I spent a lot of time reading your comments, THANK YOU!

After much consideration, I chose the Milwaukee brand. I went with the cordless versions and the 12 volt versions instead of the 18 volt versions.

Here's what my harem looks like at this time.

Attachment 44468

TOP ROW:

hammer drill, palm nailer, impact driver

BOTTOM ROW:

hackzall and right angle drill.

I also have four batteries and two chargers. A couple of the tools came as kits which meant that I got an extra battery and a charger and a case. The cases are a bust for me but I make good use of the second charger (it lives at Twil's place) and I practically always have a battery with a sufficient charge at hand.

The suggestion by footfootfoot that Milwaukee was the tradesman's choice was validated by my own observations. I saw a lot of DeWalts too. I compared the two directly for my first tool which was the impact driver and Milwaukee won the battle and by extension the war.

Dude, you were right, impact drivers are the fucking shiznit.

I watched, then experienced this tool just make a four inch deck screw just *melt* into the lumber. brtbrtbrtbrtbrtbrtbrt! Done. Like a magic trick. It's my new favorite tool, this 1/4" hex impact driver. I can't remember what the project du jour was when I opened this thread, but I can tell you if it needed threaded fasteners, it got done. It has a light, because my eyes aren't sixteen years old anymore (side note, DeWalt has a much better lighting system, three leds in a ring plus diffusers so there are no shadows. Milwaukee has ONE led directly under the drill bit, so, you're guaranteed to be working in shadow at the point where the tool touches the workpiece. Srsly? Come on. The hammer drill is a little better with a diffuser on the light, but just a little.) That minor annoyance is overshadowed by the balance, power, light weight/maneuverability, battery level indicator, chuck system, reputation, etc. I went with the Milwaukee, and I haven't looked back.

The next tool I got was the Hackzall. Wow, what a demolition monster. I already had a good selection of blades, but I found I could get a pruning blade as well, it looks like the blade on a bow saw. That made my life much easier as I could one hand branches the size of my forearm (while hanging on with my other hand, eh?). It has a variable speed trigger, the blade can be inserted teeth up or teeth down. It uses the same batteries, has the same small size/adequate power as my impact driver. It's kind of ugly, like a hammer head shark, it's not obvious where the bite is, but once you use it, you'll be looking for things to cut.

I got the hammer drill next because I did have lots of drill bits already and lots of bits aren't available in a 1/4" hex shaft for my impact driver. It's sweet, with the same balance and features of the rest of the line. I haven't had cause to utilize the hammering function yet, but it's there if I need it. Meanwhile, its drill function is completely acceptable. It is an adequate driver as well, on low speed and easing the trigger.

Next came the palm nailer. This is a pretty specialized too, let's face it, the hammer has had an extremely long development and refinement period. How much more can it be improved? Well, let me tell ya. For confined spaces, like between floor joists where there isn't room to get a hammer up to takeoff speed, this is *the* tool to have. I actually got it for a different one handed awkward application. It's a cool tool, and of course it works on other not constrained space applications too.

Then came the baby of the family, the right angle drill. Like any other right angle drill, but cordless and smaller size AND WEIGHT, optimal characteristics for overhead work. I drilled lots of 3/4" holes in my joists for the recent bathroom debacle. This tool made that possible.

Whenever someone would come into the pawn shop with a reciprocating saw, I would say "remember when we had to move our arms back and forth to saw stuff?" It always got a small chuckle.

Oh yes and a brand not mentioned in this thread is Hilti and that's because only pros use them and they cost huge dollars. They have neat stuff like powder-actuated tools. Where you fire the fastener into something, as if it was a bullet.

They are bullets, I've seen the damn things go into soft concrete, hit a rock, and come back out next to the shield. Good job for a very skinny dude. :eek:

I don't have any fastening jobs that call for powder actuated fasteners or anchors. They look "hold my beer and watch this" cool though.

It's the only way to fasten to concrete or heavy metal. Drill and anchor is for wussies. :p:

I own a manual Hilti tool. You stick the charge in, then the bullet and hammer it "BANG" - shooting the footers for the basement was a lot of fun.


W0W - I just spent 10 minutes looking for an image of mine and couldn't find it on google. WTH?

Yeah, I've got one also. Not nearly as much fun as the larger caliber guns though. :D

I came across this old-time tool chest picture on the net. I think some here will appreciate it.

Beautiful! That beats a 5 gallon plastic bucket for carrying tools.

Some of those tools look pretty worn, and some look like they have never been used. Why would you need 4 mortising gauges? 2 is more convenient than one, but seems to me that if you have 4, you'll just get confused about which one has the correct measurement locked in, and your rover won't make it to Mars when you accidentally use the wrong one.

That's a very spendy item.
But where you plug in the extension cord ?

Actually, that would drive me nuts.
Everything has it's own place and there's a special place for everything.
I just put everything on the top of my bench, and then I know where everything is.

I do like the added touch of the Free Mason's square and compass.

Yeah. If I had a toolbox system, I'd want two or three toolboxes that were not packed so tightly so that you don't have to remove any upper tools to get to the lower tools. Much easier to spend 1 minute pulling out a few toolboxes than to carefully be extracting the tool you need and putting it back in its proper spot in this single box.

Look at that combination square. I use mine all the time. It's right on top here, but still, to use it, you have to unclip the two clips, pull it out, loosen and remove the optional 45 degree angle bracket that's on the ruler part, loosen the regular 90 degree angle bracket and slide the ruler into place and tighten it. Then when you are done with this one, you have to do all those steps in reverse. I just leave mine already set up, loose in my tool box. Grab it and use it. Actually, it's usually just sitting right on my bench.

Still, I'd love to have all those tools. I have 2/3 of them already, but more is always good.

I have a poster of that tool chest over my desk.

They give the dimensions of the box, which is cool, but I want to know how much it weighs. Can one man lift it?

Master carpenter and stone mason, not desk jockey.