Dewalt tools.

[petefrom bearswamp]

I Have a number of Dewalt cordless tools.
Leaf blower, 7-1/4 circular saw, impact driver, recipro saw, hammer driver drill, 4-1/2" grinder, multi tool.
Only one that even mentions US is the impact driver says made in US with global parts.
Others are Mexico and of course "the peoples republic" of China
All work well so far.
Only junk was a cordless chainsaw that wouldnt keep the chain tight and I got rid of it.
How about some of the other cordless tools, Milwaukee, Stihl, Husky, Echo etc.
Any feedback on these?

[Dave Shepard]

And I thought DeWalt was the most likely to be US made? I'm all Milwaukee. Huge tool selection. Better than corded options. Only one battery platform in the 18-20 volt range, none of the silly 20-60 volt games, or introducing all the same tools 40 volts. I don't question the quality of the new yellow or blue tools, but my red tools all work with all batteries. That's important when you have thousands of dollars invested in one platform.

[trimguy]

I have the dewalt 20 volt tools. It's just where I ended up after my dewalt 18 volt started to go out. I know a few people with the Milwaukee set up and they are all happy with the tools and the way they preform.

[Andries]

Most of us wandered into buying cordless tools a long time ago. Mobility without the umbilical cord made the difference for me. The tools have improved a lot, to the point where now the battery version can outperform a corded tool. 
Dave makes the point, that the choice of batteries is a major decision.
I've got yellow and black but would choose the red one tomorrow if I had to replace the whole works.

[SawyerTed]

I got started with Dewalt years ago.  Once I got one, it was less expensive to stay with Dewalt since the batteries are the expensive part. I have two drills, an impact driver, small router, circular saw and an oscillating saw.  They serve me well enough but I don't use them daily.  Am I a Dewalt fan?  Not really.  They are common in the various box stores, aka easy to get. Before the Dewalt tools, probably 15 years ago, I had Porter Cable cordless tools.  They didn't last very long and I don't have any experience with the newer ones.  I have burned up one Dewalt drill by drilling 5/8ths inch holes through white oak 6x6s.  It received other prior abuse.

The Milwaukee and Kobalt tools I've used here at work have had plenty of power and have held up relatively well to the nearly daily use.  The tools were on the service truck when the owner assigned the truck here.  We have had to replace two Kobalt grinders that quit but they were used primarily for metal cutting.  The Milwaukee tools have held up the best and our new and replacement tools have been Milwaukee tools. 

Metabo is what a friend sells at his builder supply company.  He says they are very good tools although he only owns corded tools.  If I'm not mistaken Metabo and Hitachi are now one company.    

[Corley5]

Most of my Milwaukee cordless stuff has made in China on the tag :(   The last piece I bought, a rotary hammer, is made in Tiawan for whatever that's worth.  I like my Milwaukee stuff.  We've got 18- and 12-volt tools.

[Old Greenhorn]

While this subject is active, can I ask if any of you folks are using the dewalt 18 to 20v battery adapters? I have been slowly adding the 20volt tools but still have an 18v I use regularly. Rather than buy another 18v battery of questionable quality, I was thinking i'd just get the adapter to use the newer batteries.
 Any thoughts on this?

[trimguy]

My brother-in-law is running the adapters. He said a couple of his drills run better with a 20 volt. The saws do not seem to go through the 20 V batteries as fast as they were going through the 18 V batteries. He has a 18 V battery nail gun , he said it does not like the 20 V batteries.

[Tom King]

I use Milwaukee in the mechanic shop, and Makita for working on/in houses.  That keeps grease off of house walls.  I have a few Ryobi cordless things, just because they were cheap, and don't get used much.

No complaints with any of them, and have been pleasantly surprised by the few Ryobi tools.

I bought my Wife a Dewalt drill, years ago to keep in the barn.  No problems with it other than she never would think to charge the batteries, and the NiCad's died after a couple of years.

First cordless tool was a 9.6v Makita drill, in the mid '80's.  Still keep it with the sailboat tools, manning an upgraded chuck to hold Cobalt bits for drilling out stainless rivets.  The Makita collection grew from that one.  That stick battery has been replaced multiple times over that time.

[tawilson]

While this subject is active, can I ask if any of you folks are using the dewalt 18 to 20v battery adapters? I have been slowly adding the 20volt tools but still have an 18v I use regularly. Rather than buy another 18v battery of questionable quality, I was thinking i'd just get the adapter to use the newer batteries.
Any thoughts on this?

I've got it and it works fine. I hardly use it as I've got 20v tools now, but I get spread thin and it does bail me out occasionally. 
Dewalt was smart about battery compatibility as they upgraded and it kept me with them, otherwise I'd probably be in the  Milwaukee camp.

[Old Greenhorn]

Dewalt was smart about battery compatibility as they upgraded and it kept me with them, otherwise I'd probably be in the  Milwaukee camp.

Yes, I thought as much myself when I added a few new tools and stayed with dewalt. But now I see othes are getting on the bandwagon and making adaptors so you can run dewalt 20v batteries on Makita or Milwaukee, and soem are adapting those big ryobi batteries to other tools also. Looks like the batteries are not as much of a reason to stick with one brand anymore and it is about time. I have had my eye on one of those battery blowers for work cleanup. They are mighty handy but I thik the Milwaukee is better, and cheaper that the dewalt. Now I've got more to think about. That blower makes easy work of cleaning off the mill at the end of the workday.

[Dave Shepard]

I have a first gen M18 blower. It will blow out all the sawdust and bark out from under the mill, as long as it is done daily. Milwaukee has battery and tool protecting features, so I'd do my homework using a foreign battery.

[hedgerow]

My first cordless was a Makita drill. I have had Dewalt 18 volt cordless for twenty plus years. On my second set of tools and they are about ten years old. My 18 volt batteries are still good but I have a buddy that is running the 20 volt batteries on his 18 volt Dewalt's and its working fine. I will probably switch over to Milwaukee when my tools or batteries start to die. Lots of folks I know have the Milwaukee line and love it. Probably not a day goes by I don't use one of my Dewalt cordless. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I had a Dewalt cordless drill till neighborhood thieves wanted it more than me. Since I had to have one I bought a HF Braun drill, leafblower and cordless angle grinder. I recently even added a 6-1/4" circular saw that uses the same 20 V system/batteries. I am very well pleased with all of them so far and even bought an additional drill when I caught one on sale there.

[gspren]

Since we are talking all brands here I'm pretty sure I'm about to jump on the Milwaukee M18 boat after years of Makita 9.6 then 14.4V. To you Milwaukee fans, If I was happy with the perfomance of the 14.4V Makita, do I need the "fuel" line or is the regular M18 good enough for a hobby/home owner guy?

[Dave Shepard]

The non Fuel tools are good, you just don't have the power and battery life of the Brushless. 

[btulloh]

You'd be real happy with non-fuel versions compared to the 14.4v you're using now. Dave Shepard is right about the brushless Fuel versions though. I think it's worth going the extra step to the Fuel versions. All depends on your use and budget. 

Nothing wrong with the new Makita or Dewalt tools either, but they come in two or three tiers too.  The new world of Lltium ion batteries is way way better than the old NiCad world. Batteries hold their charge much better during storage, have more power density, and no memory effect. Niceto have a remaining charge indicator too.  Milwaukee has that, probably the others too.  

[firefighter ontheside]

I typed a long reply and it disappeared.  This will be much shorter.  I have a few 20v dewalt and really like them as I have always liked Dewalt.  I have a lot of the Ryobi 18v 1+ tools and they have treated me really well.  I have 2 drill/drivers, 2 impact drivers, a handheld vacuum, a leaf blower, a shrub trimmer and I feel like I'm forgetting something.  There are lots more tools available.  The Ryobi are worth checking out.

[Southside]

My first real use of a serious cordless tool was helping a buddy with his crane truck and using his 20V DeWalt impact. I was seriously impressed with it and was shopping around to buy one when I came across the Milwaukee 18V Fuel line and ended up going that way. Never regretted it, and I have quite a few tools now.

My impact will take all four duals off my big tractor with one battery and juice to spare. The socket is 1 5/16" and the bolts are 3" long. Always dirt packed / covered on the backside and even using never seize each time the torque on them is always massive. 

For that reason I do like the setting that uses full removal torque, but slows down when things break loose. Don't end up throwing nuts all over the place when they do come off. 

[barbender]

If a Dewalt 20 volt was your first exposure to cordless tools, you grew up farther back in the woods than I thought😂

[Walnut Beast]

My first real use of a serious cordless tool was helping a buddy with his crane truck and using his 20V DeWalt impact. I was seriously impressed with it and was shopping around to buy one when I came across the Milwaukee 18V Fuel line and ended up going that way. Never regretted it, and I have quite a few tools now.

My impact will take all four duals off my big tractor with one battery and juice to spare. The socket is 1 5/16" and the bolts are 3" long. Always dirt packed / covered on the backside and even using never seize each time the torque on them is always massive.

For that reason I do like the setting that uses full removal torque, but slows down when things break loose. Don't end up throwing nuts all over the place when they do come off.

What size impact is it ? 

[Southside]

The wife and I had gone somewhere a few years back and in the motel room I noticed that the wall outlets had both 120V plugs and the USB plugs to charge a phone.  Naturally I did the old "Come here you have to see this" and was pointing at the plug when my wife looked at me and said words to the effect that "Those have been around for years, you really don't get out much do you?"   :D

[Southside]

Walnut - the 1/2" one.  

[Walnut Beast]

They are absolutely impressive! They make the air impacts collect dust 😂

[Southside]

Honestly - I don't know where my air impact is now that you mention it.