Home DIY

For info, in the Bosch power4all range, I have the below;

Drill - totally fine, working as new.
Impact driver - again, totally fine, as new. Probably not a torquey as other brands but I've put 6" PZ3 headed screws into wood no bother. Couldn't quite manage 12mm thunderbolts into concrete, but I'm not doing that everyday.
Circ saw - shit. Stalls on even thin ply.
Jigsaw - ok, but struggles to keep a straight cut on anything except thin sheets
Vacuum - ok if you clean the filter every time you empty it
Strimmer - not great but very handy/light
Random Orbit Sander - ok, but eats through my 1.5ah batteries

Looking forward to buying some more toolz for our renno. Don’t actually need anything though tbh. Maybe a jigsaw, or multitool.

I’m sure they are ok in a bathroom but personally I’d want to avoid siting them in a location that has fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels if I had the choice.

12v multitool from the Bosch line I have looks nice…

The main thing I want first is a 2nd fix nailer

Go DeWalt. Since I bought mine I've never really used my paslode.

Pros.

1. MUCH quieter than a gas powered one
   
2. No maintenance
   
3. Bump fire mode is good.
   
4. No buying gas fuel cells so nails are cheaper (you can also pick up packs where the fuel cells have expired which is even cheaper)
   
5. No keeping spare gas cannisters in your boxers in cold weather (possibly won't apply to you).
   
6. Cheaper than equivalent paslode.
   
   

Cons

1. Out of warranty they are pretty much unrepairable. I've had mine for 5 years and it's been abused no end, has fired millions of nails and shows no sign of stopping, so I doubt this is really an issue for a DIYer.
   
2. Slightly heavier than a paslode or air powered unit.
   
   

Seriously if you are already looking at investing in DeWalt its a no brainer.

Bosch power4all range

Is that the green ones?

I've just completed my annual tool audit (for insurance purposes). It's kind of depressing how many tools I have but I need them all. More worrying though is the fact that there are still lots of tools that I would like to buy and am in a perpetual mental excercise to justify these spendy purchases.

I kind of pride myself in a minimal tool collection. I hate the idea of owning something and not using it. That said my line of work doesn’t need that much. If I were working on site a lot I’m sure I’d have all sorts.

I do like it when other people who make stuff come to our workshop and are like “uh, where’s all the tools? How do you make the things you make?”

Buying in PAR helps a lot.

De Walt seems to work pretty well. I've been working with a friend who does a lot of their own work and although they have a few of bits of Festool they use De Walt for everything else. We joke about it but any time I've used one of them on site it's been fine for the job.

Pro De Walt users I've seen struggling with batteries despite having a charger plugged into every socket on site and the entire workspace covered in battery less tools. At least that's where my feelings about them as pro tools come from.

FWIW battery powered everything seems unnecessary to me. Unless you work on sites prior to the installation of power.

Not sure I understand... Is there something I should know? You mean an electric screw driver? I'm confused

my "I don't know what I'm talking about" summary

electric screwdriver will replace you putting in a screw by hand with a screwdriver

drill will drill holes and do a decent job of putting screws in

impact driver doesn't drill holes, but has far higher torque and less likely to slip off a screw head. So if you're putting a lot of screws into a wall then you're going to get through it more quickly and without rounding out a bunch of heads

FWIW battery powered everything seems unnecessary to me. Unless you work on sites prior to the installation of power.

I agree with you to a certain extent here. I won't be going for a cordless mitre saw for example. But the convenience of not tangling myself up in cords when I switch direction plus the ease of tidying stuff away without having to kink up a cable to get it into a case means cordless is just really convenient, even for the home DIY-er.

Yes

Impact driver is much better for driving screws than a drill driver.

Requires a lot less downforce onto the drill/screw to keep the bit engaged with the screw head. Makes more sense once you’ve tried an impact driver and a drill driver side by side.

impact driver doesn't drill holes, but has far higher torque and less likely to slip off a screw head.

An impact driver will drill up to ~ 10mm holes fine (in wood not any other material) but you need to buy 1/4" hex shank bits, you can buy a chuck that fits but what's the point. Above 10mm the impact will activate and the drill bit is likely to shatter. They actually do a decent job of drilling pilot holes etc as the unloaded speed of an impact driver is much higher than most handheld drills.

A combi drill is capable of producing much higher torque than an impact but because of the way it is generated Newton's 3rd law comes into play (every action has its equal and opposite reaction) meaning that you have to counter the rotation produced with your hand. In worse case scenario this can result in breaking your wrist, this mostly happens if a drill is being held in one hand and catches. Impacts generate their torque by a hammer impacting an anvil in the gear box this makes them much more controllable also as a side effect this means you're less likely to round heads.

Because of the variety of work I undertake I need to have loads of tools most get used often unless they've been semi replaced. Even specialised stuff like my timber framing slicks and chisels gets pretty heavy use.

Makes sense Bosch blue stuff is fantastic and the batteries are the best about. Buy every time I've used the green stuff I'm pretty shocked at how bad it is.

The fuel cell fussiness is really annoying.

I do likd the gunshot effect though.

It’s more about torque delivery rather than amount of torque. My big drill driver is very powerful but still shit for putting big screws in by comparison.

Likewise, have used and abused this drill for ages and it's never skipped a beat

Oooooooh!

Nice! Did not know!

Thanks dudes!

@duncs too!

Try using a Hilti DX460 it literally is a gunshot.

These are fantastic for drilling joists with an impact driver. Honestly a game changing purchase, lol.

https://www.toolstation.com/dewalt-tri-flute-spade-bit-extreme/p77501

I've got about a million and one auger bits for just that purpose otherwise I would.

I need to buy one for my own van and im tempted to buy a fein cordless but I have milwaukee M18 stuff so I might end up just buying the milwaukee one. Yeah the noise off his is loud but then again all the tools now seem deafening