Tools you wish you'd bought sooner...

[Rampant Golf]

I just bought a 9inch grinder to chop through some roofing sheets. What a beast

[Yabu]

Teddy Lop said:

Baldchap said:

dickymint said:

Hate my multitool (Makita of course) as the very few times I've actually needed it I just know that it's to bodge something!!

They're not just for bodging. I've used mine a lot for fitting plug sockets in stud walls.

£5 jab saw will do that all day long

A jab saw will cut them out but a multi tool does it without damage to the back side of the board which can happen if the jab saw is used to plunge cut, be it that the extra plasterboard that comes off doesn’t matter 99% of the time or the damage can avoided in other ways

[Ynox]

Birthday in a week or so.

Wondering what tool to get for £100 or so, tempted by the McAllister plunge saw.

Got the usual lot although not all cordless (drill, driver, SDS, router, inflator, multi tool, circular saw, jigsaw, planer, grinder). I don't have a cordless SDS, but unless I'm drilling lintels my house has pretty soft walls that a combi works fine on.

Maybe it's time for some nice allen key sockets or something! Or an Estwing claw hammer. Tempted by a laser level also, although a green laser one is over budget!

[Ynox]

Fentalogue chic said:

Where do you buy acetylene after the apocalypse though? BOC will be nothing but rubble and rotting corpses.

Build an acetylene generator https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/acetyl...

[anonymous-user]

Ynox said:

Birthday in a week or so.

Wondering what tool to get for £100 or so, tempted by the McAllister plunge saw.

Got the usual lot although not all cordless (drill, driver, SDS, router, inflator, multi tool, circular saw, jigsaw, planer, grinder). I don't have a cordless SDS, but unless I'm drilling lintels my house has pretty soft walls that a combi works fine on.

Maybe it's time for some nice allen key sockets or something! Or an Estwing claw hammer. Tempted by a laser level also, although a green laser one is over budget!

Serious suggestion (although it won’t seem like it is): for a bit under £100 the best thing I bought recently was a Bosch Professional torch. I thought it would be something I’d use once in a blue moon, but it’s genuinely been one of the most useful bits of kit I’ve bought in ages. Never underestimate how useful it is being able to flood whatever you’re working on in very bright light.

[Biggy Stardust]

Du1point8 said:

I went blue....

https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dlx2221st-18v-5-...

Lets see if I regret not going red later... for what I want it for it looks good and it comes with the 5.0 batteries instead of the 4.0 which I kind of was drawn to in the end.

It has the 110min charger.

I have these- I find the impact driver isn't man enough for some of the bigger jobs. I bought a slightly smaller el cheapo Makita-lookey-likey that does a better job. You might find you'll need to do the same for chunkier jobs.

[Griffith4ever]

DeWalt 18v circular saw. It's amazing! The cheaper brushed one. 165mm?

Have a Ryobi one which is so useless it won't rip a whole sheet of ply. Made me think cordless saws were no use.

The DeWalt goes on and on and on. So nice being cable free.

[Harry Flashman]

Yet my ryobi 18v brushless circular saw is great. I have been cutting 40mm oak worktop with it quite happily, and any sort of ply is a breeze.

The safety cutout is a but sensitive, but that's just about adapting your technique and also a feature I quite like working well on a circular saw...

[Ynox]

BlackWidow13 said:

Serious suggestion (although it won’t seem like it is): for a bit under £100 the best thing I bought recently was a Bosch Professional torch. I thought it would be something I’d use once in a blue moon, but it’s genuinely been one of the most useful bits of kit I’ve bought in ages. Never underestimate how useful it is being able to flood whatever you’re working on in very bright light.

Nice idea. Makita do a flood light which is LXT or mains!

[4Q]

Fatboy said:

4Q said:

Slightly O/T but I spent last weekend putting my power tools on the wall, along with some of the battery mounts mentioned earlier in the thread

Nice, but you should have put some sockets higher up for the chargers...

I may well copy your idea :-)

The shed (and the wiring) is still a work in progress so more sockets are planned. I might start a build thread soon.

[Lily the Pink]

4Q said:

The shed (and the wiring) is still a work in progress so more sockets are planned. I might start a build thread soon.

Doesn't matter how many sockets you put in, it won't be enough.

[mercedeslimos]

4Q said:

The shed (and the wiring) is still a work in progress so more sockets are planned. I might start a build thread soon.

This is what we want. Plenty of pictures to satisfy those us of living vicariously!

The shed will be the first thing done once I've my first house bought (fk you Covid mortgage bull!)

[basherX]

BlackWidow13 said:

Serious suggestion (although it won’t seem like it is): for a bit under £100 the best thing I bought recently was a Bosch Professional torch. I thought it would be something I’d use once in a blue moon, but it’s genuinely been one of the most useful bits of kit I’ve bought in ages. Never underestimate how useful it is being able to flood whatever you’re working on in very bright light.

I agree. I bought this one (https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcl050-xj-18v-li-ion-xr-cordless-led-work-light-bare/7730G?tc=GA3&ds_kid=92700055256569560&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=CjwKCAjwuIWHBhBDEiwACXQYsRWKz9oYDG_vsBSgj9Rk8Zt6JnQ-XEH45Pq7QEwrshaQMcZ4-l16rxoCEVYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) albeit can’t recall if it came from screwfix or somewhere else, maybe Amazon. Certainly a very handy thing for those of us who are starting to find it hard to focus on screw heads when our heads are buried on some dark corner…

[basherX]

Ynox said:

Birthday in a week or so.

Wondering what tool to get for £100 or so, tempted by the McAllister plunge saw.

Got the usual lot although not all cordless (drill, driver, SDS, router, inflator, multi tool, circular saw, jigsaw, planer, grinder). I don't have a cordless SDS, but unless I'm drilling lintels my house has pretty soft walls that a combi works fine on.

Maybe it's time for some nice allen key sockets or something! Or an Estwing claw hammer. Tempted by a laser level also, although a green laser one is over budget!

I bought the McAllister plunge saw a month or so ago. Really useful and easily adequate for DIY

[basherX]

Griffith4ever said:

DeWalt 18v circular saw. It's amazing! The cheaper brushed one. 165mm?

Have a Ryobi one which is so useless it won't rip a whole sheet of ply. Made me think cordless saws were no use.

The DeWalt goes on and on and on. So nice being cable free.

I also have this. I did the whole framing of my 4x3x3 shed, including pitched roof and door (with half lap joints thrown in for added faff) with that and an impact driver (hadn’t bought a nail gun at that point, have now). Amazing bit of kit.

[PushedDover]

I've an old hobby level Dewalt 18V hammer drill.
The batteries are goosed, and the cheap replacements have not faired well either....


Option A) replace drill with new inc batteries - something like this ? https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcd778m2t-sfgb-1...

Option B) New batteries.


dc725 dewalt battery recommendations that are any good?

[Teddy Lop]

BlackWidow13 said:

Serious suggestion (although it won’t seem like it is): for a bit under £100 the best thing I bought recently was a Bosch Professional torch. I thought it would be something I’d use once in a blue moon, but it’s genuinely been one of the most useful bits of kit I’ve bought in ages. Never underestimate how useful it is being able to flood whatever you’re working on in very bright light.

Sure I said it before but machine mart make an 18v floodlight with adapter plates for all popular makes for £40 - much better value than the brands overpriced efforts.

[akirk]

Lily the Pink said:

4Q said:

The shed (and the wiring) is still a work in progress so more sockets are planned. I might start a build thread soon.

Doesn't matter how many sockets you put in, it won't be enough.

Having just rebuilt and rewired the shed(s) we put in separate circuits including one of red plugs for all the power tools which is separately isolated for safety… I think we managed 98 plugs!

[Griffith4ever]

Harry Flashman said:

Yet my ryobi 18v brushless circular saw is great. I have been cutting 40mm oak worktop with it quite happily, and any sort of ply is a breeze.

The safety cutout is a but sensitive, but that's just about adapting your technique and also a feature I quite like working well on a circular saw...

My Ryobi is not the brushless one. It's the Ryobi LCS180. A very different beast form a brushless saw (mind you my Dewalt is the basic brushed one). It doesn't cut out, it simply grinds to a slow halt. Stall after stall. I think it helps a lot the Dewalt has a much thnner kerf blade.

Lots of other reviews mention it's absolutely useless, and yet there are a chunk of positive reviews too - I wonder if they had batch problems.

I took mine to the timber yard to rip a few sheets of 12mm ply and it failed doing just one, with a healthy big battery. No better at home. 40mm worktop? not a chance.

This is one of many reviews from Amazon and reflext my experience.

"I have previously owned a set of Ryobi rechargeable tools, and loved them to bits. They were passed on to my brother when he got into his new house, and I got myself some upgraded tools, including a new rechargeable Ryobi drill set and this saw. I was assuming I would get similiar or better performance than with my old set. I was wrong.

I do not use this saw for anything intensive - simple cuts in soft wood or quick projects. This saw can handle about 5 or six cuts into soft wood before running down and stopping. Useless to the point of being dangerous - a saw stopping mid cut is not a good proposition.

I did not realize how poor the performance on these new tools was in time to return them to Amazon. I had purchased them as a general replacement and not with any specific job in mind. I contacted Ryobi and was told that everything sounded about right with the performance of this saw - that it uses a lot of power, and suggested that I purchase new sets of batteries so that I could cycle them through."

[blueST]

I think to an extent the problem you have is the same for all nominally 18v power tool. I don’t know what size batteries you have, but anything under 5ah struggles deliver the current to keep the really power hungry tools happy. It’s not so much the ah rating as the lithium cells they use within. The are normally 18650 size cells which have too much internal resistance for really demanding tools. The voltage drops too much under load and causes the protection to cut in and stop the tool. You hear this a lot with Milwaukee too (same parent company as Ryobi) and the solution seems to be to buy the 9.0 high output batteries that use bigger lithium cells that can flow more current. They are pricey though.

Unless you need the mobility, mains is still best for big saws I reckon.