The idea presumably being that after five years you won’t simply have to replace your drill due to a dead battery, you’ll have to replace all your tools! “You might as well take that lot away with you Kevin, I’ll have to replace them all in a few years anyway!”. Amazingly this often concentrates on those problematic batteries themselves, for example where this is being written the manufacturer of those lime-green power tools has a commercial promoting a range of tools that all have the same battery.

Meanwhile of course, the marketing machine is in full swing pushing the convenience of cordless tools. Great for the manufacturers, awful for the consumers. Battery pack form factors change with each successive generation of tools, so the customer can not merely buy a new battery pack and move on. In converting their customers to cordless tools, the manufacturers have found a way to get them to buy the same tool from them every five years or so when there is nothing wrong with their previous tool, simply because its battery pack has reached the end of its lifetime. They’re a useful source of motors and sometimes even speed controllers, even if you don’t want to use them as tools.Ĭomparing the Makita and the Bosch as exemplars of the two strands of power tool ownership, I have though to admit an unease over the rise of cordless tools, and a dislike of the marketing that surrounds them. We’ve all been offered a pile of dead cordless tools over the years, and as writers we’ve covered quite a few inventive hacks using them. Naturally, this will not be unfamiliar to most Hackaday readers. … Not so many years of light use, can’t say the same. The inevitable degradation due to aged cell chemistry has left it unable to hold enough charge for more than maybe a minute’s use, and what was once a tool you’d be glad to own is now an ornament. The vintage model from the days of flared trousers is a paperweight, you ask? No, the not-very-old Bosch, because its battery pack has lost its capacity. One is a very useful tool able to drill holes all day, the other is little more than a paperweight. One is from the mid 1970s, the other from the end of the last decade. So, we have two drills, both of similar size, and both of decent quality. It’s similar in size and capabilities to the Makita save for its bulky battery pack, and it is a comparably decent quality tool. The other one I’d like to single out is I think the most recent acquisition, a Bosch cordless model he bought several years ago. A variety of others of different sizes and speeds have come and gone over the years, and there is always one at hand for any given task. Of course, the Makita isn’t the only drill in his possession. 41 years of hard use, and still going strong… The drill that most comes to mind is a Makita mains powered hand drill, and given that I remember the day he bought it to replace his clapped-out Wolf in 1976, it has given phenomenal service over four decades and continues to do so.

When thinking of the power tools constantly on hand in the workshop of a blacksmith like my dad for instance, I’m instantly seeing a drill and an angle grinder. You’ll see them of all ages, sizes, manufacturers, and technologies. If you grow up around a small engineering business you are likely to gain something of an appreciation for power tools.

Vintage vice tool home depot