Grumpy MSG

I have 3 of the original 2 drawer units, used in a single stack on a 3/4" piece of plywood just big enough for the drawers with casters underneath ( my own cheap little TSTAK style cart). I admit they are far from perfect, I believe the opening and closing issues some folks had with them are more related to how much weight was in each drawer and the drawer bottom sagging. I kept one tool and it's accessories in each drawer and they worked halfway decent. If you tried to put a hammer drill and an impact in the drawer and then some drill and driver bits, that drawer would have problems until you took some weight out of it. If I had to guess, I would say 10 to 15 pounds was about all each drawer is good for, unless you had the weigh out near the sides of the drawer instead of the middle. I would hate to see what they were like if you put a pound or two of screws or nails in a each of the little plastic boxes inside. Hopefully the next generation will work much better.

I can't believe the lack of calls for FlexVolt powered vacuum or compresors. Having seen the Festool vacuums with the adapters for their boxes, my idea would be to have the vacuum or compressor being the base box like the DS450 allowing it to be oversized compared to the boxes that would only allow one or two gallons capacity, instead as a base unit it could hold at least 5 gallons of sawdust or air.

Actually if you look a little backward, you can find Porter-Cable made one in 19.2 volts

peel off what you can and try a little WD40 on it if you have any. It makes a wonderful adhesive remover.

It would be a hair more at 90 PSI, but it would be so small as to be insignificant, just use that 4.5 CFM for your tool calculations. You never mentioned what kind of tools you are thinking about purchasing. If you are talking nail guns, one of the biggest should be able to run off of that compressor without any problems. 2 or three smaller ones at one time will probably not work it hard either. If you just want to run an air ratchet or impact wrench, it should not have any trouble running a few bolts on and off or removing a set of wheels at a time. If you are trying to run a grinder, sander or spray paint with it (bigger gun, not a touch up gun or airbrush), that is where you will be exceeding it's capacity.

That stand has been out for years. It is what they have been giving away with miter saws every so often at Lowe's and Home Depot for a long time.

Natural blondes are over on the close out shelf in the Home Depot?

I got a Wixey from Woodcraft, @ $29 or $39 and I like the way it works. I used it to set up the stops on the saws and the jointer and use it to square the jointer's fence if I ever move it (which is rarely). My only complaint is a lack of a power button, so I take the battery out when it isn't being used. I don't mind at all that my accuracy is only to a tenth of a degree.

Whether the end of your rail is square or not doesn't matter. the saw follows one edge. If you diagonals are the same, your square is off. I think that is where you problem is coming from. Get a better bigger square with no moving parts and you will be more accurate. Here is a great steel square at a good price from a manufacturer who specialized in quality measuring tools: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/starrett-tempered-steel-rafter-square?gclid=Cj0KCQiA3dTQBRDnARIsAGKSflkca_82ZVOpZS6zcheajr01FWipQnRlUnHB8K0sFczxOarq4zTi3d0aAhFKEALw_wcB

I am talking about the 9 versus 12 inch arguments. You are arguing for basing the design on a grinder, meanwhile DeWALT appears to have based the idea on the same thing the Stihl saw was based on, a chainsaw. What DeWALT has done is create something that mimics what could be argued as an industry standard design, not something new and very different. They run a single battery for the 8 1/4 tablesaw and two batteries in their 12 inch miter saws. So it stands to reason that to go to a bigger blade would mean a bigger motor, longer transmission arm (or whatever it is called) bigger guard, probably 2 batteries and (my argument) a lot more weight.

If it does the job that the person in bucket lift needs, then why would he want to wrestle with a 12 inch saw? There is such a thing a the right size for the job. Just look at the discussion folks have about cordless miter saws on here. the FlexVolt 12 inch sliding compound miter saw is the king at almost 70 pounds plus a stand. Other folks want something smaller and more portable and easier to transport. I know I prefer the little 7 1/4 slider at about 30 pounds when moving it from room to room versus the big beast, but then again I don't install trim that would require the cutting capacity of the big saw. If all you are doing is cutting concrete on the ground, weight may not matter to you and added dept of cut might be nice, but if you are holding a tool up against a wall or overhead, having a lower weight would be helpful. I would much rather reach over the side of a bucket and use a 20 pound tool than reach over the side and use a 30 pound saw.

If you are asking about identification of the batteries, the top picture with the logo in the blue rectangle is the Bluetooth logo. The bottom left picture has the small logo on the left side of the battery with 3 one quarter arcs is DeWALT's Tool Connect logo. Their numbering system is reasonably understandable. Reading DCB205BT-2, DC is for DeWALT Cordless, the B is for Battery, 20 (12, 40 and 60 are also used is for voltage), the 5 position is the Amp/Hrs and is where it gets a little arbitrary, for the 20 V MAX line a 0 is 3.0, a 1 is 1.5, a 3 is 2.0, a 4 is 4.0, a 5 is 5.0 and a 6 is 6.0. The BT is for Bluetooth, a normal battery has nothing there and the -2 means it is a 2 pack of batteries. I am going to guess that eventually all the Bluetooth batteries and the tools with Tool Connect will end up wearing the Tool Connect logo. This time around it appears that DeWALT will have a tool connect adapter, to allow changes to tools you already have, available more quickly than the 18V XRP/ 20V MAX adapter. Maybe they learned from that mess.

There are usually yellow "clearance flags" at the end of the aisle where the clearance items are consolidated. Learn to spot them at one store and you will see them easily at every other Home Depot you walk into. There is an Aisle that goes side to side at the front of the stores that is just behind the cash registers and the seasonal sales, then there is a row of aisles that run perpendicular to that with various item in it with lumber, tools, plumbing, electrical and more items then about halfway back in the store there is another aisle that runs parallel to the front aisle. It is usually along that aisle that you will spot those "clearance flags". Happy hunting!

It is all about what will be "regular stock" at that particular store. One store may be keeping the FlexVolt display, while the next one up the road will close it out and maybe it will get the 36V Makita display in it's place. I have one Home Depot about 12 miles away and another about 25. You can get much of the 20 Volt MAX line at one, while the other has it for promotions and closes it out several times a year, yet they kept the FlexVolt display. One of them has several sizes of ToughSystem available most of the time while the other has it for black friday deals in packages. Since I figured it out a little bit, I know one will have an item all the time should I find I need it, while the other with a little patience might yield the bargains after the holidays. For example instead of $99 for the small blower and bluetooth speaker, $49 for each. Sometimes you might wait a little too long and the item sells before you grab it and other times it drops a little lower. I ended up with a HDX 1 1/2 to 2 gallon compressor for $14 one time. I wasn't really looking for one but at that price, it was a great buy for my airbrush.

You have to have something to spin the fan to push the air or it is a glorified radiator.

Just go to HomeDepot .com enter your nearby store and look up the local ad. Almost as easy as going to toolsinaction.com...

I was actually asking for the opinion from the guy with the saw in his hand versus what the sales literature says.Sometimes those numbers aren't necessarily a reflection of reality.

Don't you know, DeWALT already has brushless Hammers and pliers!

How does it's power compare to the blade right FlexVolt sidewinder?

It is not just small lasers that run off the battery, they had all the specialty cameras and measurement tools that run off of it too. Even if they were to go to a strictly 20V MAX battery platform it would take some time to get them all adapted/redesigned to run off the different voltage.

That is true, but you can take the hand tool holder from the 400 and put it in the 450. It mounts in the same way. I tried it.

One idea you could use is building a modified version of the Paulk Total Station or Compact Workbench. Don't build the saw horses and modify to work with your centipedes and hang the saw off the end of it, that way you can tuck the saw under a bench or table or store it on a shelf, then stand the bench top along the wall (both of his smaller designs are 3' X 6') and fold up the centipede, you could even tuck it inside the stood up bench so the total footprint it takes up stored would be about 1' X 3' plus the space the saw takes up, where ever you put it. They are simple well thought out designs with plenty of videos showing various peoples' modifications of the design on YouTube and Pinterest. Here is one that Ron shared that he thought was pretty slick:

I am not calling you a raving lunatic, DeWALT has had some battery platforms that are for all intents and purposes are obsolete. That said, they continue to support them, even if they peaked in popularity more than a dozen years ago. the 14.4 and 12 volt NiCads are great examples. If you are relying on information from a typical box store employee, unless that person is a tool junkie like many of us here are, his or her knowledge comes from the company's newest planogram. Chances are the box stores will be selling all of the tools off to use the space for something that sells better and when you look at the little battery area there will be one single battery hanging there next to the 12V XRP, which is hanging next to the 14.4 XRP, which might be hanging next to the Black and Decker 18 volt battery. Their website continues to list them right there, next to other legacy batteries: http://www.dewalt.com/Dewalt/Home/Products/Accessories/Batteries and Chargers?Facet2=System%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-|System%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-%2c-s-18V%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-%2c-s-18V|System%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-%2c-s-20V-s-MAX-ax-%3b%3b12V-s-MAX-ax-%2c-s-20V-s-MAX-ax-|System%3b%3b14.4V%3b%3b14.4V|&pageNum=1

It may actually be individual stores being reset with keeping what sells and removing what doesn't. Locally we have 3 Lowe's that are within about 30 miles of each other, and some of their employees refer to them as A,B and C stores. They probably have 75-80% items in common, but that other 20-25% might only be in one or two of the stores. Home Depot does similar things, the two nearest stores are about 40 miles apart and only one has a rental center, only one has a big display of FlexVolt tools, while the other did a close out sale on them and right now they have the drill/ impact kits and screwdriver kits in the clearance/ bargain endcap area for $99 for the two piece kit. As long as either chain sells the infamous $99 drill kits 8 times a year, they won't sell a ton of 12V MAX.

I got the Wounded Warrior drill and impact set and then the screwdriver later. If I am going up and down a ladder or crawling into or out of a cabinet, they are my go to tools. I wouldn't mind it if they made a 20 volt version of the driver, I love the combination of bit holder chuck and the adjustable clutch. Even that little impact driver can split thin wood if you are not careful, the screwdriver clutch makes it far less likely.