Choosing a decent cordless power tool set

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Hi everyone!

Long-time lurker, first-time poster and all that :)

Due to the Great North/South House Price Divide I've been renting for the past 10 years and have just bought my own home once again. I find myself the proud owner of a great big old pile of stone that needs a lot doing to it, but the really urgent job is a big one: I need to soundproof and insulate the floors and walls of the attic rooms. Heck of a thing to be taking on for someone who hasn't even put up a shelf for a decade, but given some of the preposterous quotes I've received for the work I have little choice but to tackle it myself.

Thing is, I basically have no tools any more; they've all been "borrowed" or just plain disappeared during the interminable house moves I've undertaken. All I have left by way of power tools is a 13-year-old 14.4v Bosch hammer drill/driver set, a Makita belt sander (mains) and a small Bosch jigsaw (mains). The nice thing about deciding to do it myself (and boy am I going to need advice when it comes to it) is that I have the perfect excuse - and the budget - to buy myself, well, "everything".

This isn't a case of Money No Object, but I have around a £1,500 budget for equipping myself with tools and other gear to deal with the many jobs around the house. My external walls (and most of my internal supporting walls) are 2ft of solid stone so I'm going to need a good SDS drill. I'll be putting up a lot of plasterboard so I "need" (you know what I mean) an impact driver. I'll be cutting lots of battens, insulating boards and so on so I'll need... "something"; I'm really not sure what. A reciprocating saw, maybe? A circular saw might well be a good investment too.

I'll also need a staple gun (tacking up acoustic membrane to stud frames), protective clothing and probably a ton of other stuff I haven't even thought of; all suggestions welcomed!

Sticking with the topic of the thread, and given my budget and what I've set down about what I'm going to use them for, where would the good folks of this forum start in terms of choosing a cordless power tool system? Obviously, with me buying everything from scratch and all at once, it makes sense to choose one decent manufacturer and system, and stick with it throughout; so I need a brand that makes all the tools I might want, compatible with the same batteries. I'd always rather buy 'less better stuff' than 'more cheap stuff' if it comes down to it, and I'd rather get versatile tools that I use a lot than specific tools that only ever get put to use on one or two jobs, even if the specialised tools are "better" for that one job.

From reading this forum, it's clear I'm going to need at least an 18v system and minimum 3Ah batteries. Am I best off going with a combi kit, or buying pieces individually? The kits tend to come with stuff I don't think I need, like an angle-grinder (I have no idea what I'd even use that for) and LED head torch (which I already own), so I'm not sure they'd be the best value for money.

If you were in my situation, with my budget, what would you be looking at?

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for the help!
 
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Just like cars, football teams, and personal attractions everyone has their personal favourites and will rubbish someone else’s choice.

I would avoid own brands like the plague unless you need something for a one off task you never intend to repeat. My DeWalt combi is indestructible for example but their cordless circular saw I found disappointing. As a rule I find Bosch seem good except for the diy version of the multitool that gave up after a year, the trade blue version might be a better bet. Ryobi seem a fair balance between cost and performance.
 
Thanks for the tip on the reciprocating saw... Perhaps a circular saw would be better?

How does the Ryobi stack up against the Makita products for instance? Their line is attracting me at the moment, although the qualms some people have about their batteries is putting me off a bit. I've been considering things like:

Makita Brushless LXT SDS BHR243 (with Dust Extractor add-on)

and

Makita BDT147 Brushless Impact Driver

How would the Ryobi gear compare for useability/durability? I note that it's much, much cheaper - which is good - but I don't know if it's a case of "you get what you pay for" or Makita being over-priced. It has been so long since I've looked into this stuff...

Anyway, thanks for replying, both!
 
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No doubt Makita fans will hang me out to dry, but I think of them as a bit expensive although having a name for quality none the less a bit lacklustre.

I had a Makita for a while at work and it seemed a bit behind the other brands we used for performance, never bought one since, maybe I was unlucky.
 
No doubt Makita fans will hang me out to dry, but I think of them as a bit expensive although having a name for quality none the less a bit lacklustre.

I had a Makita for a while at work and it seemed a bit behind the other brands we used for performance, never bought one since, maybe I was unlucky.

Fair enough; they certainly wouldn't be the first brand to coast on a label, as most people who bought a Mercedes in the late 90's would agree ;)

What do you rate for quality and oomph then? I'm flying blind here; I know what *was* good 13 or 14 years ago, but newer gear has me flummoxed!
 
I bought a makita combi with an impact driver kit, then bought body only jigsaw and circular saw, have four batteries and one charger [you can only use one tool at once so no point having a charger for each unit] saves money as a large part of kits is the battery cost.
http://www.tools4trade.co.uk/
http://www.toolstation.com/
http://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/power-tools/cat830692[/QUOTE]

Yeah, good call, I've already made up my mind that I'm going to stick with one charger and 2 or 3 batteries for however many tools I end up with. As I'm staring some fairly serious jobs in the face, I think 3Ah minimum though...
 
Personally unless it was for site work where power is hard to find for an SDS drill I would stick with corded. always going to have more punch and stamina than a cordless, and usually cheaper too.

Then buy a cordless combi for general work the one you show looks a bit unwieldy for hanging pictures, drilling holes in wood and screwdriving.
 
i have bosch blue 10.8v and 24v
as well as dewalt 18v
if you rate the bosch as 10 and the dewalt as 9
the ryobi will be 7 or 8
if you do not overload your tools they will go on for years
apart from the battery jigsaw which worked fine but not on sheet material unless it was well supported never had a problem with any off my ryobi stuff[20 one plus tools]
the jigsaw was the old model and suspect the 2100 strokes per min was causing the boards to vibrate to much stopping the blade cutting
the 18v dewalt is 3100strokes and cuts like a rocket
:D
 
i have bosch blue 10.8v and 24v
as well as dewalt 18v
if you rate the bosch as 10 and the dewalt as 9
the ryobi will be 7 or 8
if you do not overload your tools they will go on for years
apart from the battery jigsaw which worked fine but not on sheet material unless it was well supported never had a problem with any off my ryobi stuff[20 one plus tools]
the jigsaw was the old model and suspect the 2100 strokes per min was causing the boards to vibrate to much stopping the blade cutting
the 18v dewalt is 3100strokes and cuts like a rocket
:D

Again, much obliged! The only thing that puts me off the Bosch a bit is that their blue line doesn't seem to include many other types of tool like the stapler I'm going to need... maybe I just haven't checked around enough yet, but you know what it's like when you just want to get on with something. :)
 
Then buy a cordless combi for general work the one you show looks a bit unwieldy for hanging pictures, drilling holes in wood and screwdriving.

I've got my old Bosch cordless combi for light stuff, and I'll keep running it until it dies completely ;) It doesn't have the grunt for making holes in my stone walls though! Power is actually a problem in some parts of the house (it is VERY old) and I'm going to be doing some work outside, which is why I was thinking cordless. Plus, I hate extension leads. You may be right though, 'cos the corded stuff certainly is cheaper... here's a big attraction to having a bunch of tools running off a single battery system and just being able to pick them up and start.

After all this time it turns out I'm still a gadget freak at heart: who knew?! :cool: :LOL:
 
You might want to have a look at the Milwaukee M12 range of kit
Quite a variety of options available and damned useful for general everyday work.

If heavier duty kit required i put my money on the Makita LXT 18v range.
 
If heavier duty kit required i put my money on the Makita LXT 18v range.

As it happens, that's exactly what I did put my money on, ta! Took the plunge yesterday and ordered myself a few things... I'll bloody well have to do it myself now! :cool:

For the record, I took on board the comments about the batteries being dodgy and have gone with a 3rd-party battery manufacturer whose stuff has had really good reviews, and sells them for about two-thirds the cost of a Makita-branded BL1830 battery.
 

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