Tools at the heart of the home/homestead - power tools!

[Paul_B]

Homesteading is often about food production but without tools and often power tools. In this modern world of brushless motors and battery technology I think this is the way to go. However I've bought the odd battery powered tool for the gardening, each one with a different brand and battery.

Right now I'm looking at the staple of home DIY, the drill and the driver. This makes me think I need to fix the brand going forward. Without batteries and charger tools are cheaper if you're expanding on a current system setup.

So what brand do you have? Are you a single brand user? Or perhaps you've bought several and used the various brands of converters to allow one battery brand to be used on a second brand? What's your advice?

A side question, what cordless power tools would you view as essential?

BTW I'm only looking at DIY and gardening. Unfortunately our steep garden has too many trees in and shrubs to really be a good bit of land for growing our own food. However the power tools needed won't be too dissimilar.

 

[British Red]

As a homesteader and user of both cordless, hand and petrol tools I have some very strong opinions on this.

1) Buy a brand (or 2 brands) and stick to it

2) Recognise that some gardening tools need more power than normal 18V building tools. Makita use two batteries in saws. DeWalt have their flexvolt system that allows overlap between 54V and 18V platforms

3) Some tools just need a huge amount of power. Rotavators spring to mind along with larger mowers. There are battery options but petrol is still king.

4) There is some argument of "Get one platform for garden & a different one for building tools". DeWalt and Makita battery chainsaws and brush cutters are okay, but Stihl are better. But Stihl don't make drills and grinders.

I'm a DeWalt XR user. I've probably got at least 10 different tools, but some are not without their faults. The strimmer is good only for light work but the hedge cutters are awesome. I prefer petrol for chainsaw, brush cutter, rotavators & mowers.

 

[Paul_B]

I've used my dad's battery mower. He switched from petrol after moving to a smaller garden and getting older. His lawn is twice the size of ours. We use a flymo hover mower left at the house when we bought it. Corded and I've always hated corded hover mowers. A battery flymo will make it more likely we'll keep on top of the lawn. It's a pain to cut grass when a bit too long. Especially with a cord being in the way.

Without a shadow of a doubt petrol mower is overkill for our lawn.

I've seen everything from 18v, 24v, through to 54v battery systems. I take it these are rarely compatible.

Makita is a brand they use at work, and the bosses use at home too. It's this a good brand to fix on? I my childhood I seem to recall black and decker was the go to home use brand. I once looked into the brand and they do a more trade version of the brand which us supposed to be better than the cheap home user version.

 

[Broch]

I have Makita cordless (drills, drivers, chainsaw, circular saw, and 'light' strimmer) and Stihl petrol (chainsaws, brush cutter) - both do the jobs they are required to do without question. Others tell me Husqvarna are 'better', but I don't know if that is just 'purchase justification' or an objective view; I am happy with the choices I have made.

I have found the quality of Black and Decker to not be as good as it once was but that's a subjective view from a very small sample set.

 

[Stew]

I use Makita as my main brand. I’m not precious about it and have a multitool that’s it’s own brand and a battery strimmer that is titan. They were significantly cheaper to buy as their own tool versus buying a bare makita. I don’t regret it and I use my tools a lot.

From what I’ve seen of any of the big brand trade tools (and I work as a site manager so have seen a number of contractors through the doors) it makes little difference which brand you use. The only difference is snobbery for / against a brand without any practical difference.

 

[slowworm]

When I had a large suburban garden (120m long) I didn't feel the need for many power tools. An electric lawn mower for when I cut the grass and a battery power drill as I completely gutted the house. But tree felling, digging and cultivating, logging up etc was done with hand tools.

Now I look after several acres I have a Stihl cordless chainsaw and hedge cutter which share the same batteries but a different range for the drill driver as I prefer lighter tools so they are 12v. I have several 12v batteries so bought a couple of LED lights that fit the batteries and thats lighting sorted for a week without power.

Grass cutting, large tree felling, milling, mini-digger is all done with petrol as there's not batteries with enough capacity and the top of the range pro tools are too expensive.

Personally I've chosen the tool for the jobs needed rather than go for a large collection of tools.

 

[Pattree]

I am not a homesteader but I have a slightly larger than average garden, most of which is wild.
I am also a hobbyist wood turner and flute maker.
I have used Black & Decker tools all my life and continue to do so. Most of those power tools, including eight drill units, are more than thirty years old. I am happy to take them apart and refurbish them. I own four B@D lathes which are drill attachments. Very limited for most wood turners, ideal for my flutes. All these are of course corded.

In the garden I use Rayobi system tools powered by a 1 KW brushwood cutter. Strimmer, tri-blade, extended hedge cutter and pole chain saw all work from this system. The top of one of my hedges requires an eight foot reach! I use a2KW electric mower and a 1.2 KW B&D electric chainsaw.
Again all these tools are corded. I have no trouble handling a 50M cable reel which gives me at least 60M from the exterior sockets at front and back of my house. It’s what I’ve always done and the slight inconvenience is well worth the power available.
Batteries? Not for me - well OK, my watch, my (diesel) car’s electrics, my phone and a few torches.

 

[Broch]

I am not a homesteader but I have a slightly larger than average garden, most of which is wild.
I am also a hobbyist wood turner and flute maker.
I have used Black & Decker tools all my life and continue to do so. Most of those power tools, including eight drill units, are more than thirty years old. I am happy to take them apart and refurbish them. I own four B@D lathes which are drill attachments. Very limited for most wood turners, ideal for my flutes. All these are of course corded.

In the garden I use Rayobi system tools powered by a 1 KW brushwood cutter. Strimmer, tri-blade, extended hedge cutter and pole chain saw all work from this system. The top of one of my hedges requires an eight foot reach! I use a2KW electric mower and a 1.2 KW B&D electric chainsaw.
Again all these tools are corded. I have no trouble handling a 50M cable reel which gives me at least 60M from the exterior sockets at front and back of my house. It’s what I’ve always done and the slight inconvenience is well worth the power available.
Batteries? Not for me - well OK, my watch, my (diesel) car’s electrics, my phone and a few torches.

Yep, I still have a 30 yo B&D drill that's still working fine; I have had new B&D tools in the last ten years that have failed before I would expect them to

Cordless for me is invaluable - most of my work is more than 100m away from a power socket, some of it 1km. Having said that, my Makita SDS 240v drill is a brute of a machine and, if I need it away from the house, I use a generator

 

[Pattree]

I deeply regret not buying a 5KW DC/AC generator at an auction a few years back. It went for £80. I just couldn’t justify it at the time - so I shall continue to roll out cable.

Edited to add:
The only new B&D tool I’ve had is a powerfile but it wore out very quickly. I now use a cheap Silverline and it’s doing well.

 

[slowworm]

Again all these tools are corded. I have no trouble handling a 50M cable reel which gives me at least 60M from the exterior sockets at front and back of my house. It’s what I’ve always done and the slight inconvenience is well worth the power available.

A word of caution on such a long extension lead, if it's a normal extension lead the voltage could drop by well over 10v. May not matter to many but here for example our voltage is variable and can drop to 200v so and further loss can damage equipment.

 

[GNJC]

I have, I think, eleven Makita 18v cordless tools and can't fault them. Looked at other brands before buying and only Milwaukee came close. In fact I think a couple of Milwaukee tools are much better than the Makitas, but I used both ranges and found Makita's best for me overall.

I have a several sets of 5ah and 4ah batteries, which I use strategically and depending on estimated job time, tool workload and distance from charging point. I really don't want to carry a generator around unless for a major job. So I have a box that has a load of fully charged batteries in it and, so far, haven't run out of power.

It takes a bit of time to get a good idea of what a given tool will do with a given battery, but once that is known and can be prepared for, an awful lot can be achieved with these tools. Thinking of our predecessors, and even my father, the amount of time and effort they save us now makes them worth every penny.

 

[Paul_B]

My corded b&d drill is b&d from 25 plus years ago. Not expensive one from their range back then but it's lasted. Not had too much use tbh but it's solid. I think after that time B&D probably went downhill or at least differentiated trade and cheaper domestic ranges.

 

[GNJC]

My corded b&d drill is b&d from 25 plus years ago. Not expensive one from their range back then but it's lasted. Not had too much use tbh but it's solid. I think after that time B&D probably went downhill or at least differentiated trade and cheaper domestic ranges.

I have drills - corded - my father bought in, I guess, the 80s or 90s and they are far better than the modern B & D stuff. In fact it's remarkable that, brushes aside, they've never needed anything doing to them other than a drop of oil now and then.

 

[Paul_B]

Our last house tested the drill. To hang pictures we had to drill a hole them user a plug and screw. The stone and brick used in the walls used to basically blunt a new drill bit with one hole! At most two holes. If you try 3 or more holes you've got to use full power and hammer drill, apply a bit more than normal pressure and give it plenty of time to do the work. Usually we just got new masonry drill bits all the time.

I don't know why this happened but those bits were shot quickly. Must be hard stone indeed. I doubt more power to the drill would change this. Glad we're out of that place.

 

[British Red]

I've used my dad's battery mower. He switched from petrol after moving to a smaller garden and getting older. His lawn is twice the size of ours. We use a flymo hover mower left at the house when we bought it. Corded and I've always hated corded hover mowers. A battery flymo will make it more likely we'll keep on top of the lawn. It's a pain to cut grass when a bit too long. Especially with a cord being in the way.

Without a shadow of a doubt petrol mower is overkill for our lawn.

I've seen everything from 18v, 24v, through to 54v battery systems. I take it these are rarely compatible.

Makita is a brand they use at work, and the bosses use at home too. It's this a good brand to fix on? I my childhood I seem to recall black and decker was the go to home use brand. I once looked into the brand and they do a more trade version of the brand which us supposed to be better than the cheap home user version.

For small lawns I'm sure battery is fine, our place is far too big.


Makita are professional tools as are DeWalt, Bosch Blue (not so much the green) and Milwaukee.

A tier below and aimed at homeowners are Bosch Green and Ryobi. The Ryobi stuff has a very attractive price & wide range.

 

[Paul_B]

Our garden shredder is ryobi. Cheaper than the bosch green equivalent that's often best in reviews but it's cleared most of our three big trees that got chopped down. The chippings are a little too small for traditional chip mulch you'd buy from a garden centre but we use as much because it's great at stopping weeds so far. Even our plants that take over, we put around the plants we want to keep and it stops them taking over the border and the path beyond.

 

[Decacraft]

I used to use bosch power tools, but they were in need of new batteries and some of the tools were getting old and tired.

I bought some erbauer replacements and figured if they lasted me for the warranty alone they would be a lot more cost efficient for me- that was 4 years ago and all have had a hard life when I was doing domestic electrical and are still going on and have done me well considering what they cost me. I bought a fair few 5ah batteries and then the bare units at a much lower cost.

If I need to replace them I'll be buying the same, as much as its nice to have the milwaukee/makita range I can't warrant the cost

 

[Bazzworx]

I have a lot of Dewalt XR kit but have recently been investing in Milwaukee which seems to be of better quality. I'm quite fortunate that the company my wife works for are retailers for Milwaukee so we get very good prices. My chainsaws are all Stihl.

 

[Pattree]

A word of caution on such a long extension lead, if it's a normal extension lead the voltage could drop by well over 10v. May not matter to many but here for example our voltage is variable and can drop to 200v so and further loss can damage equipment.

Thanks, but it’s been OK for nearly fifty years

Black and Decker changed when their drills had to go reversible. They no longer fitted their three point cradle ands the drive shaft had to be male rather than the much stronger female of the non reversible. This was to accommodate the left hand thread screw deep in the gullet of the chuck. There has been plastic cased drills before but with the introduction of the old black Quatro and It’s ilk quality, repairability and reliability dropped.

No time for Bosch. I bought a drill set for a project. I’ve still got the octagonal box but the drills were rubbish. I now buy them individually on line.

 

[slowworm]

Thanks, but it’s been OK for nearly fifty years

My comment was aimed at others who might consider using long extension leads. Having said that I think the power supply to many people is getting worse as the infrastructure isn't being upgraded to cope with demand. So if several people buy and charge an EV on a weekend that could drop you voltage even more.