qadsan Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Over the years, more power tools have been coming with built in work lights. I've heard a number of people refer to the LED's as gimmicks and that may be the case for their applications. But we find the built in illumination on some of our tools to be very handy, especially when working in an attic, or inside a cabinet or closet, or when working at commercial sites that do not yet have power, or simply when working at night, etc. A tool with a built in LED work light certainly doesn't replace a standalone good work light, but the extra illumination sure makes things easier for my aging eyes. I took the built in illumination for granted on some of our tools and didn't really begin to appreciate it until I was stuck using our tools without the built in illumination on few too many jobs. To me, having the LED illumination is much more than a gimmick. It's definitely a feature I look for in some tools, especially in the smaller cordless tools we use. I'm glad to see Dewalt is finally putting LED's in their new drill / drivers and impact drivers. I would definitely like to see LED illumination in the impact wrenches such as the DW059. In addition, it would also be nice if Dewalt added LED illumination to their cordless saws (both reciprocating and circular) because it doesn't cost much to add, and they don't have to use much battery life, and LED's have a very long life / low failure rate and they're very durable. Our work day doesn't end at 5PM and in fact we often work into the night so we face as little traffic as possible when we drive home. At the end of the day when we're cleaning up and cutting up old cabinets & counter tops, appliances, etc, the extra lighting on the saws would surely come in handy for us. I'd like to see future drills and drivers using a LED light ring in front of the clutch ring. A ring of light would allow the 'entire' area around the work piece to be better illuminated. The ring itself could be a multi-switch to turn on the LED's all the time (until turned off) or to turn on the LED's only when the trigger is engaged, or to turn on the LED's when the trigger is engaged and leave them on for 10 seconds after you the trigger is disengaged such as done by Makita. I believe that having a choice to use the LED's, and how / when they're used or simply choosing not use them at all would certainly go a long ways towards meeting the wants / needs of more people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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