Tools for Beginner - Loventools experience?

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#1148858 7-Oct-2014 08:13

for the average home use, I like ryobi. its cheaper than the professional brands (which are designed to with stand daily use) and uses the same batteries for all their tools. I've gotten the following ryobi tools 2 drill pack, sander, torch, router. used them to make shelfs, work bench, fixing things around the house, altering a arcade cabinet etc.

not saying its better than makita (I was going to get this brand), but for home use, its a good brand.

Item

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#1148890 7-Oct-2014 08:48

Fred99:
Item: I bought into the Milwaukee m18 cordless ecosystem. Expensive to start with, but now I have a charger and few batteries of varying sizes and capacities, I can buy new "skins" for the additional tools I want from Amazon in the US at half the price they would cost me here.

I have done the same, but remember that you're practically forgoing their 5 year trade-use warranty if buying overseas.

Indeed - definitely worth noting!

I ran the numbers and took the risk - my brushless impact driver skin cost me US$98 from Amazon with shipping as opposed to NZ$210.00 locally. I figured it was worth the gamble on the warranty for that kind of saving!

Also worth noting that you want to buy your chargers and batteries locally as the US chargers don't always work on 240v and a lot of shippers won't internationally ship batteries anyway.

I have also managed to get some good deals locally from Placemakers by buying skins from the clearance bin and negotiating trade discounts with the salesman.

KShips

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#1148897 7-Oct-2014 09:06

I brought a Ryobi One+ drill kit with 2 batteries, and now added the multi-tool. Both get quite a bit of home use, great gear and I plan to build up my tools and use Ryobi One+ if available.

1101

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#1148971 7-Oct-2014 10:41

The big question is , how often will you use these tools. Be honest :-)
And will they be for just a 5 minute fixit job, or being used constantly for a few hours .

I have a mix of quality & cheapies. Except for the cordless drill, I hardly ever use my power tools now so for me, buying the expensive brands cant be justified.
I would like a new cordless drill with a lithium batt. Nothing worse than having the cordless batt flat when you want to use it (Nicads & Nimah batts self discharge so wont hold the charge unused for long)

The good thing with the cheapies is, if it fails just buy another . Even if you have 3 fail, its still cheaper than the expensive brands .

networkn

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#1149016 7-Oct-2014 11:30

Are those all in one exchangeable parts multifunction kits any good? The ones that you can change between a drill and various other hand hand parts?

JonnyCam

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#1149935 8-Oct-2014 13:30

networkn: Are those all in one exchangeable parts multifunction kits any good? The ones that you can change between a drill and various other hand hand parts?

As others have said above, the ryobi one+ is a good kit for around the house.

I've got the impact driver, drill, circular saw, and edger/ hedge trimmer.

Works well for me and the batteries don't seem to need charging too much.
The circular saw is a little smaller than most (150mm) but for cutting lengths of timber works well

The impact driver is what I use the most, and it has a heap of power.

I'm looking at getting a couple more skins and maybe the radio / mp3 / battery charger.

Stu

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#1149940 8-Oct-2014 13:38

Have a growing collection of Ryobi One+ gear here and very happy with the performance. Used for home renovation and usual DIY projects.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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#1150389 9-Oct-2014 07:44

Thanks for all the posts. I was close to buying expensive tools but as a lot of you can vouch for ryobi, I might give them a go.

Although they might have to go on the back burner cos my laptop hard drive is failing :o(

mcraenz

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#1150503 9-Oct-2014 10:08

Peronally I'd rather go to trademe and buy a second hand professional tool than a new DIY range. I like Bosch (blue, not green), Makita (blue not Maktec).

I was at a timber yard the other day and needed to cut some lengths to fit in the wagon, I took a hand saw along but the guy offered me to use a Ryobi one+ circular saw they had. What a joke, I thought it was a kids toy. Went back to the hand saw which was much faster. Maybe the battery was flat or the blade was blunt but the thing just felt cheap and flimisy in general.

I bought a Bosch blue jigsaw off trademe for ~$60, it looked a bit rough but it's fine, built to last a lifetime, $500 tool new!

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CutCutCut

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#1151053 10-Oct-2014 08:20

I'm in the same boat smewhat, I'm about to start fixing/renovating/building our deck and my old hand-me-down black and decker has died, well the battery and charger have died, and would like to get one of the compact drill and impact driver combos. I see there is a Ryobi one+ 18v set for $268 at Bunnings which seems good value. They also have an AG set with bigger batteries for $389 that has a 6 year warranty and 3 year for batteries. I can't seem to find much reviews or info on AEG power tools though, anybody know what theuy are like?

nickb800

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#1151058 10-Oct-2014 08:36

CutCutCut: I'm in the same boat smewhat, I'm about to start fixing/renovating/building our deck and my old hand-me-down black and decker has died, well the battery and charger have died, and would like to get one of the compact drill and impact driver combos. I see there is a Ryobi one+ 18v set for $268 at Bunnings which seems good value. They also have an AG set with bigger batteries for $389 that has a 6 year warranty and 3 year for batteries. I can't seem to find much reviews or info on AEG power tools though, anybody know what theuy are like?

Bunnings also has a Bosch Impact drill/driver set with 2 batteries for $199, I got it for my dad recently and he's been pretty happy with them

CutCutCut

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#1151059 10-Oct-2014 08:40

nickb800:
CutCutCut: I'm in the same boat smewhat, I'm about to start fixing/renovating/building our deck and my old hand-me-down black and decker has died, well the battery and charger have died, and would like to get one of the compact drill and impact driver combos. I see there is a Ryobi one+ 18v set for $268 at Bunnings which seems good value. They also have an AG set with bigger batteries for $389 that has a 6 year warranty and 3 year for batteries. I can't seem to find much reviews or info on AEG power tools though, anybody know what theuy are like?

Bunnings also has a Bosch Impact drill/driver set with 2 batteries for $199, I got it for my dad recently and he's been pretty happy with them

I can't see that one on their website, I'll have a look when I go in this afternoon.

nickb800

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#1151061 10-Oct-2014 08:43

CutCutCut:
nickb800:
CutCutCut: I'm in the same boat smewhat, I'm about to start fixing/renovating/building our deck and my old hand-me-down black and decker has died, well the battery and charger have died, and would like to get one of the compact drill and impact driver combos. I see there is a Ryobi one+ 18v set for $268 at Bunnings which seems good value. They also have an AG set with bigger batteries for $389 that has a 6 year warranty and 3 year for batteries. I can't seem to find much reviews or info on AEG power tools though, anybody know what theuy are like?

Bunnings also has a Bosch Impact drill/driver set with 2 batteries for $199, I got it for my dad recently and he's been pretty happy with them

I can't see that one on their website, I'll have a look when I go in this afternoon.

I think it's in their flyers/newspaper ads

mdf

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#1151479 10-Oct-2014 18:54

CutCutCut: I'm in the same boat smewhat, I'm about to start fixing/renovating/building our deck and my old hand-me-down black and decker has died, well the battery and charger have died, and would like to get one of the compact drill and impact driver combos. I see there is a Ryobi one+ 18v set for $268 at Bunnings which seems good value. They also have an AG set with bigger batteries for $389 that has a 6 year warranty and 3 year for batteries. I can't seem to find much reviews or info on AEG power tools though, anybody know what theuy are like?

I got the AEG drill and impact driver (and radio!) kit for last xmas. It is an amazing bit of kit. Nice and solid, but well-balanced and comfortable to use. The drill has LED for drilling (which I thought was a gimmick until I actually used it, and would now never go back), keyless chuck, screwdriver, drill and hammer drill settings, two speed gearbox and torque select. The chuck is 2mm-13mm, so the only problem I've had is I need to get out my old drill for 1/1.5mm holes. Battery life is good and charges fast (<1hr). The drill happily drilled about a dozen 100mm hole saw holes in 18mm ply without blinking (though it did churn through a whole battery doing it).

Impact driver is a beast - first time I used it was to fix some brass window latches. More fool me because it destroyed the screws (Tim Toolman Taylor "more power" grunts go here). I've now more or less got the hang of it, but have learned to only use it on chunky screws.

I've never come across anyone else offering a 6 year trade warranty either - i.e. use it every day for 5.9 years and they'll still replace it if it breaks (and CGA doesn't apply if its for business use either). Mine are still going strong so haven't had to call on the warranty.

If you're in Wellington, you should pop in to Bunnings Lyall Bay. Kyle at their toolshop gives an awesome demo. I've seen him put a screw right through a packing crate (like literally in one side and out the other - a good 6 inches at least) just using the impact driver and biff the batteries around.

But, as awesome as they are, mine were a gift and I'm not sure I could justify spending my own money on them. If I were in trade, I'd have no doubts about them as an investment, but it's a lot of money if it were just for DIY use.

nickb800

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#1151485 10-Oct-2014 19:06

mdf:
Impact driver is a beast - first time I used it was to fix some brass window latches. More fool me because it destroyed the screws (Tim Toolman Taylor "more power" grunts go here). I've now more or less got the hang of it, but have learned to only use it on chunky screws.

From my experience I now only use the impact driver on square head screws, I've just destroyed so many philips screw heads and bits. Hardened impact driver bits help too

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