This is really basic to most of you guys. But you know, I’m not really a tool guy. Yeah, I know I was a dealership mechanic/votech teacher/tech instructor/tech writer/training developer and I owned a great big chest of tools but the truth is I got into those other things because I hated working on cars so very much. Never really was particularly good at it. Mostly I have tools for the same reason I have hats and shoes, and with about that much emotional attachment.
Between us, I always wanted to be a rich reclusive novelist. The only tools required were a typewriter (kids, ask your parents Wikipedia), some means of transportation for acquiring paper, and an agent with big boobs and a heart of gold who was secretly in love with me. This was, believe it or not, why I took typing classes (multiple classes!) in high school. The other guys thought it was because I was queer, but it was actually because I wanted to be Ernest Hemingway when I grew up. And he was definitely not queer.
Also, I was the only guy in any of those classes. Didn’t help, though, because all the girls thought I was queer, too. I soldiered on and became one hell of a good typist, though not a rich or even very good novelist. And who had the last laugh? Huh? Huh? Now everybody can type, but I do it better.
But I digress.
Anyway – since I’m not really a tool guy I’m often late to the party about things that could really be of service. The only cordless driver I ever used was a Ryobi with Nicad batteries and the experience of using it was all about its limitations. At no point, working with it out in the boonies, did I ever exclaim, “Oh, what a joy is work, since I can use this tool!” No, it was more like “Oh, how I wish I had a generator, so I could use a decent drill.” That being my only example, that was pretty much my attitude toward cordless drills in general.
That thing I had to take apart this morning rested about fifty yards from my front door, which in terms of power tools may as well have been on the Siberian steppe. But a little more than a year ago my brother sent me a decent cordless drill…
…and oh, what a joy is work, since I can use this tool!
Seriously, it does make a short job out of a long one. I’m prepared to say that if you live off grid but have any access to electricity at all, a really good cordless drill is pretty much a necessary tool. Can’t believe I went so long without one.
Cordless drills and drivers have made my life sooooo much easier. My “workshop”” is actually a large (8’X12′) shed and power is an issue. My power options are a loooooong extension cord from the house or my generator to power equipment (miter saw, drill press, table saw etc.) so using the cordless drill and driver is pretty handy.
I was in the local equivalent of #genericbigboxhardwarestore yesterday.
A Ryobi “skin” (they sell the tool without any batteries) of the type of tool that I wanted was $169.
The equivalent Hilti (also a skin) was $529.
For the amount of use I have for it, $529 for the decent tool was too much to justify.
:O That might be too good of a good thing. Or at least too expensive.
Sendarius, those prices sound like the ones associated with brushless, cordless power tools. You might check that. The ones that have brushes are much less expensive. You can do a quick price comparison at Amazon.
Re Ernest Hemingway not being queer, he was definitely exploring the wide spectrum of expressing gender identity at a time when people did so in private, and despite his four marriages and public image there’s no clear indication that he was not queer in his private life. My Ryobi cordless driver was the most useless tool I ever owned but with the battery on it it was a good doorstop. Glad to have your review of the B&D as I haven’t owned a cordless since the Ryobi experience .
@jabrwok: To be honest, I didn’t check for comparable features beyond “it’s called the same, and looks the same, but a different colour”.
For my occasional, light-duty, use the Ryobi will suffice, and I already have other tools that use the same battery.
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