Power Tools: Anything and Everything

[Herdfan]

There are several threads about EV's and their batteries, but nothing about battery powered tools be it drills, drivers, and saws. Or outdoor power equipment like weedeaters, trimmers and mowers.

I thought about this last night when my formerly very reliable Honda mower decided to not want to start. Ran great the last time I used it, but it just wouldn't start. Brought it into the shop today and had one of the guys tear apart the carb and he got it running. I am torn if I want to sell it and get a battery powered one knowing I hopefully won't need any mower in a year. Or keep it.

I have had battery powered tools for years starting with the Dewalt 14.4V, then moving to Milwaukee's V18, then Dewalt with their 20V and now back to Milwaukee. Staying with Milwaukee because I now have way too much of it to switch again.

I do have a few Dewalt outdoor power tools like a chainsaw and hedge trimmer. Those were mainly for the wife so she can do small stuff around the yard. But we take the chainsaw when we go riding because there is always a tree down or maybe you need to make a strut to get you out of the woods.

But I also now have a Milwaukee trimmer, blower, chainsaw, extension pruning saw and edger. If I did get an battery mower it would be the Milwaukee Dual M18. But we will see.

The technology is changing. Dewalt and Makita already have stacked lithium tools in the market and Milwaukee says they are coming out with them as well.

So what battery powered tools do you have and how do you like them?

 

[Nycturne]

I wound up in the Ego ecosystem for lawn tools when we bought our first house. The mower is still doing great work.

The trimmer is also doing quite well, but I haven't had good luck with the smaller battery pack the trimmer is meant to use to keep it balanced. I need to investigate to see if it's the battery going bad (again) or if it's just the charger refusing to top it up (it's a dual battery charger so it may just be charging the mower battery and calling it a day).

 

[bunnspecial]

The only battery tools I have out in the garage are a Ryobi 1+ 18V drill and then a 1/2" drive impact wrench.

To be honest, though, when I started getting serious on power tools for use in the garage, I went air. I really need to upgrade my compressor, as the die grinders especially really soak it up and I'd like to be able to sandblast. Still, though, both the light weight and price of quality air tools was what really attracted me. Aside from die grinders(I just buy the dirt cheap Harbor Freight ones that are often $15 on sale, and have I think 3 or 4 of them-enough that when I'm working on a project I can just put the bits I expect needing on different ones ahead of time as picking up a different grinder is a lot faster and easier than changing bits) I have two different sized impacts and air ratchets in 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" drive.

All of my outdoor equipment is gas, and in fact I've kind of jumped into tinkering with Lawn Boy 2-stroke mowers. I have one nicely running one now, and another with the engine in pieces as I need to order a new piston and rings and hopefully get it running. I've actually enjoyed them quite a bit and have been thinking about starting a thread on them. If it wouldn't lead to a death threat from my wife, I'd be tempted to watch Craigslist and FB marketplace especially this fall/winter and find decrepit and/or non-running LB mowers to fix up. The ones I've been working on are the late 90s/early 2000s ones designed under Toro. Once you "undo" all the tweaks they made to keep emissions in check, they are beasts-easily the most powerful push mowers I've used. If nothing else, I'd like to pick up an alloy deck model.

 

[Herdfan]

I wound up in the Ego ecosystem for lawn tools when we bought our first house. The mower is still doing great work.

Ego is probably top of the heap in battery powered outdoor equipment. Here is a video from a youtube show where they clean up a lot with Ego.

All of my outdoor equipment is gas, and in fact I've kind of jumped into tinkering with Lawn Boy 2-stroke mowers. I have one nicely running one now, and another with the engine in pieces as I need to order a new piston and rings and hopefully get it running. I've actually enjoyed them quite a bit and have been thinking about starting a thread on them. If it wouldn't lead to a death threat from my wife, I'd be tempted to watch Craigslist and FB marketplace especially this fall/winter and find decrepit and/or non-running LB mowers to fix up. The ones I've been working on are the late 90s/early 2000s ones designed under Toro. Once you "undo" all the tweaks they made to keep emissions in check, they are beasts-easily the most powerful push mowers I've used. If nothing else, I'd like to pick up an alloy deck model.

I still have one sitting in my parent's garage. Yes, it was a beast. Mine is from I think 1992 when I bought my first house so not sure if it has the emissions stuff on it or not. Haven't used it in years since I was able to redo my parents landscape so the zero-turn could get everywhere. But it was great when I did use it.

 

[DT]

The Ego stuff looks solid, gets good reviews, I noticed they carry it at Lowes now.

We wound up with Greenworks lawn equipment, it started as a Dad's Day present, a new blower to replace the existing corded one (that still worked but was starting to make some unpleasant sounds ...) As you'd expect, it was the whole kit, blower, battery and charger. The cordless freedom was glorious

Then at some point, I needed a new string trimmer, so I immediately shopped Greenworks again, and saw that they offer just to the tool, i.e., no charger/battery, and cheap, like $80-90. So I got one, and again, it worked great, no cord was awesome (it replaced a corded trimmer), I escaped extension hell.

Next up, a pole saw, I had been using a manual saw, but when I saw I could go battery powered, again, tool only, for $80? Done! Works great, I've really gotten my money's worth since we decided to start clearing the right/rear corner of our lot. Juggling a single pack between the 3 tools was pretty easy, trimmer and pole saw tend to be very planned use.

That was all electric-to-electric, the next purchase was a pretty major change. I headed out to mow, the mower at the time was one of the red generics, with a decent B&S 140cc motor, mostly started in the first pull or two, some smoke, some smell, you know the drill Anyway, it was out of gas, check can #1, empty, check can #2, ugh, empty, just did not feel like hitting the gas station, so I just bail.

That night, some internet serendipity, I get an email from Woot!, lots of different items, I click through, scroll down and ... there it is. A Greenworks battery powered mower, that comes with 2 packs and a charger, for ~50% off, free shipping. Click, order, done. Now I just wait and watch the grass grow.

It's terrific, plenty of mower for our yard, it can side/mulch/bag, height adjustment is a single lever, and starting it, OMG, hold the button and pull down the safety bar. I actually mow more often because it's such a pleasure, no smell, no consumables, no tugging on a starter cord till my shoulder hurts - and, now we have 3 batteries and two chargers, all interchangeable, so it's easy to mow, trim, and use the blower without any recharging needed.

A couple of the batteries have Bluetooth and there's an app to check charge state, it's kind of nerdy-fun, but they also have a button and light to indicate the charge, so I rarely use it.

FWIW, this also changed my thinking enough to start considering EVs, which I did, and we have

 

[bunnspecial]

I still have one sitting in my parent's garage. Yes, it was a beast. Mine is from I think 1992 when I bought my first house so not sure if it has the emissions stuff on it or not. Haven't used it in years since I was able to redo my parents landscape so the zero-turn could get everywhere. But it was great when I did use it.

92 would have been an F engine most likely(unless it was the V engine, which a lot of people didn't like but it's what my dad bought when his old Craftsman gave up and I used it a lot).

The F engine is the "classic" that a lot of folks go nuts over. It should have the exhaust under the deck. They're not as powerful as the ones I'm using/playing with(2.25" bore rather than 2.5") but also don't have carbs jetted so ridiculously lean that they won't run stably and might even have an adjustable carb.

There's a decent market for them now, especially if it's an alloy deck.

 

[Nycturne]

The Ego stuff looks solid, gets good reviews, I noticed they carry it at Lowes now.

It was the main brand Home Depot was pushing at the time and they happened to have a self-propelled model on sale when I was looking which made it price competitive. Not sure when Ego stopped being carried by Home Depot and started being carried by Lowes, but I wonder how much it is because Home Depot is seemingly getting more and more invested in Ryobi as a brand.

FWIW, this also changed my thinking enough to start considering EVs, which I did, and we have

In a sense, same.

Ego is probably top of the heap in battery powered outdoor equipment. Here is a video from a youtube show where they clean up a lot with Ego.

In terms of equipment, I have no complaints for sure. I just wish there were better ways to maintain their batteries to avoid capacity loss from keeping them at 100%.

When I was a kid, my father got interested in some of the very early electric mowers. Honestly, they kinda sucked due to the need to use golf cart lead acid batteries. Eventually we wound up back on a gas mower. Pretty much any brand now is a huge improvement over those early examples, and I wouldn’t go back to gas.

 

[Herdfan]

It was the main brand Home Depot was pushing at the time and they happened to have a self-propelled model on sale when I was looking which made it price competitive. Not sure when Ego stopped being carried by Home Depot and started being carried by Lowes, but I wonder how much it is because Home Depot is seemingly getting more and more invested in Ryobi as a brand.

The major brands do this. While you can get Dewalt at both HD & Lowe's, you can only get the Flexvolt (60V) stuff at HD and you can only get the Powerstack at Lowe's. It is maddening sometimes.

As for Ryobi, not a fan. They are fine for the consumer market, but I would not want to try and make money with them. I personally don't like the trigger pull and have seen them shatter when dropped from a ladder ( it happens).

But one thing RYOBI has done is push the market. If it can be made in a battery version, Ryobi is doing it. A glue gun? Really? But they come out with a battery powered caulk gun, Milwaukee has to have one. Same with Packout. Ryobi came to the market with their garage storage system, so Milwaukee had to follow. Ryobi is driving innovation for sure.

 

[bunnspecial]

Waiting on a few tools to arrive, but I'm hoping I'll be rebuilding the Lawnboy engine I mentioned above this week.

Specifically, I'm waiting on a dingleberry brush so that I can break the glaze on the cylinders and do a general clean-up/hone. I have the new piston and rings on hand.

Of course once it's running I still need two pieces-a blade drive plate and a self propel engage cable-but getting the engine running will be a good start.

 

[Hrafn]

Eye booger and dingleberry comb. Hmmm. Probably not right, try again:

I didn't realize I needed one of these until just now.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Don’t buy may tools anymore but I did get the professional saw stop saw a vey good investment it was setup perfectly out of the many boxes.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Great sander low vibration and weight and really powerful and fast. Saves wear and tear on my hands. It actually connects with Bluetooth to show you rpm’s and vibration levels and use time for Heath concerns

 

[fooferdoggie]

For one job I needed super accurate nailing so time for the best nail gun.

 

[Hrafn]

For one job I needed super accurate nailing so time for the best nail guView attachment 16365

Shiny. I've had the Porter Cable pancake compressor and 2 nail gun kit on my wish list since forever, but at this point it might make more sense to go battery powered. The bulk of my tools were purchased over 15 years ago and require an outlet to run.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Shiny. I've had the Porter Cable pancake compressor and 2 nail gun kit on my wish list since forever, but at this point it might make more sense to go battery powered. The bulk of my tools were purchased over 15 years ago and require an outlet to run.

the battery powered guns are heavy I would not want to use one a lot myself. but if you already have a battery for it then it would not be bad. but they are not cheap. you should see my other gun same brand that fires plastic nails.

 

[Herdfan]

the battery powered guns are heavy

That is an understatement. My Milwaukee framing nailer is heavy. Real heavy. Only use it for small jobs. I have a Paslode, but the smell bothers me so I usually just use the air ones.

The brad nailer and pinner aren't too bad if you use small batteries.

 

[Citysnaps]

Not sure I'd call them tools (certainly not power tools, so I included my table saw to qualify for the thread), but my Starrett hook rules put a smile on my face every time I use them. The satin finish makes them easy to read and the hook helps make quick and easy measurements.

Also... I made the jig on the saw for quickly cutting precise 45 degree miters on hardwoods and black frame stock used for making frames for my photographs and my wife's paintings.

 

[Citysnaps]

This is my wife's scroll saw, a DeWalt. She likes making wooden animals and puzzles.