Dewalt cordless kit

[Peter-kenny]

Hi guys I'm thinking of getting a dewalt cordless kit for just doing framing work are these kits worth the money and are the tools good. I had cordless tools before and I was turned off by cordless, so don't want to spend the money on something that no good

 

[Wooden Skye]

Are you talking about just their drills or all of the new tools (miter saw, table saw, etc).

 

[Peter-kenny]

All there tools wondering what you guys think of them is it worth it going cordless

 

[mleny77]

My fear with a cordless saw is, the batteries die in the middle of a cut. Now I have to switch to the other battery oh wait the other one is dead too!  [unsure]

 

[Arvid]

My fear with a cordless saw is, the batteries die in the middle of a cut. Now I have to switch to the other battery oh wait the other one is dead too!  [unsure]

You must be the same guy who goes to use his corded tool and realizes he hasn't plugged it in yet. As with any tool the first thing you do with it is plug it in. Same goes for your battery charger.

On the topic I just got the cordless 60v dewalt sawsall reciprocating saw and am pretty pleased with it.

 

[Chance Beasley]

I'm happy with my Dewalt kit. Assuming you're talking about a combo kit that typically includes: impact, hammer drill, saw zall, circular saw, grinder, etc.

You'd probably be happy with any of the major brands such as Makita, Milwaukee and Dewalt. All are generally very good and some tools outshine the others but are all competitive with each other. The biggest thing for me was choosing a battery platform and sticking with it. The tools, themselves, are fairly inexpensive. It's the batteries that are pricey so having a bunch of batteries that go with all of your tools is worth it.

Since this is a Festool forum I will say this just to be fun... What's crazy is you can buy an entire lineup of Dewalt tools for the average price of one Festool purchase. I'm not knocking. I have over 20 systainers filled with tools. Just sayin'.... [smile]

 

[pixelated]

I've had the Dewalt 20v impact driver, drill, and a circular saw + a vac for a while now, for me, the battery life is not a problem, generally I charge a battery when I think of it rather than when it's been run flat.

As for power, not an issue either, the drill or the impact driver can drive a screw completely through a 2x4 if you want to. I've used the saw to cut notches in 4x4 lumber with the entire cutting capacity buried in the wood with no issue at all. I've also cut 5/4 Maple with it.

If you haven't used a modern cordless drill (or any other modern cordless tool, for that matter), you may never pick up a corded one again.

Also, Dewalt is doing some interesting stuff with battery compatibility, the batteries for the 40 and 60 volt tools can also power the 20v tools.

 

[kevin clifford]

I have been running Dewalt drills for ..... Damn near 20 years! 12 and then 18 volt and now the 20 volt.
The 20 volt line is fantastic. One of the cheapo $99 drills I bought 3 years ago still gets used daily along with one of the brushless hammerdrills. The new batteries have a display on the back to tell you where the battery charge is. That little light saves me trips back to the truck. Time is money!
The 12v "baby drills" have been my go to shop drills for a while now. Putting cabinets together, mounting hardware and such. 
Dewalt also sells a charger that plugs into the 12v outlet in your truck so the problem of a dead battery is null and void. Drive to work charging a battery, leave one charging while you're working and charge another on your drive home.  After 2 have charged in a parked truck, start your truck though!
As another person said, pick a platform and run with it. All of them make a pretty impressive assortment of tools that work on their batteries. Even Ryobi. Makita has a twin battery chainsaw and a random orbit sander.

 

[Paul G]

Look at the accessory tools that might interest you, I get lots of use from my Milwaukee M18 leaf blower, and also like the M18 caulking gun especially when my hands are aching. Wish they offered a M18 staple gun though, I'd buy one in a snap. I keep my ancient Makita around just for the stapler. Check out lights as well.

 

[Poindexter]

I pretty much ran exclusively on 20v Dewalt & 12v Bosch power tools until finding Festool.  Can't bring myself to replace the excellent drills and impact driver though.  Still have the circular saw and a few other yellow hand tools that come out when I don't care about shooting dust all over the place.  Despite Festool being a better system, I still highly recommend Dewalt's 20v tools. 

 

[wptski]

I'll add a note here.  Graco had a handheld battery operated sprayer but just just came out with a new line.  They ditched their own battery packs and they use DeWalt 20V battery packs.

 

[EdL]

I've been pleased with my 20v Max DeWalts with the exception of the compact recip. saw, good tool but vibrates terribly.

I would definitely go with brushless when possible, they have a 7 1/4" brushless circ. saw coming soon.

Ed

 

[kevin clifford]

One other thing, Dewalt came out with an adapter for the new 20v batteries to work on older 18v tools. Now the old drills, circular, jig and sawzall all run on the new batteries with a $40 adapter. Old tools that Ihad retired are now getting used again.

 

[wptski]

One other thing, Dewalt came out with an adapter for the new 20v batteries to work on older 18v tools. Now the old drills, circular, jig and sawzall all run on the new batteries with a $40 adapter. Old tools that Ihad retired are now getting used again.

I believe you are limited to max Amp/Hr size though.

 

[kevin clifford]

There may be limits on what batteries will work with the adapter to 18v, but all of the batteries I have work with it. I do not have any of the flexvolt batteries, just the 20v.

 

[wptski]

There may be limits on what batteries will work with the adapter to 18v, but all of the batteries I have work with it. I do not have any of the flexvolt batteries, just the 20v.

I just read the instructions for the DCA1820 and it states "any" 20V battery so I'm wrong.

 

[glass1]

New dewalt cordless is da bomb. Flexvolt stuff rocks.

 

[jeh]

The cordless tablesaw is very good. I do not own one, but have used one. Plenty of power though somewhat less cut capacity than I would like. One plus is that all tools, fence and accessories store within the existing dimensions of the saw. It does not have an adapter allowing you to plug it in like the mitre saws do.

 

[jmbfestool]

[member=8096]Deansocial[/member]  has the dewalt flexvolt cordless circular saw and table saw and they have plenty of power and if you have 3 batteries or more you could easily do a small hipped roof with out charging.  I know because we did one 2 days ago. 

It was a 4metre x 4metre roof pitch 38degrees timber size 8"x2" rafters.  All cut using cordless.