BATTERY powered cordless tools are definitely where it is at these days.
Small, lightweight, usually handheld, cordless power tools are very portable and can be used anywhere.
They even turn up in campsites.
It is not uncommon to use a battery powered reciprocating saw for ‘making’ firewood. In the garden, we even have battery-powered hedge trimmers, chainsaws, whipper snippers and lawn mowers.
I purchased my first battery power tool, a Makita drill, in the 1980s.
The casing colour I refer to as Makita blue.
It took another 15 years for me to purchase one of those kits with four tools included in the one case as well as one battery and charger.
That first Makita was considered to be professional grade.
When time came to replace it, the superbly well-built tool itself was still going strong.
But the battery no longer took charge and it was going to cost more to rectify that flattery, than buying the aforementioned four-piece set.
In fact, the four-piece set, IIRC, on special, was cheaper than buying just the drill by itself.
The demise of the local hardware store and the rise of the battery powered hand-tool seemed to happen about the same time.
The way we viewed the fourpiece set was summarised by one word, ‘disposable’.
The typical attitude was to purchase the tool kit from a ‘bigbox’ store to use on a project and then toss it away afterwards.
I held on to mine but soon tossed it anyway when within a couple years the battery was cactus.
It was a brand that came and went in a one container shipment.
Another common ‘folklore’ approach for renovators was to buy a kit and wear it out before the warranty expired; then take it back for a refund/exchange and then reappear back home with a new one to keep going on the reno.
I was not a fan of the disposable approach.
Fortunately, things have come full circle.
Today the technology exists for the batteries to charge quicker and last longer.
These days we purchase our battery powered tool kit(s) with much thought towards their long-term use in our sheds.
Nowadays we almost always purchase at least a second battery and charger.
We may even acquire three or more batteries so that we can keep going by swapping out a flattery with a fresh one.
There are also tools available that requrte two or more batteries.
The most common battery used in today’s cordless power tools is the 18-volt (18v) Lithium-ion (Liion) battery.
Li-ion batteries are relatively powerful, quickly rechargeable, long-lasting and slow to discharge when not in use.
Li-ion batteries, however, are still susceptible to damage from being too deeply discharged.
Power tools that ordinarily use a Li-ion battery common include drills (of many kinds), drivers (also in many types), jigsaws, reciprocating/sabre saws, sanders, circular saws, angle grinders, even planers, routers as well as table saws and many more.
Notwithstanding the improvement in the concept; it is also accepted these days that electric-corded powered tools still have their place in your kit.
In fact, for continuous heavy work in one fixed place, the norm is still to use a tool that plugs into the wall in order to save your battery powered tools.
Battery powered tools are for quick projects where portability is a benefit.
Once you’ve decided on your brand you are sorta stuck with it as the battery ‘systems’ are unique and are not interchangeable between brands.
When making the decision I again went with Makita, why not.
Their Makita-blue cases, it is hip to call them ‘skins’ in modern lingo, have been a fixture in Aussie backyard sheds and building sites forever.