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A couple of years ago I bought myself a decent cordless combi drill and impact driver.
Screwfix had a good deal on and so I ended up buying a Hitachi set, after weighing up price and reviews. I've mostly been happy with them though I do find that the combi drill chuck has a frequent tendency to come loose, dropping my drill bit or whatever.
Since then, I've added to that platform with a Hitachi cordless jigsaw, which also came with two batteries and then a bare Hitachi angle grinder.
I'm now in a position where I will be largely working for myself, without the convenience of a workshop with fixed machinery and am going to invest in a few very nice tools to get me going.
The main investment I'm currently looking at is a plunge saw, specifically, after many YouTube reviews etc, the Makita 36v cordless one which runs off two 18v batteries.
Hitachi don't do an equivalent saw so the problem lies obviously in being locked into the battery platform of one manufacturer already and then adding tools from another. #1stworldproblems
It would be far more convenient to stick to one platform and be able to steal batteries from drills to run saws and vice versa.
I already have a corded makita chop saw which I love and I know that makita are highly regarded.
I thought maybe I could invest in a makita kit such as one of these....
...and then sell off my Hitachi stuff, but obviously I stand to lose a bit of cash doing that.
Other option is keep the Hitachi stuff and replace with Makita when they fail, but lose the convenience of the ability to switch batteries.
Any tradespeople care to impart some wisdom my way? Do I get out of Hitachi now while I'm not overly invested or just run different brands?
🙂 cheers.
If the Hitachi is in good condition I'd be tempted to flog it as soon as you see a good offer on the Makita stuff.
I have a mix of pro cordless tools from Makita, DeWalt and Bosch and recently buying a Makita cordless SDS because it uses the same batteries as my older Makita kit.
I then find out that whilst the battery shape is obstensibly the same, there is a tab in the battery case that means I can't interchange between the tools. Maybe I could have researched more to avoid this but I really thought I had nailed it down.
Lots of different Chargers and batteries are no real biggy for me, what is more important is that some manufacturers make a particular tool nicer for me to use than another, for example, I prefer my cordless Makita jigsaw to the Bosch offering. I also really like my 10.8v DeWalt drill and impact drivers over both the Makita and Bosch jobbies.
Each to their own on that for sure and you may well have something with the one brand economies of scale number too.
What colour do you prefer?! 😉
Thing to note is that twin battery plunge saw will require you to dedicate 2 batteries for that saw , if you use one of the batteries in another device you will get them out of sync and if that goes too far you will end up having to buy 2 new identical batteries. It might drop into a mode where it uses only one battery at a time - reduced power etc.
So you are not going to gain much apart from having less chargers to manage.
As for the Hitachi setup , the only problem you have with that is the drill chuck playing up, so why not get handy and replace the chuck ~£20 and then use the tools you have loads of batteries for, they are not worth much second hand , you can replace what really breaks with Makita stuff when you need to , running different brands is really not that big a deal unless you only have one battery or are disorganised and use the tools for hours every day solid.
Based on you losing the workshop space I would be definitely not spending money on the Makita multi tool thing and instead for less money go and buy a Festool MFT table kit with the rail etc and enjoy having the cordless track saw with something useful to use it with.
What colour do you prefer?!
^^^ Well, I quite like the Makita blue actually, while some of the Hitachi stuff with the bright green and busy black details can be borderline garish! 😁
Definitely not into yellow tools...
Joking aside, good point about just using the tools which feel good. I love my Hitachi impact driver. So much more controllable than a Dewalt version I've tried, but as I say, not impressed with the chuck on the combi drill as I find it always comes loose.
Based on you losing the workshop space I would be definitely not spending money on the Makita multi tool thing and instead for less money go and buy a Festool MFT table kit with the rail etc and enjoy having the cordless track saw with something useful to use it with.
Not seen those, so will check them out.
To be honest though, I kind of have a bit of a slightly irrational thing against Festool. They always seem to me to be different for the sake of being different. Undoubtedly they innovate but some things to me seem annoying and unnecessary.
The biggest annoyance being their tool boxes where they only have the handle on the wide side meaning you can't carry several very easily and also have your arm further from your body giving you a hurty arm...
Also, they're mega expensive and never discounted afaik...
Still, I'll check that out thanks.
I don't think anyone can really match makita for range and variety. Amongst the 'stats' that don't get compared so readily between tools - charge time is very good with Makita. The only place where I've strayed from makita for cordless is dewalts cordless nailers - great tools but the batteries are really slow to charge by comparison and I've avoided what seem to be good deals on Hitachi stuff before because the charging was slow.
The biggest annoyance being their tool boxes where they only have the handle on the wide side meaning you can’t carry several very easily
you clip them all together and pick the whole lot up with one handle
I've binned all the boxes my tools came in and replaced them with a mix systainers and makpaks that I grab whenever I see a bargain - everything packs and travels so much easier
As said can’t you just replace the chuck? My combi was doing the same so I got an uprated metal jobby
I ended up with dewalt kit and it’s fine. Seems to me most people choose based on colour or what was on special at screwfix that week.
Whilst I don’t use saws most chippys on site seem to have the festool stuff. Some bloke the other day had a dewalt flexvolt saw now that was a beast
buy a Festool MFT table kit
Or - build Ron Paulk's (look him up on youtube) homebrew alternative so you've got one the size and shape you need. The MFT is clever stuff but its a bit small for a lot of jobs - especially if you start each job with full size sheets of ply
instead for less money go and buy a Festool MFT table kit with the rail etc and enjoy having the cordless track saw with something useful to use it with.
Or for even less money make your own version and customise to your needs.
The MFT/3 is available discounted on Amazon , its a portable bench that would allow you do most of the things you can do with a table saw + a lot more , Makita and Festool rails are compatible from the saw perspective , with some additional clamps and dogs it is a very flexible tool, alternatively , build your own with a generic top (from £50 +) and maybe look at
building your own examples :
MPT
or with extruded parts
I have a UJK MFT style workbench from Axminster with a non UJK top , its not really as portable but I dont travel with it.
It does of course depend what you will use the track saw for , but if you want portable accuracy nothing will beat an MFT type dog hole based system, and you will need some kind of bench/table to put the tea/coffee on!
(written whilst everybody was suggesting the same!)
With regards to the track saw.... not really a tool that benefits from being cordless unless someone is about to invent some sort of hoseless dust extraction.
If a saw is the only thing you’ll use a track for... forget cordless and go for the Bosch clone of the Mafel mt55 - their rail is much, much better than festool/ festool-clones.
festool’s rail is good if you’re into the whole ecosystem but they’re fragile and the connectors are shit. The mafell / Bosch rail is much better.
I have yet to be persuaded by the merits of cordless tools (apart from drill/drivers). I of course get the bit about cords being a hassle on occasion but for me the advantages of corded tools are: Extra oomph, always ready to use and no need to replace expensive batteries and chargers with monotonous regularity (which is the case if you use them all the time). I have some corded tools I've had for 30 years plus. Combi drill wise I use a £110 Metabo 18v/2AH setup for compactness, lightness and cheapness to replace when things pack in after 18 months use; charger a bit slow though.
I've invested in lots of the Makita lxt kit. Really impressed so far. Only bad things are the angle grinder gets throughbatteries super fast, and I've jammed a bit in the impAct driver. Apparently easy to sort...
're corded I find I get very grumpy about wires trailing everywhere and trip over them or cut them....I was cutting some ply to box behind a toilet on Fri and could clamp the piece at whatever position and cut without faff.
Yeah I'm sold on cordless to be honest. It's come on leaps and bounds these days and just so much easier and convenient than corded stuff.
I want to head in the direction of building outside spaces, treehouses and sheds etc and so I think cordless is great for that, although for large volume jobs I'd revert to cordless I expect.
I could certainly build a diy version of this table thingy I'm sure. Having pretty much always been workshop-based with fixed and very nice Wadkin machinery, I'm going to enjoy finding inventive ways of doing things I'm sure 🙂
I’ve invested in lots of the Makita lxt kit. Really impressed so far. Only bad things are the angle grinder gets throughbatteries super fast
I have a corded grinder which I use for heavy stuff. I only tend to use the cordless for the odd bit of light grinding.
I of course get the bit about cords being a hassle on occasion but for me the advantages of corded tools are: Extra oomph, always ready to use and no need to replace expensive batteries and chargers with monotonous regularity (which is the case if you use them all the time)
I think you're right, but I expect recent versions of batteries to last longer really, and the convenience just wins me over.
The makita cordless range is great. There's a massive choice of tools and the bare ones are reasonably cheap. I'd be wary of getting a kit as there's often a few varaints of each tool and you may not get the best of each. The newer brushless stuff is very powerful and lasts well. No penalty over corded with big advantages.
I’d be wary of getting a kit as there’s often a few varaints of each tool and you may not get the best of each
Yeah I had wondered this. I suppose I could sit down with a spreadsheet and compare all the various things model codes. 🤔
Other thing to add is I have 5 mah batteries, they can be a bit heavy if you are using the driver or drill a lot. Batteries never seem to be on offer so I'm just putting up with it
There is only one brand for plunge saws and that is Festool.
Yes they may be expensive but you really do get what you pay for with these things. In my business we bought a 110v Festool plunge saw and 2 years later sold it losing only 20%.
The only reason for selling it is someone made us an offer for it so we just bought a new one. We also have Festool drills, jigsaws and chopsaws.
The after sales service is excellent too. 3 year warranty, 3 year insurance and 3 year service plan. Each time we send an item off for servicing it comes back like new.
One of our contractors has the battery plunge saw and although its good it doesn't have the power of the 110v unit. This really shows itself when cutting compact grade laminate.
My advice would be to find a good lock retailer and make friends with them. We never buy online these days.
There is only one brand for plunge saws and that is Festool.
or the better Mafell or the cheaper and better Bosch 🙂
Our maintenance workshop is now almost entirely Makita cordless. Other then a portable table saw. We run sets of batteries from 2-6 ah depending on the tools. Buy the body only and make sure you check the model. 2-4 batteries can keep a set of tools running for a day for a person - though you'll need a charger/access to electricity. Make sure you cycle the batteries, they definitely last/hold charge better.
Personally I like Makita enough that I have one of their lawnmowers - uses the same batteries as their tools.