What Was Your First Cordless Tool?

[Bob D.]

This was mine. Purchased in 1983 at Hankins lumber yard a few blocks from my house which also had a hardware store.
I remember I walked down there as it was only 5 blocks away which I often did. Two houses later I am no where near enough to anything to walk. Hankins is still there but now a 10 minute drive away and the next place to go is half way across the county to HD or Lowes that are both over 14 miles away.

That little Skil Screwdriver It's long gone but I did use it for many years. Very limited in what it could do with it's small size and battery it did not develop wrist-breaking torque and the RPM as I remember was slow (

 

[WastedP]

It was one of these.  My father bought it when we were building our house, which was dried in the night before a three inch blanket of Mt. St. Helens ash made it that far inland.

It was not a good drill.  My brother and I ended up using the Fiskars hand drill more, which is technically cordless, but fully manual.

 

[afish]

Mine was a makita right angle 7.2v back around 1991 I worked on cars 12v systems so at the time, for getting in tight places and taking apart car interiors it was the only and best tool available.  It is long gone as well.

 

[Packard]

Circa 1978 ?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Mine was a makita right angle 7.2v back around 1991 I worked on cars 12v systems so at the time, for getting in tight places and taking apart car interiors it was the only and best tool available.  It is long gone as well.

Mine was a very similar situation, a couple of years later, in a bodyshop. It was not the right angle unit though, just the regular one with the stick battery in the handle. It was slow, gutless and had a keyed chuck. At that time, I much preferred to use a 1/4" drive air-ratchet or a "butterfly" style impact. I wish I would have been able to get ahold of a modern impact driver with the 1/4" hex and bit assortment like we have now.

 

[Cheese]

For me it was a Milwaukee 12V drill 0401-1 circa late 80's. A measly 156 in/lbs of torque...that's only 13 ft lbs.  [eek]

But in a similar vein, here are the first battery powered tools, a Milwaukee Hole Hawg & Milwaukee Sawzall. And yes, that's a lead acid battery in the metal box.

[attachimg=1]

 

[Mark Katz]

This was mine, maybe a slightly different model, somewhere in the 1990s. It's still working today with new replacement batteries.
[attachimg=1]

 

[RussellS]

Bosch 2300 cordless drill.  12 volt.  Bought late 1992 or maybe 1993.  It stopped working a few years ago.  I bought replacement batteries a number of years ago.  GREAT drill.  But I figured it was not worth having it repaired since you can buy new cordless drills for $50 at Walmart.  Spend $100, $150, to fix it?  No.

On the left margin on this page is a picture of the drill without battery.https://www.toolpartspro.com/bosch-parts/bosch-b2300-0603933435-parts.html
https://www.k-bid.com/auction/723/item/69?offset=44
https://gr.outletonlineshops.ru/content?c=bosch b2300&id=1
https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...2302430846675582976","ftmd_400706":"111112l"}

 

[Packard]

An awful lot of appliances and pieces of equipment are no longer engineered to be repaired.

I suspect that many are engineered so that they cannot be repaired. 

 

[Bob D.]

For me it was a Milwaukee 12V drill 0401-1 circa late 80's. A measly 156 in/lbs of torque...that's only 13 ft lbs.  [eek]

But in a similar vein, here are the first battery powered tools, a Milwaukee Hole Hawg & Milwaukee Sawzall. And yes, that's a lead acid battery in the metal box.

[attachimg=1]

Looking at that photo I am going to say 50s or maybe early 60s. Galvanized screw pipe for water lines went out a long time ago. Almost the worst product you could install, kind of like aluminum wiring. Just a bad idea from the git-go.

 

[pixelated]

I bought a cordless drill sometime around 1978, probably a Black & Decker, or a Skill perhaps, don’t remember. I bought mostly for doing car fixing things, I lived in a one room efficiency apartment at the time, so it seemed better than dealing with an extension cord. It didn’t work all that well, very low RPM, not much torque, and the battery life was pretty short.
It put me off on considering any cordless tool as being worthwhile for a long time. Times have changed, nowadays
I’d rather be cordless. My little 12v recip. saw can do just about anything my big corded Milwaukee can do, without all its weight and size. Though it will go through the charge in the battery pretty quick if you are pushing it.

 

[rmwarren]

Dewalt 12v pistol drill, so I could repair the parking-lot-tree-surround-bench thing I whacked with my bumper, circa 1995. Landlord was an acquaintance.

Started me out on the 12-18-20v journey I'm still on today, proving the sales approach of hooking 'em when they are starting out.

RMW

 

[Claimdude]

Makita 7.2v drill. Used it in the body shop where I worked. Somewhere around 1979.

 

[Cheese]

Looking at that photo I am going to say 50s or maybe early 60s. Galvanized screw pipe for water lines went out a long time ago. Almost the worst product you could install, kind of like aluminum wiring. Just a bad idea from the git-go.

I'm with you Bob, I was thinking circa mid to late 50's looking at the clothing. The galvanized is a great clue as our house is full of galvanized which I'm methodically eliminating...our house was built in 1952. Consequently I've been spending my pension on copper. [big grin]

Thankfully, no aluminum wire was installed as that would have been the last straw, although I think that was a 60's-70's thing?

 

[thudchkr]

My first was one of the 9.6V Milwaukee drills. And, according to this listing,https://www.ebay.com/itm/124269740992?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28 , you can have one too. The chuck key had a mounting location up in the body of the tool. Needless to say, mine was retired when the batteries gave out. Not a lot of power, but not entirely gutless.  I think I stlll have it around somewhere.

 

[derekcohen]

This was mine, maybe a slightly different model, somewhere in the 1990s. It's still working today with new replacement batteries.
[attachimg=1]

12v Panasonic. Purchased around 1990. Still have it and use it!

Supplemented now by a couple of Festools (C12 Li-iron and PDC 18/4 Plus), but the old Panasonic is amazing. More power than the C12.

There is a story here. I needed to purchase a new drill, and the choice was the Panasonic and a Festool, both top of the heap drills. I had tennis elbow at the time, which made it difficult to hold a drill without pain. The Panasonic won out as it was the more ergonomic and better balanced of the two drills.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[cpw]

I bought a $30 Ryobi ONE+ cordless drill with a battery and charger in 2007 as a Father's day special.  I found it so much more convenient than a corded drill or doing things by hadn, that I bought myself another one, and one for my dad and 3 brothers in law.

Unfortunately, they kept the price similar but then just value engineered it to be worse in later years.  Instead of having the 2 bits held in well on the side, they added poor magnets.  Instead of a regular charger, they have a slow trickle charger with a brick and thin gauge wire.

It took a beating getting dropped off ladders, etc. and still worked.  It is much is much heavier than more recent offerings, which was really only noticeable after getting used to a newer drill.    The ONE+ line has good variety and they do keep the batteries compatible, but at this point all my cordless is 20V Dewalt or 18V Festool.

 

[Mike Goetzke]

Mine was a Craftsman cordless screwdriver. Must have been close to 40 years ago. I remember going to my SIL's house for Christmas Eve and brought it with to help assembly the kids toys. I couldn't believe to comments and harassment I got from my two BIL's after I pulled it out. Heck to be an early adapter!

[attachimg=1]

 

[Bob D.]

Mine was a Craftsman cordless screwdriver. Must have been close to 40 years ago. I remember going to my SIL's house for Christmas Eve and brought it with to help assembly the kids toys. I couldn't believe to comments and harassment I got from my two BIL's after I pulled it out. Heck to be an early adapter!

[attachimg=1]

How long was it before they had one?

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Mine was a DeWalt combi drill in 2006. I guess I showed up late to the cordless party compared to some of you guys. Now fully upgraded to the Hilti 22v platform, and have been for 6-7 years. Solid, crazy-reliable, and their customer service is stellar.