I remember getting my very first battery operated power tool. It was quite a few years ago now, and I was still an apprentice when I got my hands on my very own Makita cordless drill. TWELVE volts of NiCD power! That's right, a monstrous 12v. I think it may have had a whopping 1.3ah, not sure exactly. Even from new it held a charge poorly and hadn't got the greatest amount of torque. I mainly used it for screwing in hinges when hanging doors. It wasn't capable of much more than that. And I was deee-lighted with it!

LAUGHABLE

Back then, the thought of running a mitre saw, or a job-site table saw off batteries was pretty laughable. Well nobody's laughing now. Batteries for table saws these days are 54V with 6.0 amp hours—although you generally need two of them. Woodworkers the world over are phasing out and retiring their old corded tools in favour of a full battery set. The advantages are huge if you mainly work on jobsites. Not so huge if you work in a workshop environment, but if you need to do installs from time to time—the advantages stack up again.

EASY

For many it means no more hauling in reels of power cables to a job. No more running a power generator on sites where power is yet to be installed. If you call to a job to do something small, it means not bringing half the contents of the truck or van in with you. Prepare yourself for an easier life!

CONCLUSION

A basic, starter cordless kit for most tool brands will be in and around $1,000/€1,000, possibly more. This will often get you a drill and driver, a saw of some sort, 2 or 3 batteries, plus maybe a multi-tool, a torch and a systainer/tstak/case. If you already have corded versions of these tools, it can be hard to justify buying the same tools again. But if it means not having to untangle a nest of tangled cords at the end of a very long day—it's worth every penny.

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