Old reliable....sort of.

[Valkie]

About 20 years ago I was doing some work at my father's house in Sydney.
Somehow, I left my power drill at home 130 KLM away, but needed to drill some holes.

Off to bunnings, to purchase the cheapest drill I could find.
I got an unbranded $18.00 power drill, not ever reversible, and grabbed it.
I honestly expected one use, and then throw away.
But it drilled the holes with no effort and I threw it into my kit.

Over the last 20 years, I have used to to drill rough holes in "unfriendly" environments where dirt and crap will make a mess of my other "better" drills.
Yes, pushed hard it smokes.
Yes pushed hard it gets really hot.
Yes there are lots of Sparkes.

But the stupid thing keeps on keeping on.
I was cleaning my shed today, tossing old and no longer used tools.
I picked this thing up and remembered all the good times, then put it back.
I have several DeWalt drills from small to quite substantial.
And I have my fathers old , very old Makita power drill, which I cannot throw away.
This thing has been patched up, repaired and I even put in new brushes many years ago.

Am I becoming a hoarder?
I ended up throwing away 8 tools no longer used.
But these two have fond memories......

[Grant Lamontagne]

Somewhere I have a storage tote filled with old cordless drills that have nothing wrong with them, other than the batteries are dead and replacements cost more than new drills that somehow come with newer, more powerful batteries.

I have a hard time bringing myself to throw them away as they are still good, except that they aren't.  I mean, what good is a power drill with no power?

But I hate to toss them out because there is nothing wrong with them, and I hate keeping them because I know I'll never use them again.

One of these days I'll probably dig them all out and take them to a recycle center or something.

Def

[Chako]

I have a garage full of my father's tools. I keep meaning to clear it out, but it still hold place, and he has been gone 18 years now. I have his old corded power tools...the ones that are so old they have naked steel bodies. I think they are from the 50s and 60s. All work to this day. They just do not make them like they did.

Yeah, I can empathize with the both of you. I feel the same way, I may never use them but I also can't seem to move them on.

[Vidar]

The naked steel power tools from back in the day were quite expensive at the time. So likely to make the investment it had to be built to last. I have an old one after my grandfather and it really is something else. I can't say I use it as there are cheaper and or better options around, but it rocks as a shelf queen! 

[Grant Lamontagne]

As those old tools are still corded, I'd still be using them.  The only reason I retired mine is because the batteries smurfed the bed.  The old steel bodied tools may be heavy but they were rock solid and dependable and will work until the end of time.

Def

[Valkie]

Somewhere I have a storage tote filled with old cordless drills that have nothing wrong with them, other than the batteries are dead and replacements cost more than new drills that somehow come with newer, more powerful batteries.

I have a hard time bringing myself to throw them away as they are still good, except that they aren't.  I mean, what good is a power drill with no power?

But I hate to toss them out because there is nothing wrong with them, and I hate keeping them because I know I'll never use them again.

One of these days I'll probably dig them all out and take them to a recycle center or something.

Def

I recognise your pain and sympathise with you.

[Vidar]

Somewhere I have a storage tote filled with old cordless drills that have nothing wrong with them, other than the batteries are dead and replacements cost more than new drills that somehow come with newer, more powerful batteries.

That is my biggest issue with battery tools. There are so many different versions of battery connections despite them basically doing the very same job with the same actual battery standard inside. (18650). The various tool manufacturers all seem to think that locking in customers to their system is a great idea for them, but it is a loosing idea for the customers and causes endless tool churn. I think this is one of the cases where they should be whacked over the head by regulatory bodies and forced to standardize to 3-4 formats that matches the needs for different formats the batteries have today.    It is mostly just a matter of making sure all use the same connectors instead of the proprietary connectors carefully made so nothing else fits.

While I was a student I used to work at place where we had a fairly large trashbin for power tools. It filled up pretty quickly. The more expensive pro line tools where noticeable more absent so I guess you do get what you pay for.

[Grant Lamontagne]

This is why I have been trying to stick the Worx brand tools- if my batteries go, I have many of them, and given the number of tools I have that take this battery system, it's worth getting replacement batteries.

Currently I have two lawnmowers, two weed whackers, a drill, a leaf blower, a chainsaw and a small cutting wheel that all take the Worx PowerShare batteries.  The batteries are around $100 each, so it's not the end of the world if I have to replace one or two- it will be worth it.

But if/when Worx discontinues this series, I am going to be a very unhappy person.

I had bought (years ago) a Craftsman cordless drill.  Huge and underpowered by today's standard, and the set cost $300 with one battery.  When that battery died, it cost almost $300 for a new battery, and by then the 12V (or whatever it was) power of the battery was far outclassed by the current battery power- and worse, for $300 I could get a set from Kawasaki that included a drill, charger, two batteries, a circular saw and a reciprocating saw.  Naturally for (more or less) the same price I bought the set, and then a little while later I found the same drill on it's own, with two batteries and a charger for $50, so I got that too.  I ended up with two different saws, two drills, two chargers and a battery for each tool. As a bonus, the tools couldn't drain batteries as fast as the chargers could charge them, plus I had extras, because I'm not capable of using four tools at once.

That was a great set and I put a lot of miles on them, especially the drills, because it was great to have one with a drill bit and one with a driver in it at the same time.

I definitely got my money's worth out of that set, but when the batteries all died I decided I wasn't getting any more battery tools and I started amassing a set of DeWalt corded tools, and that's when I decided one really has to have a cordless drill.  I bought a light duty B&D one, and I was glad I did because a small cordless drill is a great thing to have.

I still use that one, but Megan decided she wanted a small drill of her own, and she got the Worx one, so now my little B&D doesn't see much use, since we always have Worx batteries around.

But, for any significant work that needs doing, I will always pull out the big corded ones.

Def