Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[gtidriver]

loughran said:

Promised Land said:

loughran said:

I bought a Ferstool TXS 18 a month ago and I really like it !

I've been using the same Makita drill for maybe 15 years now and despite fitting a new chuck a few months ago due to slippage, it's been faultless and I've used it a lot. Literally thousands of hours of trouble free use.

But I am fickle and was seduced by Festool and their slick stacking systainers.

As it turns out, the TXS is lovely, it balances nicely in the hand, has a bigger footprint than my Makita so is more stable sitting on a surface and at 1370g is noticeably lighter than the 1760g Makita.

It's come with a 3 amp hour 18v battery which is plenty for me but will take a 4 ah battery if you're extra busy. The torque setting is electronic and beeps rather than the mechanical ratchet sound I'm used to but it works well enough. The motor is brushless.

I like it a lot. It feels nice, looks nice, has plenty of power and is a pleasure to use. Whether it lasts 15 years, who knows.... but at that price it blooming better.

Your bit looks past it’s best but why are you using an impact bit in a drill driver and not in a magnetic holder either?

For screws, an impact driver is far better, I’ve got 5 drill drivers. (Makita) and 2 impact drivers and the 5 drills do just that drill holes, they don’t put screws in.

You’re into the Festool family now then, a bit like Apple, those shiny boxes will multiply.

Horses for courses but impact drivers are not for me. I've tried them but they just don't suit the type of work I do.

But yes, I know what you mean, those shiny boxes do grow on you.

I have 4 sets of roll boards stacked high plus the midi vacuum. I'm doing some decking in my garden at the moment and I'm regretting not buying the battery powered saw that's attached to a track saw, don't have cable issues in my garage, a pain having to hook up a extension lead. Might buy the cordless one actually.

Edited by gtidriver on Saturday 4th May 23:28

[ridds]

May have been suggested before....

This


Absolute game changer if you have outdoor areas that gather leaves or a large driveway.

Even handy for blowing crap out of the inside of your car, including the dash vents.

[gtidriver]

Nice but what are the batteries like these days. I've binned all my Makita stuff as the batteries just failed. I think I had around 14 batteries from 10.8v to 24v maystars, all failed. When I complained to makita all I got was there is nothing wrong with our battles, whilst looking at page after page of dead Makita batteries on eBay.

[ridds]

gtidriver said:

Nice but what are the batteries like these days. I've binned all my Makita stuff as the batteries just failed. I think I had around 14 batteries from 10.8v to 24v maystars, all failed. When I complained to makita all I got was there is nothing wrong with our battles, whilst looking at page after page of dead Makita batteries on eBay.

I've had mine for a couple of years now and swapping between the 2 batteries I have on a quick charger (charger was used off amazon and the fan makes a noise) I've never been short of electrons as yet.

The early 10V stuff I had did die after a few years but the 18V ones I have now have been spot on so far (for me).

[R6tty]

gtidriver said:

Nice but what are the batteries like these days. I've binned all my Makita stuff as the batteries just failed. I think I had around 14 batteries from 10.8v to 24v maystars, all failed. When I complained to makita all I got was there is nothing wrong with our battles, whilst looking at page after page of dead Makita batteries on eBay.

I've got ten genuine Makita 18v batteries (Well I did. Nine now. They walk). They have been going for some years.
ALL of the non-Makita ones I've bought in the past have failed in one way or another.

[B'stard Child]

Sway said:

skwdenyer said:

Sway said:

In my case, I've a basin tap with a broken lock nut so the tap wobbles - but the water feed doesn't have an isolation valve so I'd have to drain down the entire system to replace with a normal nut.

Idea with this is wrap it around the pipe and slide up to retighten the tap against the basin.

You could, of course, use a pipe-freezer, install an isolator, and change the nut. In line with the usual way of this thread, that would allow you to justify a cool pipe freezer for your tool collection

Ooh, that's tempting... Especially as they're plastic locknuts across every single tap in the house, two have already broken - and I'd quite like to replace all 19 in the house, along with fitting isolators... £120 doesn't seem unreasonable for a freezing kit to enable that.

Make sure you use full bore isolators not the std cheap ones - it’s quite surprising the impact the std ones have to flow rates on taps - especially on gravity head systems - maybe not so much on a mains fed system but at least with full bore ones you aren’t going to notice any difference

[The Gauge]

ridds said:

May have been suggested before....

This


Absolute game changer if you have outdoor areas that gather leaves or a large driveway.

Even handy for blowing crap out of the inside of your car, including the dash vents.

I have that same blower as well as the dust collection bag so if you put the nozzle on the side port you can use it as a vac.

[Doofus]

You need a basin wrench

[gtidriver]

R6tty said:

gtidriver said:

Nice but what are the batteries like these days. I've binned all my Makita stuff as the batteries just failed. I think I had around 14 batteries from 10.8v to 24v maystars, all failed. When I complained to makita all I got was there is nothing wrong with our battles, whilst looking at page after page of dead Makita batteries on eBay.

I've got ten genuine Makita 18v batteries (Well I did. Nine now. They walk). They have been going for some years.
ALL of the non-Makita ones I've bought in the past have failed in one way or another.

All my batteries were genuine ones.

[dickymint]

gtidriver said:

R6tty said:

gtidriver said:

Nice but what are the batteries like these days. I've binned all my Makita stuff as the batteries just failed. I think I had around 14 batteries from 10.8v to 24v maystars, all failed. When I complained to makita all I got was there is nothing wrong with our battles, whilst looking at page after page of dead Makita batteries on eBay.

I've got ten genuine Makita 18v batteries (Well I did. Nine now. They walk). They have been going for some years.
ALL of the non-Makita ones I've bought in the past have failed in one way or another.

All my batteries were genuine ones.

You mentioned eBay complaints? Did you buy from there? I just find it difficult to get my head round 14 Makita Li-Ion batteries all failing

Older Ni-Cd batteries would by now.

[donkmeister]

Battery misuse? Doing the things you were meant to do to avoid "memory" with other battery chemistries?

Some will always carry over old habits... I know someone who took years to learn to not press stop before ffwd a DVD. Bet that will perplex anyone born after DVRs took over from VHS .

[GeneralBanter]

donkmeister said:

GeneralBanter said:

Sway said:

tumble dryer said:

Sway said:

skwdenyer said:

GeneralBanter said:

skwdenyer said:

Split nuts

Could be handy

That looks very interesting.

Yep, that looks like exactly what I need!

I'm lost.

How exactly do these work, and where would you use them, and for that matter, how do you use them?

In my case, I've a basin tap with a broken lock nut so the tap wobbles - but the water feed doesn't have an isolation valve so I'd have to drain down the entire system to replace with a normal nut.

Idea with this is wrap it around the pipe and slide up to retighten the tap against the basin.

I doubt the plastic one would be strong enough and I can’t see how the metal one could lock on because it can’t turn unless the part between the top and bottom halves is a crush section *.

• as I wrote this I realised that’s the answer doh

Looking at the metal one, I think the two halves are mated on a circular sliding bearing. You close it, and you have an asymmetric nut with a continuous thread across both halves. That does mean the clamping surface is only 75% or so of a whole nut, and presumably there is some weird torque against the threads at the sides (any mechanical/stress engineers thinking the same?)

However, the loads that (quality) fasteners can take are always ridiculously high compared to most domestic uses. Amazing what some grade A M8s can take along their axis.

Edited by donkmeister on Saturday 4th May 21:13

As I said it can’t turn to lock unless the centre is a crush section?

[hidetheelephants]

GeneralBanter said:

donkmeister said:

Looking at the metal one, I think the two halves are mated on a circular sliding bearing. You close it, and you have an asymmetric nut with a continuous thread across both halves. That does mean the clamping surface is only 75% or so of a whole nut, and presumably there is some weird torque against the threads at the sides (any mechanical/stress engineers thinking the same?)

However, the loads that (quality) fasteners can take are always ridiculously high compared to most domestic uses. Amazing what some grade A M8s can take along their axis.

As I said it can’t turn to lock unless the centre is a crush section?

They're held together by the annular section; turning one relative to the other will cause them to lock through either pulling apart or forcing themselves against each other.

[skwdenyer]

hidetheelephants said:

GeneralBanter said:

donkmeister said:

Looking at the metal one, I think the two halves are mated on a circular sliding bearing. You close it, and you have an asymmetric nut with a continuous thread across both halves. That does mean the clamping surface is only 75% or so of a whole nut, and presumably there is some weird torque against the threads at the sides (any mechanical/stress engineers thinking the same?)

However, the loads that (quality) fasteners can take are always ridiculously high compared to most domestic uses. Amazing what some grade A M8s can take along their axis.

As I said it can’t turn to lock unless the centre is a crush section?

They're held together by the annular section; turning one relative to the other will cause them to lock through either pulling apart or forcing themselves against each other.

The two halves are connected by a joint that has enough clearance to allow for half or one whole rotation on the threads.

No need for crush, just tolerance

For work on studding, you can buy half nuts alone, which are sufficient for many needs.

[GeneralBanter]

skwdenyer said:

The two halves are connected by a joint that has enough clearance to allow for half or one whole rotation on the threads.

No need for crush, just tolerance

For work on studding, you can buy half nuts alone, which are sufficient for many needs.

Half a rotation is what is needed and this would be would be at least 0.5mm if not 0.75mm, there's no way a thread will allow the rotation of that much unless there's tolerance between the two halves which can only be via a crush section.

[eltax91]

My dewalt cordless strimmer has just ceased to function after 5 years work. To be honest whilst I always found it decent, I do find it uncomfortable to use being quite tall. I have also probably abused it slightly. I have a 300sqm garden approx and do all the trimming with it, but I also have it thwacking down the unruly weeds out front on occassion which it struggles with.

I was thinking of going for something like a 2 stroke Hyundai 5200X (i have a push mower from them and it's great) with "Cow horn" handles. I wonder if it being a brushcutter aswell as a trimmer, is it over kill and will i destroy the edges of the garden for the lightweight trimming bit?

Any experiences before I push go?

[donkmeister]

GeneralBanter said:

skwdenyer said:

The two halves are connected by a joint that has enough clearance to allow for half or one whole rotation on the threads.

No need for crush, just tolerance

For work on studding, you can buy half nuts alone, which are sufficient for many needs.

Half a rotation is what is needed and this would be would be at least 0.5mm if not 0.75mm, there's no way a thread will allow the rotation of that much unless there's tolerance between the two halves which can only be via a crush section.

Unless, you slot it round the pipe, swing the two halves into a full round, and then fasten.

The way it's used will shed light. Whoever posted it, linky?

[V12GT]

eltax91 said:

My dewalt cordless strimmer has just ceased to function after 5 years work. To be honest whilst I always found it decent, I do find it uncomfortable to use being quite tall. I have also probably abused it slightly. I have a 300sqm garden approx and do all the trimming with it, but I also have it thwacking down the unruly weeds out front on occassion which it struggles with.

I was thinking of going for something like a 2 stroke Hyundai 5200X (i have a push mower from them and it's great) with "Cow horn" handles. I wonder if it being a brushcutter aswell as a trimmer, is it over kill and will i destroy the edges of the garden for the lightweight trimming bit?

Any experiences before I push go?

I don't have that exact one, but do use a brushcutter as well as my petrol & electric strimmers - each has their use case.

I wouldn't ever use a brushcutter alone to do the lightweight trimming / path edging (if that's what you want to do) as it's too heavy and not designed to be turned at 90 degrees to the path.

A brushcutter often has a blade rather than string too, so you need to be careful around cars / greenhouses or any stones you hit will be flung at very high speed - seemingly into the most expensive thing in the area.

But brushcutters are brilliant for brambles, bracken, heavier weeds, so if that's what you need it for, it will be a big improvement on the electric one. Cow horn handles take a bit of getting used to, but are less tiring than a standard strimmer, so that's what I use when trying to do the heavy stuff.

[Snow and Rocks]

Contrary to the previous post, I use a fairly large 4 stroke Honda brushcutter for everything on our few acre plot. It does have various metal blade attachments but spends most of its time with a heavy duty bump feed line head on it.

It happily blasts through nettles, docks, long grass etc but woody stuff needs one of the metal blades. It's also easy to use on the edges of the more formal lawns, just run it at barely above idle and it'll leave a neat finish quickly and easily. With the cow horn handles and decent harness it's comfortable to use for hours if needed, quiet and economical too being a 4 stroke.

No experience of the Hyundai but I do occasionally use an 18v Dewalt at my parents and I find it infuriatingly weedy even for lawn edging with batteries lasting no time at all. Pretty badly designed too.

Edited by Snow and Rocks on Monday 6th May 21:51

[Locoduck]

I’ve been using the dewalt 54v brushcutter (571?) for two years now and it is more than up to the task for most garden duties. It came with a blade and string trimmer attachment, both have come in handy for general lawn maintenance and some heavier work with brambles, saplings etc.
The battery (5ah?) does not last that long when doing heavy work but it is perfectly usable for tidying up edging, it is a case of trigger control, just like the petrol machines.