Which power-tool brand?
I like to buy British where possible, (food etc). I didn't know there were any British made power tools.
I wonder how much our economy would improve if we could buy more British products.
I have Bosch pro - but will go British next time!
You can only buy British if Britain makes what you need!But German vehicles
Being in construction I can second what Phil3655 says..Hilti are great tools but pricey...some of them are more specialist tools....like DD350 Hatton Garden Drill.
I have a DX460 which fires nails into concrete and steel..amazing bit of kit.
Also have several specialist Maffell tools which are top drawer. The portable MKS185E Circular Saw has a 450 diameter blade and a cutting depth of 185mm!!...but costs around 3.5k!!
Festool are also really good.
I run mostly Festool with a side helping of dewalt, Mirka for sanders lamello for biscuiter. My main drills are Festool but I have dewalt combi and impact. Mafell railsaw is slightly better than Festool but the rails aren’t as nice to use (in my opinion) Bosch blue is the best for SDS I reckon but the jigsaws aren’t what they used to be. I am a complete tool nerd by trade
You can only buy British if Britain makes what you need!
And even then it might be British owned but bits of it will have come from China because.... well, everything does.
Quick question for those who work out of their van.. a mate has asked me what he needs so he can charge his DeWalt batteries from the van. He reckons he’ll only charge them when the engine is running, and thinks he won’t have space for a leisure-battery.
I’m thinking he just needs an inverter, unless anyone thinks different?
Either that or a DEWALT DCB119 which is a charges that plugs into cig lighter socket
I’m also interested in this. Someone earlier already mentioned the dewalt 12v charger but I have a couple of Festool drills that it would be great to charge on the road
i run tools out the van . . Makita 18v mostly.
the 12v plug version for the makita 18v batterys takes twice as long to charge. (compared to the mains version)
we just use a small pure sine inverter and plug the 240v makita charger in . . . . . thing is they can be power hungry. so van running or run from leisure battery.
there are some cloan makita 18v chargers that draw much less power (but take longer to charge)
the 12v plug version for the makita 18v batterys takes twice as long to charge. (compared to the mains version)
we just use a small pure sine inverter and plug the 240v makita charger in . . . . . thing is they can be power hungry. so van running or run from leisure battery.
there are some cloan makita 18v chargers that draw much less power (but take longer to charge)
Dewalt, had all of the other brands and DW seems pretty solid.
this was my previous T5.1 van with a 1500w COTEK inverter for charging tools on the go.
powered from this leisure battery , , , , ,
running off a 150A SCR.
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powered from this leisure battery , , , , ,
running off a 150A SCR.
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Does it have to be a pure sine inverter Lee? And I take it that having no LB means he needs to remember to switch the inverter off or risk draining the vehicle battery (unless they are smart nowadays and work out that the engine is off?)
Yes, must be pure sinewave. The sharp corners on non sinewave wave forms can cause this type of battery charger to overheat and fail.
Not necessarily . . . a MSW may work. though i did have issues with a Dewalt 24v battery charger once that just got HOT and made a funny high pitched noise (so i stopped using it).
i think the the Step mode switching power supplies (that are in most modern PSU / power supplies) can have issues with the choppy mains from MSW inverters.
but I've got laptop chargers that will run on a few of the MSW inverters i have.
The thing is the PURE / PSW inverters were previously prohibitively expensive . . . . . . so MSW was a cheap option out. (and worked with most things)
Nowadays the PSW inverters are relatively cheap . . . and not much dearer then the MSW, and the PSW will work 100% safely with 100% of products.
most modern inverter generators run PSW now too . .
so now i would only buy a PSW for a new purchase.
im in the process of doing a writeup and vid for inverters . . . . comming soon.
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the one i am using in the pic above is this one. ( i have two now, one for van and one for camping, it runs all the 240v stuff when off grid)
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i also have two of these . . . worked great for camping again (TE cooler boxed and LED lights etc )
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the 12v socket in the van is good for around 150W . . . it will start to get warm and will possibly blow the fuse at higher wattages. . . .
so for higher wattages i also have a collection of these to clamp onto the terminals . .
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and in the above pics you can see i made up my own Anderson 50A quick disconect . . .
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yes most will have a low volt shut off . . . . . but in my experience that is already too late. . . the inverter has shut down due to low voltage but its normaly around 10-11v which is to low to start the van.
i would say run the engine while charging to be safe (no flat battery) . . . or get a AUX battery setup under the seat.
or just stick with mains.
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