Advice on power tools

thor

phill99 wrote: »

You will be how many time you will end up using a drill driver. I have a Macalister 18v (B & Q Own Brand) and it gets a lot of abuse. It can drill in toi masonary as wll as be usewd as a drill driver. Was £70 but probably more now. The cheaper ones aren't up to much so its worth the investment as I'm sure you will use it more than you realise.

If you want to cut lots of planks, what about hiring a chop saw for the day. It should cost about £30 or so but will be a decent make and then you don't have the hassle of storing it.

I had considered hiring but I regard having to go out and renting one more of a hassle than a one time buy and storing it.

thor

shandypants5 wrote: »

I would check before you buy that one.
It says its 18volt, but the pic shows a 14volt battery.

Allso, it comes with a lot of cheap accessories that will be poor quality.

Yes, it is using the same pic as the 14volt version which costs £5 less. The writing says 18 volt so that will be the one they have to supply so I would not be too worried by that.
As for things like drill bits, are there more than one standard? In other words if I wanted to buy more could I pretty much pick up anything I wanted and not have to worry about them fitting?

Wookey

Check the recharge time on the batteries, a few cheaper battery tools have slow recharge compared to the slightly more expensive ones. If the planks you are cutting are no more than 3/4" thick i would use a new cheap hardpoint saw more so if you are only going to be doing a one of job.

wallbash

i would use a new cheap hardpoint saw more so if you are only going to be doing a one of job.

As suggested in post #3

I will be cutting across the planks which are only about 4 or 5 cms wide

How many 'small' planks have you got to saw, to justify getting a power 'saw'
out of its box, finding an extension cable etc

diable

do it by hand with a decent saw as the exercise is worth it ;p

jaywhoopee

Unless you're using a circular saw it can be very hard to keep a tidy straight cut, but you're only cross cutting a few inches so there's a limit to how bad a jigsaw can be. I'd personally prefer a handsaw for such applications though. I can recommend somewhere like Axminster.co.uk for good cheap tools, but if you want Quidco cashback then Anglia Tools are also good.

As for a drill, I've had a several cheap cordless drills in the past but they're never charged when I need them and being Ni-Cad or NiMh they lose their charge over time, so I tend to use corded ones now, until I can afford (and justify) a nice Lithium Ion battery model that will hold a charge properly.

If you're going to drive screws with a drill make sure it has some torque settings to avoid stripping the screwhead and overtightening with too much power.