Jpgwoodworking

I’m surprised by how many guys use longevity as the only criteria for quality. “My Ryobi is 8 years old and still turns when I pull the trigger, so it’s just as good as XYZ.” To me, power, speed, ergonomics, compactness, weight, comfort, etc, all matter nearly as much as longevity. I started buying the flagship Bosch 18v and corded tools several years ago when I got tired of replacing things that shouldn’t be disposable. I was happy with them but started looking for a new platform when I was outfitting one of my enclosed trailers as I only wanted to carry one type of batteries/chargers and Bosch has refused to produce, import, or discontinued many of the tools I need. Originally I purchased two sets of the top of the line Ridgid Gen 5X brushless hammer drill, impacts, and circular saws, based on being pleased with the Ridgid 7 1/4” sliding miter saw and somewhat content with their 18 gauge cordless brad nailer I had been using for awhile. Unfortunately, their tools felt bulky, unbalanced, and underpowered. Their drills were also extremely noisy and high pitched. I ended up going and buying a pair of the Dewalt 887 impact drivers, their 991 and 996 drills, and the 6 1/2 and 7 1/4 circular saws. My workers and I did a head to head comparison and the Dewalt tools blew the Ridgid stuff away, which I ended up returning. There was no comparison in terms of speed, weight, and overall feel. The impacts were significantly slower and struggled driving things like timberlock fasteners and even deck screws, their circular saws could be easily bogged down when ripping 2x material, even compared to the brushed Dewalt 6 1/2 saw, etc. I eventually purchased the Dewalt 18 gauge cordless brad nailer also, which I expected I would return as the Ridgid just didn’t have enough power and versatility getting into corners to be used on anything more than small jobs like replacing a front door casing. I was wrong and the Dewalt has become my go to, replacing my pneumatic guns even on larger jobs like multi-day wainscoting and crown moulding projects. I’ve also since found that my Ridgid batteries after a little over 2 years only seem to last around half as long as they did when new. Unfortunately their “lifetime service agreement” doesn’t apply to batteries purchased separately from tool kits, so it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on there. The Ridgid 7 1/4” sliding miter saw is better than the Dewalt, as it is dual bevel, more powerful, and lasted longer when the batteries were new. I say all this as someone who wasn’t a Dewalt fan at all, but eventually became one after trying several brands. They were blowing a buddy’s Makita stuff away on a job I did with him last week also. All that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if my Bosch stuff is still chugging along in a decade and my Dewalt stuff only lasts half that long. For commercial applications bordering on abuse like drilling 1000 holes in steel a week, I’d go Bosch or Milwaukee M18 and give up the benefits of the newer more modern stuff. Also nothing wrong with Ryobi or Ridgid for a crew of guys that don’t treat them like they cost $.

We have two Home Depot’s and two Lowe’s here, one of each on the west side about half a mile apart and one of each on the east side about two miles apart. The east side of town is much busier and the Lowe’s there is terrible. I drive past it close to 5 days a week to get to Home Depot, where I spend roughly $1,000 a week. It it seems like Home Depot gets to pick all of the better products to carry (Diablo blades, Spax screws, Custom thinset and grout, not to mention the other inventory and employees.) I can walk into Lowe’s to grab a box of #10 x 1” pan head sheet metal screws and they will be out of them. I always walk out cursing. Their employees are 90% heavyset black women who view customers as an inconvenience, and I have nothing again black people or women. If if I were Lowe’s, I’d be popping stores up in more rural areas where Home Depot is a hike, rather than trying to go head to head with them. Sadly, the Home Depot on our side of town has recently been dropping the ball regularly as well. They seem to stock the shelves at 9 am on Mondays which is when most of the contractors buy materials, and have to wait on aisles closed off with forklifts. It’s common to see only one lane of the pro/lumberyard checkout open, with 6-10 guys waiting in line, and their lumber selection has gone from average to piss poor over the last 12 months while prices have gone up 10-20%. I buy all my trim from a local lumberyard, but I asked them and they aren’t interested in carrying cabinet/finish grade plywood besides their birch which has paper thin veneers and warps as soon as you rip a sheet. Truly quality plywood is running $80-$85/sheet compared to the $36/sheet I’m currently paying. Customers started balking a bit the last time I raised my prices, not sure what I’m going to do.

The Prop 65 stuff is ridiculous. I recently bought a fishing tackle bag that had the warning on it and wondered WTF? Their logic is that most people will put some sort of lead weights in the bag, and we know that lead exposure can cause cancer. How stupid is that? That’s like an extension cord having a carbon monoxide warning because you might plug it into a generator inside your garage. California is basically the textbook example of the boy who cried wolf.

The totes are great for storing job specific hardware and small items that you want to keep track of rather than getting pat in a pile of Home Depot bags. They are also nice for cleaning up at the end of the day when you’re running behind and don’t want to put everything away where it goes, but not scatter it everywhere either. Just stay on top of cleaning them out every so often so they don’t turn into permanent junk drawers. Nice job job with the tough system boxes. That type of organization is really nice for keeping accessories with tools, and less commonly used tools. For stuff like drills, impacts, screwdrivers, tape measures, etc, I’ve found the rolling mechanic style toolboxes work really well. Pull out the drawer and grab what you need. As as far as securing the bigger tools to the wall, look into a piece of e- track and the mounting accessories. Straps like these can be permanently attached to the stands at the same height and clicked into the track easily. https://www.amazon.com/DC-Cargo-Mall-Tie-Downs-Securement/dp/B016PO7TCG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1545663787&sr=8-7&keywords=E+track+rings

I carry 24” in 48” Empire levels in my trailer as they get beat up riding around, used as straightedges, etc. I have 24” and 48” lighted Stabilas along with the 32”/78” jamber set that life at my shop but come out when something needs to be level. The Stabilas have pissed a few customers off when they found out their houses/floors weren’t level (not my work). I will argue on behalf on my $100+ German levels or offer to check it with my laser.

We are talking 7 1/4 here, not Flexvolt.

I use the regular Diablo 40t on mine, there are no issues with the hook angle on 18v/20v miter saws. On larger corded saws they can pull the head towards you, but it doesn’t happen with the battery powered ones, they just aren’t powerful enough.

I don’t know what you’d call it, but it appears to be a set of shears, I’m assuming hydraulically powered, similar to the jaws of life tools. If you only have a few tires to cut, an angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel does ok, but it smokes.

There might be 3 hp routers that are the same size and weight as the 2 1/4 hp units, but a lot of them are too big and heavy for precise hand held routing IMO. If you get one of those to use in a router table, I’d pick up a palm router for smaller tasks. My Bosch MRC23 doesn’t have any problems running cope and stick bits to build cabinet doors, or an 1 3/4” surfacing bit in oak. If you plan to run the very large raised panel bits in one pass, I’d step up to a bigger machine though. These are big bits, almost 2” diameter and they hog out a lot of material. https://www.cpooutlets.com/freud-99-762-shaker-adjustable-stile-and-rail-router-bits/feun99-762,default,pd.html?ref=pla&zmam=31282435&zmas=47&zmac=722&zmap=feun99-762&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk_TbBRDsARIsAALJSOaXmbrGCRQ7QIIGyaXfHBp06nMqBke5JPS1qJvG1D1wiSbg6htIQtEaAhrEEALw_wcB

The older ones did have a screw in there, my 791 and 996 I purchased in 2018 do not. Display models on store shelves do. The 996 is made in the USA, the 791 is made in Mexico. I haven’t had to take the chucks off yet, but I’m hoping the chuck retaining screw was just replaced with loctite or some other sealant, rather than dimpling/peening the drill arbor to hold the chuck on. That would effectively make the tool disposable for a bad chuck, but might explain the wobble with quality chucks. It would seem Dewalt should have issued a service bulletin to their repair centers with the updated design, they should know better than anyone. Might be worth a phone call.

I run the 6 ah Flexvolts in the 20v miter saw and 20v 7 1/4 circular saw. They make a noticeable difference in power and run time over the 5 ah’s, I typically get multiple days with it with a lot of cutting like running wainscoting. I think the 9 ah was primarily developed to give the 577 worm drive style saw better run time. Keep in mind when run in the Flexvolt tools they are only 2 ah and 3 ah batteries.

Commercial shop. The majority of the time I imagine I’d leave the jointer in it, which is also the longest machine. The infeed and outfeed tables would be permanently mounted to the wall, so they wouldn’t need to be supported by the machines, but would leave various sized gaps. I don’t think the gaps would be a big deal though, as long as the machine is pushed up against the outfeed table so it’s not moving around. Things I’m imagining might be an issue are 16’ of friction, which could probably be prevented using something slick like hardboard, and whether an extended fence would be helpful. The shop would be long enough to store the machines lined up on their rolling stands at the end of the outfeed table, so they would be easy to move into place or use without the extensions if they aren’t needed. Materials racks underneath would also be nice.

Thanks, I’ve seen that before. I’m actually talking about building permanently mounted 16’ infeed and outfeed tables with a gap in the middle for the various tools to mount in though.

Hopefully I can explain this clearly enough to make sense. My current shop is 25’x25’and not large enough to work with 16’ material inside it. I have a miter saw station and assembly table inside, but typically work on the slab outside with mobile support stands when I need to rip or plane full length stock. If all works out well, hopefully I will have a 25’x50’ shop soon and have enough room to do it inside. I’d like to build a permanent work station along one wall that would allow my jointer, planer, band saw, router table, and table saw to be rolled into it to deal with 16’ material. The table saw will sit in the middle of the shop most of the time with a smaller outfeed table. Obviously getting everything on bases where it is the exact same height and using locking casters will be the keys to it. Dust collection will also be easy since it will simplify duct routing. Curious is anyone has seen or done anything like this before and tips/problems you’ve run into. Thanks.

Curious about the same. It needs to have wheels and casters and a handle to serve as the base. Really hope they come out with this, they’ve been knocking out everything else on my wish list lately! https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-16-Gal-6-5-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vacuum-WD1851/100638360

Interesting. Would have figured this as a Milwaukee release due to their popularity with plumbers. They must be doing a “soft test” after the nailer problems.

Pretty much agree. Only thing I’ve been surprised by with Hardie is that it will flake apart and rot if it’s not kept sealed and painted.

Nice! This is one of the tools I’ve been waiting on, I’ll be grabbing it for sure. I use my Ridgid cordless pretty regularly for flush trimming, chamfers and roundovers, the batteries last long enough to be useful. It’s not going to be a 1/2” collet tool for running big bits and hogging out a bunch of material.

I’m not impressed with the 5ah batteries honestly. I have a bunch of 2 ah’s for drills, impacts, and small tools, and a bunch of the 6ah Flexvolts for saws, fan, vacuum, blower, etc. The Flexvolts are a significant increase in both power and run time for everything I use them in, but they are too heavy and bulky for the 6 1/2” trim saw and compact brushless recip. I use the 5 ah batteries in those tools, but it’s not uncommon to use 3 batteries in a day working by myself. The 2 ah’s and Flexvolts last close to a week in the tools I use them in. The 3 ah would be nice for the OMT, as it’s a battery hog but best kept light and compact.

I have to agree, especially once you start adding extra Flexvolt batteries. I went with the 718 corded 12” miter saw over the Flexvolt since I didn’t want to dedicate 4 batteries to it, but now that I have a bunch I wish I had gotten the Flexvolt instead. I mainly use the 7 1/4” slider though, so it’s not a big deal. The new tool I’d really like to see is a 60v Flexvolt shop vac that has a handle and wheels to be a Tough System base. If they had that, it would be possible to use the 120v Flexvolt miter saw adapter as long as you ran the table saw and vacuum together. It would require some wiring pigtails and switch modifications, but a guy with average electrical skills could make it work.

The fact that people are still complaining about the 20v being “false advertising” is borderline absurd, it is everywhere these days. IMO, this falls into the same category as whining that a 2x4 only measures 1.5”x3”, or truck manufacturers claiming towing capacities of “up to 12,500 lbs” only applying to regular cab 2wd trucks with the lowest gear ratios, rather than how 95% of the trucks sold are configured. It was necessary to call it something different both to promote the new line as well as prevent consumers from buying something that was incompatible with what they already had and being angry about that. To the OP, if the batteries are the same style (20v and 18v) with the slide in packs, they are interchangeable with chargers, etc. If they are the older style stem that plugs in, they are not compatible without the conversion kit.

Kind of disappointed in Dewalt’s releases. Not necessarily in the usefulness, just the limited number. I was really hoping to see an updated 20v brushless 7 1/4” or 10” miter saw and 20v jigsaw (barrel grip). I’m not waiting on the 120v Flexvolt table saw but I know many are. They have about 17 different radios and lights, but a Flexvolt vacuum and more Tough System components seem like they would be in high demand.

Get some wobble extensions and impact u-joints. The standard cross style u joints are garbage and will just break things with power tools.

12v tools aren’t worth considering for mechanic work. I love my Bosch 12v stuff for finish carpentry, they will drive 3 1/4” screws without any problem and run a forstner bit for cabinet door hinges, but they fall short when trying to break loose even a 10mm bolt or drill out a broken 1/4” stud. Mechanic and metal work is 18v territory, hands down. I still don’t understand why you seem to want to get rid of everything and start from scratch when you already have quality tools.

There’s no real need to have work and home tools on the same platform if you don’t carry them back and forth. Are you doing construction work or mechanic work? If both, you really need to keep the tools separate. I’ve been hanging a fan or light and ended up with black smudges all over the ceiling because I had used that screwdriver to work on a vehicle. I’d use the Milwaukee stuff for clean jobs, consolidate the Dewalt stuff for dirty jobs with a pair of the 20v batteries and adapter, take the Bosch stuff home and get rid of the Makita and Black and Decker. You’ve already got 4 quality brands (Milwaukee, Dewalt, Bosch, and Makita), so it would be foolish to get rid of those and buy a bunch of junk Ryobi stuff instead. Also, if your Makita drill is outdated there’s really no reason to convert everything to them.