Maximum hole diameter - drills

[Notch7]

I've got to concur about corded tools. At the bottom end (in price terms) you are almost always going to get more bang for your buck than you will get from cordless. As a tradesman I need to use cordless simply because it avoids having to cart around a girt great transformer or massive numbers of extension cables. These aren't issues a DIYer needs to worry about all that often

I am amazed what is available cordless now.

A mate I do some work with has a cordless router, recip saw, skil saw.

I've often been to new build sites to do a joinery measuring survey.....the mass of 110v leads everywhere was a nightmare. New builds seems to always have one outlet in the garage and all the 110v comes off that.
Having 10 or so leads going up the stairs is a right trip hazard.

I imagine the new build guys have really taken to cordless

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'm having a few weeks on new build apartments (makes a nice change from doing work on listeds). We are installing wall and ceiling panelling. Simple enough job - cut to size (plunging rail saw), making cut outs and scribed (drill and jig saw), some routing for hinge and lighting cut outs (plunge 8mm router), the odd bit of planing to take out bows in timber framing (power planer), pinning and glueing in place (2nd fix nail gun) and finally a bit of sanding here and there (random orbit sander) - 5 teams and only one team is using either gas nailers or corded tools. The rest are on cordless only. Even the (mandatory) vacuums and site lighting are cordless. The site has 110 volt, but almost all the trades are in cordless with very few yellow arctic cables trailing across floors. Safer, too, because there are less trip risks. Ten years ago it just wouldn't have been possible although granted we aren't dealing with really heavy weight timbers where corded is still the order of the day

 

[diy_fun_uk]

For those of you involved in trades professionally that work on sites etc, how many spare batteries does the average tradesperson have with them? I appreciate the amount of (cordless) power required during a shift will vary depending on the trade and the tool, however on average do these boys/girls have multiple batteries with them, or do they have around 3 that are used rotationally with the others on charge once depleted?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

A few years ago it used to be three @ 3Ah. These days? I'm using a cordless plunge saw which on current usage gives me about 2 to 2-1/2 days from a pair of 9Ah batteries. In addition my vacuum does about 1-1/2 days on a pair of 5Ah batteries. The jigsaw does me about 3 days on a 5Ah battery. And I really don't know how much use I get from the planer, sander, impact driver and multitool but I have a couple of 5Ah batteries shared between them. That makes 7 in use at any time plus at least two 6Ah or 5Ah in reserve because we can't charge in this site. I charge 4 to 5 batteries at home every night. These are all 18 volts

For flooring, panelling and wall cladding I'd say that level of usage is not a untypical

 

[^woody^]

Dunno, I'm not an average tradesperson.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Dunno, I'm not an average tradesperson.

We noticed. So if you aren't a tradesman, what are you? Superhero? Super villain?

Answer please, on a postcard to...

 

[^woody^]

Not average