What took so long?

[aigheadish]

I haven't talked myself into a battery angle grinder yet, but we do have cordless mini-chainsaw that I like a lot (so does the wife!) and a low end Milwaukee circular saw that barely has the guts to do anything but I still use it much more than the plug in type. 

[Magicman]

I already had a Ridgid angle grinder but I wanted to keep the same battery platform with my sawmilling operation so I grabbed up the Milwaukee when I saw it on discount.  It is not the "Force" and was probably being phased out. 

The Ridgid was no comparison with what this Milwaukee is. 

[aigheadish]

Last time I went to the good lumber store I had them cut a few pieces down for me. He used a cordless DeWalt wormdrive that worked beautifully. I don't think I've investigated the cost, but I'm sure it's steep. If I could find a Milwaukee version that I can use my batteries in that'd be cool. 

[barbender]

Milwaukee makes a rear handle 18 volt. They aren't actually worm drive, but are set up to feel like one. I haven't used one, they are supposed to have a ton of power. I was torn between the Milwaukee, and the Metabo HPT. I ended up going with the Metabo. It was a lot cheaper and it is way lighter. 

[Magicman]

Today I noticed that another of my Ridgid batteries is not charging to the full 4 bars so I reckon that it is dying.    I still have probably 6 batteries but as they die I do not plan on replacing them.  I will take the remnants of whatever is left and assign them to the farm where the battery platform is 19.2 Craftsman.  At that point I will only have Milwaukee here and on my work truck.

Marty has both Milwaukee and Dewalt between his work trucks, but I suspect that he will gradually move toward Red as batteries die.  That is not saying that there is anything whatsoever wrong with Dewalt because they will hold their own with anything.

[SwampDonkey]

I put up the plywood on the shop walls 24'x20'x8' on one Dewalt battery, driving screws. But I'm also not using those kinds of tools every day for a living.

[Magicman]

I was just thinking out loud that he would move toward all of the trucks and tools using the same battery platform.

[barbender]

I haven't had very good luck with the 2 batteries on the Ridgid tools I have. Neither of them lasted very long, to the point I decided against getting any additional Ridgid cordless tools. 

I'm kind of heading in the Red direction myself, although I've been liking the green Metabo HPT as well. 

[TimW]

I bought a Makita 6.5 inch cordless saw for the framing of the sawmill shed.  I have a generator to run a compressor for pneumatic framing nailer and the plug in saws, but the portability of the cordless saw is awesome.  I went with Makita because I have two cordless impacts and drills from the days of hangar work.  Everybody had Makita screwguns (drills) at first, then folks migrated to Milwaukee and DeWalts.  I want a Makita framing nailer, but those are Europe only right now and I don't wanna pay for the nailer and shipping of $720 from England.

Right now I'm screwing the 2x6s in with Deck Plus screws instead of nails.  So much easier, not cheaper.

[TimW]

I do have a Milwaukee 1/4 inch cordless ratchet.  Again, because Makita didn't make one then.  Before that I had an AC Delco, but couldn't get a new battery when I needed it for work in the hangar.

[Machinebuilder]

I have the Milwaukee rear handle circle saw.

It works really well for what I do. it's easy to use one handed and the batterys last ok.

It is the tool that really should use the biggest battery that fits, I don't have that battery.