits designed for use in drills, as the impact driver will kill them in no time.
Can you recommend any bit manufacturers? I bought Wera last time, but they still wear out.
 
Good shout. I should have added them to the order to totally blow the budget.
 
Can you recommend any bit manufacturers? I bought Wera last time, but they still wear out.
I've been using Wera, and they have so far been very good, although I'll admit I'm not driving hundreds of screws every day.

This video is a comparative test of strength and hardness of many of the common manufacturers, although being American, doesn't actually include Wera ones.

Of the ones tested, Milwaukee seem to do better than the others in the test. I've seen on other forums that quite a few people do rate Milwaukee bits, so maybe worth trying those?

If you watch the last section of the video from 11:00 - 12:30, the guy does make a valid point that the amount of wear is significantly affected by how you use them. Not putting enough downward force and also removing the bit from the screw before the bit has stopped turning both cause significant wear on even the best quality bits.

Also, (and I know this is obvious), but it's important to ensure you use Philips bits for Philips screws and Pozidriv bits for Pozidriv screws. I believe that all Pozi screws have little lines on the screw head diagonally between the the 4 "arms" of the hole in the head - Pz on the right, and Philips on the left:

screws.jpg

Further info on Pozi screws here.

Just to go further down the rabbit hole, another option which would see the bits last a lot longer would be to use Torx headed screws instead of Philips or Pozi, as even with less pressure put on, they won't "cam out" and therefore wear the bit.

Torx head screw:
torx.jpg

... right, that's enough about screws - I'm off to play some pinball!
 
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