I’ve never been a fan of battery-powered woodworking tools – except for a begrudging acceptance of cordless drills. (And only because of their clutch technology.)
Tool manufacturers, however, have been trying to introduce cordless everythings – routers, sanders, jigsaws, nailers, miter saws, circular saws – into furniture-making shops since batteries were invented.
Heck, one year Black & Decker came out with both a battery-powered tape measure and a C-clamp. I tested both. Both broke immediately.
For the most part, woodworkers have resisted battery tools. Here’s why.
When a battery reaches the end of its cycle life and cannot hold a charge, you are faced with two expensive solutions: buy a new OEM battery or replace the tool. You might think these options have different price points. But typically, they don’t. Try buying a 12-volt battery for a 10-year-old cordless drill. It is usually cheaper to buy a new drill.
Here’s a typical equation: Replace my 14.4-volt batteries for my Bosch drill at $159.99? Or buy a new Bosch 18-volt drill for $10 less? (Note: The prices at Amazon might will change.)
(Yes, I know you can have the battery rebuilt or buy a gray-market battery; I have yet to be satisfied with those products.)
My skepticism on battery tools extends beyond the economics. At Popular Woodworking Magazine we were deluged every year with all manner of battery tools to test. In general, battery tools are built to a lower manufacturing standard than their corded brethren. I can say this after burning up a fair number of cordless doo-dads during typical woodworking operations, such as drilling a 3/4” dog hole in yellow pine.
In use, battery tools are generally less powerful. And when you need them, the batteries always seem to be discharged – so you need to wait while they recharge.
And that’s why I usually recommend new woodworkers buy corded tools or sweat-driven hand tools. I have the first corded drill, jigsaw and circular saw I bought in the mid-1990s. They are still going strong. I also quite like my meat-powered hand drills, braces and coping saw, which have been going strong since my grandfather was in college.
So why do I own a battery-powered drill? The multiple speeds and the clutch. Craftsman came out with a corded drill with these features, and I loved the heck out of it. Sadly, these features are rarely put on a corded drill.
Last caveat: I’m not a contractor or a carpenter. Battery tools might make sense to those professions, but I can’t say.
— Christopher Schwarz
I don’t know, man. I love the smell of ozone in the morning. If plywood or 2x material is anywhere near my workbench, the cordless drills are too. I love my 14v driver/hammer drill combo.
I feel your pain. I have a large collection of 9.6 volt Makita tools aquired over the last 20 years. Four drills, circ saw, sabre saw, flashlight, and a couple of hacks that use the battery sticks. Some of these were bought at garage sales just to get the batteries. I use all these but its getting hard to find replacement batterys for less than $40 so I am experimenting with 11.1 volt LiPo packs. Watch for the fire trucks on my street any day now.
Those 9.6v Makita tools are practically legendary in my eyes. I was gifted a set from my parents for Christmas that included the drill, trim saw, and flashlight, when I was somewhere around 12-14ish years old. I used them through high school, college, and eventually replaced them with a newer, but lesser quality drill after a few years out of school. I always see the single new Makita 9.6v stick battery hanging on the rack at Home Depot and instantly feel nostalgic (and then I wonder how many years it’s been hanging there).
Of course, as a youngster, I wanted those tools because my dad had them. Up until just 2 or 3 years ago he regularly used them at home and for work. I am pretty sure he had half a dozen drills by the time he stopped using them, having picked them up as clearance items or garage sale finds as well just to get the batteries.
I concur. I have a wonderful DeWalt cordless drill and two batteries that will hold a charge for about 10 minutes each. Max. I replaced it with a cheap Harbor Freight cordless drill with two batteries for less than the cost of a single new DeWalt battery. I have no illusions about the quality of the HF drill, but it works for those times when I need a powered drill. These days, I’m in love with my hand-powered boring tools anyway.
What are you an Anarchist 🙂
The third option I go for usually: rebuild the battery pack.
I moved from construction and remodeling to woodworking and furniture making. I don’t know how I would function without my Craftsman 19.2 cordless tools. I have an old set, before it was branded C3, but thankfully the newer Li-ion Batteries work in my older stuff.
I have no illusions that my corded Skill Saw is worlds better than my cordless one. But for breaking down sheets of plywood into manageable sizes I prefer using the smaller and lighter cordless. Now the C3 Reciprocating Saw is nowhere near as good as my HF corded version, and some of the tools available for my system are “gimmicky.” I would say that at the least cordless drills and impact drivers are on par with their corded counterparts, other things are hit and miss.
If you do go with cordless tools I think it is best to buy a well established band and system. That way when your batteries do start dying you can still find replacement or just buy a new tool to go with it. Also the new Li-ion stuff puts Ni-cad to shame.
It’s true. The batteries for both my Dewalt and my Festool are on the way out, which is a shame because I love both of those tools and they do a hell of a good job. In my shop I can keep a backup battery for each on the charger at all times, but if I were a pro working on site, they would have been replaced long ago.
20 years ago I began to develop carpal tunnel issues from driving nails. In an effort to avoid the pain and numbness I began using screws for nearly all wood assemblies, both furniture and construction. My first battery operated driver was a Black & Decker screwdriver, which I still own although it doesn’t work anymore.
Through a series of Craftsman, Makita, and finally DeWalt tools, the dead battery issue has been their major failing point. If it weren’t for having to drag a 100 foot extension cord everywhere to use it I would prefer to use my 50 year old Black & Decker 1/2″ drill for driving screws. After killing both batteries on the DeWalt drill during a marathon deck building session, at my brother in laws, I put a drill extension in the B&D and finished out the deck without bending over or stopping once to charge a battery.
I do love the DeWalt reciprocating saw that was part of the set my son bought me for Christmas. On top of a ladder or in a crawlspace it is compact and powerful enough for most jobs. Now the Milwaukee Sawsall only comes out for major demolition. That beast will cut through anything and keep at it all day long.
If there are more than twenty screws to be driven in the project, or a need to cut more than ten 2×4’s, it’s worth breaking out the extension cord.
I bought my first cordless drill at
a farm auction and never looked back
https://www.flickr.com/photos/coalandice/284231209
On the rare occasion that I get called out to do on-site carpentry I bring a collection of corded, cordless, and meat-powered tools. I have been in too many situations on a job-site where I’m too far from an outlet and my batteries are dead to leave the meat-powered tools behind. The derision from co-workers is heavy when I pull out a brace, handsaw, or plane, until they watch me complete the task in less time than it takes someone to run to his truck to grab a backup battery that inevitably needs to be charged.
As an old tree hugger, former dome builder….yes….short haired incognito hippie, I’m anti cordless battery in part because of the environmental impact of all those mountains of heavy metal going back into the land (fill?). On top of that, I also had the 9.6V Makita wake up call about 15 years ago when I went to buy the second set of batteries for it, and they cost way more than a new Makita. Happily, I discovered (at Home Depot) the Ryobi corded 3/8″ Variable Speed Clutch Driver. They have a slightly beefier model that actually has some metal behind the chuck, model # D47CK. Costs less than one battery, (~$45). It is not a “contractor’s” grade tool….but after 15 years, mine has driven a lot of screws and bored a lot of holes, with no end in sight. I can’t remember the last time I needed to drive screws or drill a hole and wasn’t less than 50′ from an outlet. Anyway, I’m using power tools less and less, and the egg beater and brace do a fine job. Do I use the cordless DeWalt at work? Of course…..’cause that’s what the boss buys for us. If I’m in my shop at home and I’m in such a hurry that I can’t walk over to plug into an outlet, then I might need to examine if what I’m doing is really relaxing and enjoyable.
For woodworking I love my hand tools: planes, braces, chisels, et al. When doing jobs around the house, I love my Bosch 12V (10.8) drills and drivers. They all use the same batteries and after buying the first two as kits, I bought the other two tools “bare”. I’ve been using the same four batteries for three+ years and they’re still going strong. For drilling, I have the PS31. I also have the older version of this drill, can’t recall its model number. For driving screws and small lag bolts, I have the PS21. For driving really tough lag bolts I have the PS41. I need a hammer drill because I frequently find myself needing to drill holes in poured concrete. I’m looking at the PS130, also by Bosch. Right now, I’m planning on picking up the bare tool for ~70. If any of my batteries were dying, I’d pick up the kit (reburbished by Bosch) for ~95. CPO from Bosch is the way to go as they’re refurbished but good as new with the same warranty.
All of the Bosch 12V tools feel dense and well built. I’ve used them to install wood flooring, build countless wood structures and asked them to do far more than any 12V tool should have to. None of them has given up yet. When the job is too big for the 12V tools, I reach for my corded Milwaukee Holeshot drill. It’s the best $100 (pawn shop) I’ve spent on a drill.
“For the most part, woodworkers have resisted battery tools.” I have known many many woodworkers in my 25 + years in the business and I can’t recall a single one who hasn’t wholeheartedly embraced the cordless drill.
I think it’s clear from the article as a whole that statement refers to the not-drills. How many cordless routers have you seen? Cordless circ saws? Sanders?
I know you love to nitpick, but really?
I use a cordless drill-driver a lot for home repairs and improvements. My first one was a Craftsman, and it died fairly early. Then I bought a Hitachi and I never had any problems with the batteries, probably because the chuck wasn’t capable of gripping a bit tight enough to drill a hole so I didn’t use it very much. About 5 years ago, after reading a lot of reviews about a lot of different brands, I bought a Milwaukee compact 12 volt driver. After a while, I bought a larger capacity XC battery for it (28 watt-hours compared to 14 watt-hours for the standard battery), not because I needed more battery capacity but because it had a larger, square base and I could stand it upright. I only charge it about once per year, and I drill a lot of holes and drive a lot of screws with it. I’m surprised that the battery doesn’t appear to have lost any capacity yet. I love this little drill/driver.
I believe that the quality of power tools has been declining in recent years for a lot of brands. It is my opinion that the only brands that have maintained high quality standards are Bosch and Milwaukee (and Festool if you want to buy one to keep one in your garage beside your Rolls Royce or Porscne).
Meat power, or better yet, chocolate powered are my favorites. I tried battery power, with exactly the same result Chris mentions; a batteries that costs more to replace than the cheap tool itself.
I still have, and use frequently, a corded drill that I purchased over 5 decades ago for $9.95, at a Midwest discount house named “T-Way.”. Yep, it makes ozone. It gets too hot to handle sometimes. … And, it keeps on running.
Now that I think of it, all my non-drill power tools are corded. I don’t know if I was conscious during any these choices or not, but that’s where I ended up. I wouldn’t mind being able to break down sheet goods for the hauling vehicle with a cordless circular saw. I think I could get that done in less than 10 minutes on most trips. Other than that, cords work fine for me when it comes to power. Otherwise, I have plenty of beer-powered (and other minor food groups) hand tools.
Cordless routers and sanders lack enough run-time to get most jobs done. A cordless sawzall might be useful in an attic or crawlspace, but you won’t find use for one in the wood shop. A cordless mitersaw is seriously questionable, (and more expensive than a corded one) as even a trim carpenter will set up a cutting area rather than move the saw from room to room for each task. A cordless circular saw may find use occasionally, but mostly for quick plunge-type cuts where a handsaw does not excel. A cordless jigsaw actually is a good application, as most tasks in a cabinet shop that call for one are 5 minute jobs. but I’ve yet to find one that has the quality of my corded one. I do have a small right angle impact driver that turns screws and drills (with hex shanked bits) in places that hand tools just won’t reach. And that battery powered crescent wrench (really!) that I recieved as an in-store promotion serves wonderfully as a play-thing for my five year old.
The new Milwaukee fuel line is a pretty different animal. Their motors are more similar to induction motors, and their batteries seem to have much longer charge life and longer lifespan as well. I use them all the time in construction and in the woodworking shop as well. Their circular saw truly feels like a corded machine. I’m interested to see how they last, but these tools have already caused me to convert to more cordless tools.
I had horrible luck with the older cordless tools and batteries. I had an old black and decker system that was more paperweight than tool. I received a Ryobi drill as a christmas present and a ryobi impact driver later on. I have expanded that to a reciprocating saw, weedeater (wife is a huge fan of it), circular saw, some emergency flashlights for power outages. I recently bought their 4aH battery, i trimmed a small tree, cleaned up the front yard with the weedeater, cut up some 2x8x14 SYP and it still had over half a charge. Based on the other comments I might have to try their jigsaw. Sometimes my workshop travels to my in-laws driveway, small box of hand tools, power tools, and one battery and I’m good for a weekend visit!
i have an old 14.4v dewalt drill. The batteries didn’t hold a charge anymore. I was strapped for cash but needed the drill. Bought some cells on Ebay (couldn’t find what i needed locally), opened the packs soldered the cells together like they were in the pack and closed it up. Total cost 30$ for both battery packs. The drill works like new!
I eventually bought a 18v drill though, because new tools and all…
My first cordless drill purchase was a Porter Cable 14.4v. That drill was great. It held up through 7 years of tough projects. The batteries stopped taking a charge a few years ago when I switched to the 12v litheon Bosch line.
Rigid tools have a lifetime warranty on both tool and battery. You have to register everything online and they don’t make it easy. I bought a package set with the impact driver and the drill and had to register each tool, each battery and the charger separately. But, once it’s in the system, you can go to the local authorized repair center (mine’s 1/2 mile from my house) and they look you up and give you a new battery or tool right then. Or, order it if it’s not in stock. I have a friend that turned me on to this and he’s a professional. He’s replaced his battery several times.