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I've kind of stupidly tied myself to the Bosch Green DIY stuff. Mainly for senitmental reasons as it what my dad has and he bought me the drill for my 30th (nearly 10 years ago and it's still working like new). The combi drill and the impact driver see most use and are more than enough for my purposes. But I have bought a lot more of the tools to share the batteries;
Circular saw - total shit, might try a different blade.
Jigsaw - kind of shit. No real support for the blade and the foot is flimsy, so getting cuts perpendicular to the foot on any thicker material is not going to happen.
Vacuum - actually OK for cleaning up sawdust so save wrecking the house vacuum if you know how to fully empty/clear the filter each time. Have a Henry for renovation works so it barely gets used now
RO Sander - Actually OK but hammers through my 1.5ah batteries
Strimmer - OK, but the plastic blades wear out in no time - bought a massive bag of knock off replacements from ebay, which I have since lost in the move
Hedge trimmer - pretty good for the minimal use it gets. Nice and light.I also have the Bosch green 3.6v USB rechargeable screwdriver, which is FANTASTIC for light chores and flatpack assembly.
I nearly bought the 18v "city" lawnmower, but went with a Spear & Jackson 36v instead.
The thing I would probably get most use out of currently, is a decent cordless circ saw. But I am loathed to get a different brand with new batteries/charger etc.
stevo_com-
I spent a few years buying into the Bosch Green after a similar experience. I got as far as RO, jigsaw, belt sander, strimmer and vacuum after the initial gifted drill.
Strimmer was the breaking point for me, it burns through batteries and the auto feed seems like such a waste of line. I've now heavily invested in Makita 18V stuff in the last 6 months.
The original Bosch drill is still going, albeit relegated to garden and shit work duties. -
I think the bosch stuff is OK for light DIY, which is what its aimed at. Its the blue stuff that doesn't seem to be really up there anymore. Was gifted a pair of massive Bosch blue SDS, 24/40v one nicad one nimh. Got a new no name battery for both, and ended up keeping one, selling the other. Only runs for about 15-20 mins, but jesus you can get a lot done with it in that time. Most often used for smashing holes in the side of buildings up a ladder where TBH 15 mins feels like a lifetime, and getting power up several stories just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
If your after a circular saw for not a lot that is pretty good I bought a corded 'Evolution' brand R185/CSL. Think it was about £50/60 from toolstation/screwfix. Originally bought for ripping broken pallets in order to burn them for heat in the huge workshop woodstove. But treated it to a blade that cost half what the tool did and found it about as good as any (yes it ain't a Fein/Festool/Makita pro tool) for mid weight wood work duties, floorboards, skirting, window and door achitrove, chopping down door bottoms and even did a hardwood floor with it (took a week).
Recently gifted a 'Scheppeuh' mobile bench top saw on wheels, with very low hours on it. Like maybe has ONE hour of use on it for free! Again didn't really envisage using it much, always just clamped the material and chopped away at it, but doing a herringbone engineered type floor next month and think I'll take it along. The fence on it isn't a Fein/Festool quality job, but going to be more than good enough for my needs.
Milwaukee M18FID2 + M18FPD2 turned up. Yup the 18v impact driver is tiny, 5/6ah 18v battery weighs a fair bit but the tool itself is light, and way too powerful. On setting 1 of 3 I've already stripped some timber screws out of the timber. Guess will get used to it. Been used to 5-10 year old Bosch/old makita/erbauer impact drivers that you just hold down the trigger and count to 5 ugga dugga's and hope that you don't have to wait until 10 ugga dugga's
chiroshi
BrickMan
Got fed up with having a different model/brand/type of battery tech on each power tool I own. So decided to combine as much as poss. Just spent a rather large amount on Milwaukee M12 + M18 gear and a bunch of Wera accessories. Will clean up and sell all the mismatched stuff on ebay as most of it still works, just a lot of hassle when I travel 4 hours to a job to discover I have the wrong combo of chargers/adapters and batteries.
Tried very hard to support a local dealer, but none of the actual private/independent shops had the 'good' ones, only those average/mid quality tools that have big margin on them. Asked if they could order them in, but out of the 4 I spent the entire day at yesterday, none were bothered, wasn't expecting any discount, just a solid 'here is money, can I buy lots of tools please'.
So gave up and just dumped many £k on whichever online company was cheapest, did try to support local, very hard in the tool business it seems. Only place I found that was utterly epic and I'd love to support them is a Bosch blue/pro independent dealer, guy was a legend, but from research and handling the offerings, Bosch blue/pro gear is a good 3-4 years behind Makita/Milwaukee prosumer offerings, and you get a lot less warranty.