Tempted by the fruit of another (tool)

NM_Shooter · October 19, 2008, 08:41:00 PM

So my Hitachi cordless drill is a few years old, and the batteries are tired. Shopping around new batteries were going to be about $80.

I'd been making eyes at the Ryobi tools in Home Depot lately, as the One+ idea is pretty nice. Lots of different battery op'd tools, and a Lithium Ion option too.

HD had a small combo set for sale.... a cordless drill, a circ saw, one battery and charger for a total of $69. I didn't think I could get Harbor Freight that cheap so thought I would give it a try.

My first impression was not great; I thought the circ saw looked cute but I was (am?) not expecting much. I charged up the battery and took it for a whirl, and I now think it might actually be usable. Am going to have to get at least one extra battery though.

The drill has much more torque than I expected. If I get a year out of these I'll be happy.

-f-

peternap · October 19, 2008, 08:45:04 PM

I've bought that kit twice. Wore the first one out and bought another.
I use it almost every other day and love the saw and drill.

October 19, 2008, 09:50:59 PM

The LIon batteries for the Ryobi are great - at least 4 times the run time I think than the regular batts. Cheapest way to get it was the drill - light - 2 LIon's and a chargerfor about 179 I think.

Be real careful with the little 5 1/4 circular saw. It works great but the bearing holder behind the blade is a little kids toy. I have broke 2 even being careful with the second one. It is a hollow light piece of plastic amd I can almost guarantee it will break shortly. Save your receipt for warranty and make them pay.

Ernest T. Bass · October 19, 2008, 10:02:05 PM

We just purchased our first Li-ion drill... an 18v Rigid. It lasts all day on one batt with moderate use. Quite different than the last three DeWalt ni-Cad's we've had. They're not even all that old, and you're lucky to get 20 minutes off a full charge...

NM_Shooter · October 19, 2008, 11:08:35 PM

Thanks... I've been looking at those Li Ion batts and may have to splurge. What initially caught my eye is that they have an angle grinder as well for $39. I need to cutoff a couple of things at our property. A cow got chased over our gate and tore up the pin hinges, and I suspect that I am going to have to cut those off as the nuts are rusted onto the bolts. I also need to trim my rebar off of the top of my piers. I'm hoping the angle grinder has enough chops to get through those with a cutoff wheel.

I had planned on dragging my generator and AC powered angle grinder with a cutoff wheel up to the ranch this weekend to do some end of the year maintenance. We've already had a foot of snow up there so time is getting short. I'm hoping to get the gate repaired, cutoff that rebar, get the pond stocked, and do some road maintenance this weekend. Look for some cattle too. There are 14 lost somewhere up there and if they aren't found soon they won't be found until May. The fences are already laid down and we think they may be moving down hill. I told our tenant rancher that I'd check the property again this week.

Probably the last trip up this year.

We took one elk off this season. My buddy shot one of the biggest cow elk I've seen. She must have weighed 300# dressed. It was all we could do to drag her into the back of the truck. This is Doug with his cow. The rib cage alone looked like some sort of Fred Flintstone brontosaurus rib dinner.

I saw a 4X on the first day of the season, only an hour into my hunt that I let walk off as I was looking for something a bit bigger. That elk was looking much bigger in my memory on the last day of the hunt. Had I known I would have shot him. We did see elk every day though, and I called in a big coyote with my cow call.

October 19, 2008, 11:26:39 PM

The LIon's will do good in the angle grinder. The regular batteries might cut off a 1/4 x 2 before needing recharge. A small 300 watt inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter will run the charger for regular or LIon batts. I really like the angle grinder with the LIons -- It would probably cut about 6 pieces of 1/4 x 2 on a charged one.

Use the real thin cut off blades -maybe 6" dia if you can get them -- available at most welding supply stores. The smaller ones work well but don't last long. The big ones are easy to break if they get weight on them.

MountainDon · October 20, 2008, 10:02:15 PM

Frank, the Lithium Ion batteries are worth their weight in gold. I have three and could probably get by with two if I didn't tend to like to leave one in each tool I using most... like the circ saw and the drill. Easy to charge off a small inverter. The built in test/condition light is cool too.

The Achilles heel of the circ saw is the bearing holder like Glenn mentioned.

Hitting a nail is death... blade still goes round but it vibrates and doesn't cut quite as nice.

They beat running the generator every time you need a tool.

glenn kangiser · October 20, 2008, 10:53:37 PM

I pulled the blade off my old one the other day to inspect the actual damage. The guard is on the broken holder. I could do a better job on a repair than they ever did on making the first one but....it takes time and I am lazy.

The bearing is also rough after I pulled it apart. I wonder why they leave a weak spot like this in their otherwise good tool. hmm

MountainDon · October 20, 2008, 11:02:48 PM

One other thing about the Lithium Ion batteries... they don't have the dreaded Nicad memory problem.

October 21, 2008, 01:50:39 AM

the lithium batteries are far and away superior in every way to the NiCad...

Just think when Li-S batteries are available or even ceramic batteries hit the market we may actually be able to drive electric cars and have enough range for just about whatever we want...

Sadly GM tried to make the electric car with the lead acid battery...the Ni-Cad battery is almost twice as good as the lead acid...and the Lithium- ion battery is twice as good again...We need a couple more battery breakthroughs and all of a sudden cordless tools, electric cars... all start really becomming part of the landscape...

There are a lot of ways we can clean up the air we breathe...Battery tech is vital...Better batteries would mean electric lawn mowers that use re-chargeable batteries.. ditto for chainsaws... weed eaters...etc...

Most electricity uses fossil fuels... but even a coal fired power plant runs and burns cleaner than your average automobile engine...And we are going to see IGCC coal fired plants which uses gasification...This increases thermal efficiency from 35% that we see in old plants to 70%...Which cuts all emissions dramatically and allows carbon to be combined with water making it heavier and easy to capture and store or use (as they are finding new uses for the captured carbon.

I hope that part of T Boone Pickens plan is carried out and we see 20+ % of our energy needs being met with wind power. But battery tech will be probably the single greatest breakthrough in weaning us off crude oil...As it will allow us to use batteries instead of internal combustion engines...and we can use clean coal wind and solar power to generate additional electricity.

To me battery tech is one of the most important and fascinating areas of science and technology...

desdawg · October 21, 2008, 08:37:07 AM

I have said it before and I will say it again now. I really like my 18volt Ryobi tools. I am still using and recharging the original batteries that came with the set when I got it. I never upgraded to the L series. Everything is still working for me. I agree Peter about battery tehnology. When people start talking about wind and solar storage will become a key issue. It has to. It can relieve a big load as it is being produced but sooner or later it gets dark and the wind stops blowing. We can store enough for a household with a small battery bank but when you get into storing large quantities for a distribution system that then becomes a much larger issue. Maybe every home will have it's own storage system and inverters going forward even with grid power.

benevolance · October 21, 2008, 12:29:18 PM

I think that as technology keeps going forward we might see invertors and battery banks in a lot of new homes...If the price drops to the point where it makes sense for average joe to have that set up in his home he will have it...simple as that. Panels on the roof batteries in the garage and inverters to make it work...things like inverters and batteries are just too expensive at this point...The price of solar panels have come way down and they have made huge strides in improving the efficiency and output of the panels they are getting to the point where they make perfect sense for everyone in the southwest.

What shocked me was the first time I used a 18 volt cordless drill...I had used a 12 volt one before and it was absolute junk compared to the 18 volt...Then I used the 24 volt lithium cordless tools and there was a massive difference in the amount of power and the length of time the appliances could be used... It is really quite remarkable. They are getting to the point where we really can expect lightweight power tools running off advanced batteries that have as much or more power than plug ins... they will not be heavy or bulky and they will last all day long....

And as I said before the next step would be using the batteries to power things like Lawn mowers chain saws etc...That really is just around the corner with the new batteries that are being developed.

NM_Shooter · October 21, 2008, 08:59:47 PM

I tested out the Ryobi angle grinder with the NiCad batt tonight. I was cutting through 1/2" rebar, and got 10 strong slices through it. 11 was a bit tired, and I didn't want to cut all the way through #12.

The battery was warm, but not hot. Looks like I'll need at least one spare battery for work this weekend. I may just splurge and buy the Li Ion.

-f-

glenn kangiser · October 21, 2008, 11:59:02 PM

I retired 6 nicads with 2 LIons.

October 22, 2008, 12:04:28 AM

Speaking of Ryobi batteries...

I see Ryobi now has a "fuel gauge", a battery tester, that works with all One+ batteries. You don't need it for the LIon, but it could be handy for the Nicads. Keep you from recharging prematurely. $10 I'm going to check it out on the Nicads I have up in the mountains this weekend.