dwasifar

Maybe I'm the only one, maybe not. But Tapatalk in the last couple of days had started spamming me with unwanted email notifications of forum activity. I'd go to their site and turn off the notifications, and the next time I'd check, they'd be back on again. I finally just deleted my Tapatalk account and app. The damn thing was just too much of a nuisance. Just me?

Well, "klein" does mean "small" in German.

Well, today I made a big glaring exception to my general policy of always buying pro tools from pro brands: All my life I've done trim the old school way, with a hammer, a box of finishing nails, and a nail setter. I don't have a lot of occasion to do it, so I've gotten by with that. But I just did that pocket door project and it would have been really nice to have a nailer, given how flexy a pocket door frame gets when you try to nail into it with a hammer. And I have three more door-related projects in the pipe, so I decided to go shopping for a nailer, and found this. Ordinarily I would never buy something at this level, but the reviews overwhelmingly say that it is much better than you'd think for $27. So I decided to try it. If it doesn't work well, I'll send it back and get something better. It arrives tomorrow.

Yeah, I read further in the Amazon listing and saw some of those things. Do they all do that kind of thing, or are most of them just radios? I guess I've never really looked into it because I tend not to like music playing when I work. That's funny because I've been a lifelong music lover, all genres; I have a huge collection of recorded music that I enjoy frequently. But when I'm working, I tend not to put on music because it's too distracting - unless it's mindless work like cleaning the garage or washing the car. So a job radio has never drawn my interest.

Okay, I have to ask. I just priced that Bosch jobsite radio and it's $200 at Amazon. I've never really understood why purpose-designed jobsite radios exist. They're big, heavy, and expensive. What's the advantage over a smaller, lighter $20 boom box in the corner? This is not criticism, it's genuine curiosity; I would really like to know.

That took an unexpected biblical turn right at the end there. "Verily I say unto thee, Thou knowst thy work like unto the way of the flesh; yet goeth thou still." Stercorians 1:22.

Great. PM me your address and we'll set it up.

Got this as a gift many years ago, never really wanted it, never opened it: First person who says they want it can have it. My treat. If you want to pay for shipping, you can, but you don't have to. I'd rather have it go to one of the crew here than get thrown away.

Took the new drill for a test drive today, using some ripped-out framing for a test piece. Two tests: Will it drive a 3" screw to countersink without hesitating, and how well does it do with boring large holes? First test, 3" screw. Pass. Not only did it countersink, it kept going to 3/8" depth. That's the little hole right next to the edge of the bit. Backed out just as easily. Second test, 1" spade bit. Went through like nothing. I drilled another and timed it: Under five seconds through a double stud. Smooth and powerful, easier to handle than I expected at its weight. Definitely a keeper. Fist bump to @jeffmcmillan for suggesting I consider a 1/2" drill.

If I had to pick the one biggest thing that keeps me on corded tools, it would have to be the planned obsolescence factor of having to constantly rebuy battery tools. Your case is instructive. You had multiples of the same tool because battery replacement was just not attractive compared to rebuying a nice new kit. I understand that urge; I fight it. I have corded tools that are 20, 25, 30 years old. Nobody's gonna be able to keep a battery tool running that long. It's a tradeoff, as everything is. Cordless tools are freeing, in that you don't have cords getting in your way and extensions underfoot. I certainly see the benefit. If the technology were standardized and open instead of proprietary, I'd probably lean more toward cordless. But it's not the only thing I choose to do the old-school way. I drive a manual transmission, too, and I run Linux on my computers. So maybe it's a personal psychology thing; or maybe it's that I tend to analyze things to death (as you probably already noticed), and the resulting analysis winds up having more weight in my decisions than gut preference does.

Power, longevity, vendor lock-in, and bang for buck. Power: Pretty much self-explanatory. Yes, cordless has come a long way, but you're still gonna get more torque from a motor plugged into the wall. Longevity: Batteries have a limited life. Eventually any battery wears out, and when it does, you either have to buy a new battery or a new tool. Since the battery is approximately 60% of the cost of manufacturing the tool, it's going to be a tough decision whether to buy an expensive new battery for a used tool, or buy a new tool and throw out the old one which is perfectly good except for needing a battery. And that's if the batteries are still made; if they're not, then the choice has been made for you. It might be different if all tools took the same battery, but every maker has their own standard, and they keep changing them even within the same brand. And that takes us to: Vendor lock-in: If I buy a DeWalt cordless drill, then when I go to buy another cordless tool, buying any brand other than DeWalt immediately tasks me with keeping track of two different sets of chargers and batteries. Or three. Or four, or however many brands are in my toolbox. Corded tools don't have that problem; wall sockets are the same wherever you go. Bang for buck: Given how much of the cost of making a tool goes into the battery, it's inevitable that you're going to pay more for the same performance, or pay the same for lower performance, in a cordless tool. This is not to say I'm against cordless tools. I'm not. I have a DeWalt cordless drill (pictured below) and impact set and three batteries, and I like it. I use it a lot. Used it today, in fact. Before that I had a Makita. But it really rankled to get rid of that Makita when the batteries wouldn't hold a charge anymore and I found out it would cost more than a new drill to buy a couple of replacements. So when a cord is not a hindrance, I use a corded tool, and I save the battery tools for the other jobs.

What do you do with all these tools you rehab? Surely you've got more than you can use. Do you just keep them, or do you sell them, or what?

Sweet! I assume Dremel bits interchange? If so, I would surely like a link to where you got it. (edit) Never mind, found it. Whoo, that's pricey.

Thanks. It's a real drag. I can hardly do anything without getting tired out.

I had a drill like that back in the late 1970s. I have bronchitis right now, and that drill is exactly the color of what I've been coughing up.

Regarding the 3/8" to 1/2" thing: As I considered whether to move up, I had a nagging feeling that I had done it once already. I'm thinking to myself, didn't I buy a big drill before? Where is it now? Why does this seem familiar? And then I remembered - the "big drill" was the Makita 3/8" I bought in 1993, and I'd moved up from this 1/4" drill: Remember when the 1/4" drill was more or less the standard? Now you never even see them. This, by the way, is probably why I hold a drill like a pistol with my index finger on the switch. Look at it; there's no other way you could hold it.

The wood was smoking, or the drill was?

No, I mainly said that because DeWalt is more of a known quantity for me. But I had a chance to read more reviews and at this point the only thing that's likely to make me take it back is the weird positioning of the reverse switch; I'll know whether that's a problem when I test it out for the first time. I have a Hitachi chainsaw and I like it. It's branded Tanaka, but it's piece-for-piece identical to the same saw sold under the Hitachi brand: Hitachi even ditched the green color for the chainsaws. They used to be Hitachi green, now they're orange like every other chainsaw. Anyway, it's a good saw; not a Stihl, but decent.

I'd be interested to hear about anything you try that is available with reader lenses. I have a pair of Elvex with +2.0 lenses that are pretty much indispensable at this point.

New 1/2" drill: For the story on how I chose it, go here: In a related question, here's a poll: how do you hold a drill? My whole life I've gripped the handle with my palm and put my index finger on the trigger, like a gun; but every advertising picture I've seen of people using drills shows the guy with his index finger along the side of the drill body like you'd hold a handsaw, with middle and ring finger on the trigger. And now a lot of drills, like this one, have rubber grips in that area where these guys are putting their index finger. What say you?

Keep those pliers away from your banana!

Well, because... Uh, because it's... Uh... You know, that's a really good point. You changed my thinking on what I was doing. I went out to HD and Lowe's to look at drills today and although I still didn't really have a 1/2" drill in mind when I left the house, I came back with one: The internet user ratings on 1/2" drills kind of back you up. Certainly they did for this one. The 3/8" Hitachi has really uneven reviews, and when you read between the lines you get the impression that the people who do like it don't have a lot of experience to make a comparison. But go up to the 1/2" model and the reviews are a lot more consistently positive and knowledgeable. It's 9 amps, at 4.6lb it's light as 1/2" drills go, it has a lock-on button, and it was stupid cheap for a 1/2" drill: $79, and I had an 11% coupon, bringing it to $70.31. With this drill in the store I don't know how Lowe's ever sells any of their competing Kobalt model, which has about the same power specs but weighs 6lb and costs $10 more. I'm still a teeny bit unsure about this decision. The 10-amp DeWalt 1/2" was not that much more: $99, or $88.11 with that coupon, and it has a rotating handle. But it's heavier, and it doesn't have a lock-on button or a case. And the case, strangely enough, was what finally tipped me. I like having a case. Keeps things organized. But as you can see, I haven't fired it up yet, and I may still decide to go back for the DeWalt instead. Sorry, Caterpillar; that 6302H you found looks mighty nice, and I want it, but I'm leery of buying things like this from random ebay sellers, and the best price I've found on it outside of ebay is $129. Can't justify that; I'm already stepping outside what I would have spent for a 3/8". But hey, I am gonna fix my 6404 again, so I'll still have that.

How so?

I did go and look, and you're right. Might just have a new frontrunner.

Pretty sure Hitachi is Japanese, like Makita, but it's been a long, long time since I've seen a made in Japan power tool. So you're probably right that it's Chinese made. I'll have a look at the Ridgid.