[Mastercraft plastic tool issue - chemical breakdown?]

Over molding on the grip will breakdown. It depends on the chemical it’s exposed to, some are much worse.
It has a funny smell to it, like barf.

Some housings can react with other cleaners, solvents etc.




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In the 80s a lot of screwdrivers and nutdrivers, notably from Xcelite, Vaco and Craftsman were made of a plastic called cellulose acetate butyrate or CAB for short. They used it because it was chemical and shock resistant. THAT is the stuff that smells like barf. I have quite a few pieces. It often forms a white coating on the surface that is mistaken for mould. It can be scrubbed off but it comes back. I was not aware anyone was still using it for tool parts. It is a slightly rubbery plastic that is usually some transparant color.

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[Greenlee (Textron) aquires Ridgid!]

Read your link again. You have it all turned around. Emerson Electric owns the Ridgid name. They manufacture the red plumbing tools. They used to or still make shop vacuums for Sears and HD. They made some heavier stuff like drill presses for Sears, back in the day. They have a license deal that allows TTI to make the orange and gray Ridgid stuff that Home Depot uses as a house brand. Home depot is just paying to slap the name of a company with a good reputation on their products. Emerson's aquisition of Textron has nothing to do with their licensing of the Ridgid brand name. Companies rent their names out all the time for products they have nothing to do with. Norhing has changed as far as HD tools are concerned.

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[Dewalt batteries 18v vs 20v]

Maybe you missed this somehow but nothing in your post wasn’t already covered in HiltiWpg’s very post that you’re quoting

No, I was disagreeing with his statement that 4 volts is the no load voltage. It is not. It is the peak voltage reached at completion of charge. To repeat, under a no load condition a cell that is even slightly discharged does not read 4 volts. I guess the difference was lost on you.

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[Dewalt batteries 18v vs 20v]

The cell voltage is 3.6 vdc.
3.6 x 5 series cells is 18 vdc.
In series, the amperage stays the same.
In parallel, the current adds up and the voltage stays the same.
Higher capacity battery packs are made up of combinations of 5 series cells, in parallel groups of 2 or 3, and in some cases 4 .
Hilti uses 21.6 volt batteries as they use 6 cells in series/combinations.

The voltage is 3.6 per cell as specified by the cell manufacturer. The “Max” term is used to describe the no-load voltage measurement.
The 20V max description is misleading and inaccurate as the battery pack will NEVER deliver 20 volts to the tool under any load.

It’s marketing bullshit. Plain and simple.


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It is actually the peak voltage that the cells reach at full charge. It is around 4.0 volts a cell or even a little higher. 5 x4=20. When you start to use the tool the cell voltage quickly drops to 3.6 volts and stays pretty close to that value until the cell has supplied most of it's charge. Lithium batteries are damaged if they are discharged too far so the pack shuts off to prevent this from happening. The cell spends most of the discharge cycle around 3.6 volts whether under load or not.

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