[FrmlyZ]

I have a recip saw, but it won't work where I need it. I can't run a 1/4 mile extension cord. :) I could start the generator but that, in itself, is work. I will need it in various places. Which brand of the various battery powered saws do you find to be the best. Thanks.

Best wishes,,,,,

Z

[Chills]

Personally I am disappointed with battery powered tools.
In my experience... though convenient the ones I have .... lose power to quickly...or they sure seem to...
Of course I am using them full out a lot of the time... most often I get pissed off and resort to extension cords and tools that I can use without recharging from beginning to end of what ever project I am working on.

If outdoors I would use a chainsaw... for small cuts.. get a quarter or dime tip..

[FrmlyZ]

Chills:

I have 6 chain saws. They won't do what I want to do. Some of this stuff is 1/2 mile from the nearest outlet. The land is rough and dragging the gennie there is a PIA. I need a recip. My experience with battery powered drills has been good; if you buy the high voltage ones. Wanted to know others experience.

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[Summerthyme]

[QUOTE=Chills]Personally I am disappointed with battery powered tools.
In my experience... though convenient the ones I have .... lose power to quickly...or they sure seem to...

Oh, we LOVE ours. We bought a 4 piece set of DeWalt 18 volt tools 4 years ago... recip saw, 1/2" drill, circular saw and light. They get used... well, ABUSED, if I'm being honest... on a daily basis on our dairy farm. We've rebuilt 50 feet of barn wall, remodeled a good part of the house, built a 70 foot by 8 foot raised deck, and done all the day-to-day repair and building work a small dairy farm requires with them. Plus I've planted over 1000 flower bulbs using a small auger on the drill (and I suspect that has worn the drill out more than everything else combined).

With the charger we have, we never run out of one battery pack's power before the second one is charged. Probably get an hour of *heavy* use out of one charge.

We did have to replace the battery packs this year, and they weren't cheap. $75 each, IIRC. Naturally, 3 months later I see that Home Despot had a deal with 2 packs for $99. Oh, well....

DeWalt isn't absolute top of the line, but they are close. If you're not going to beat the living tar out of your tools, you might well get by with the cheaper Ryobi brand. I'm not so sure you'd be happy with something like the "Chicago" brand, which are real bargain priced.

The cheaper brands will have issues with battery power, battery life, and things like the drill chuck. Again, for light work, they may be ok.

My second son does a lot of custom carpentry work and he says he doesn't see enough advantage from the 24 volt tools to justify them. Plus, on an 8-10 hour day basis, the added weight is noticeable.

He has a set of Ryobi 18 volt tools, and while they aren't quite the quality of the DeWalt, they were less than half the price. They've held up well under his brand of part time carpentry (his "hobby" and second income after he gets done with his engineering job).

When this set dies, we'll splurge the $500-600 it will cost to replace them willingly.

Summerthyme

[Hamilton Felix]

The biggest complaint I've heard on cordless recip saws is battery life. They're getting better all the time. I'm hearing good things about Ridgid's 18V drill, but bad things about their reciprocal saw. I just have my good old 120V Milwaukee Sawzall. I am about to try it with a new gadget I bought that has a 22 AH battery, a compressor, a 400w inverter (800 surge), work light, jumper cables, etc.

I haven't seen many things from Milwaukee that were bad. Look into fast chargers. Ridgid has a good one, but Milwaukee or DeWalt might be the better choice for a reciprocating saw. Can't comment on Porter Cable. Ask a few guys who use them.

[north runner]

I don't like battery packs for cutting tools. One day I had to use a bi metal hacksaw blade with a recipro saw and a cutoff grinder to cut up a bunch of steel shelving off a mil trailer. No electric available I used my small yamha 1000w generator (the older model). Worked hours on it. Doubtful I would have had the 5 or 10 bat paks I needed to do the same amount of work as the gen.

[SmartAZ]

How about a nice Pocket Chainsaw (http://www.equipped.com/saws.htm).

[Hamilton Felix]

Here I thought I had sort of an answer. I got a neat "PowerStation" gadget as my Christmas Toy. It can jump start a car, has a fluorescent work light, a compressor that can be programmed for target pressure, a 12V power/charging socket, a 120VAC inlet, and a 400 watt inverter with surge rating to 800 watts. Besides, anything with this many cool blue LED's on it has to be great! :rolleyes:

My Milwaukee Sawzall says it draws four amps. That's 40 watts at 120 volts. I thought I had a package that would run for a while. After all, the PowerStation has a 22 amp hour 12 volt battery, lots bigger than the usual cordless tool battery.

I plugged in the Sawzall and tried. It would move a tiny bit, then cut out. There's a readout on the PowerStation that says how many watts are being used. I found that by very slowly advancing the trigger, taking more than a minute to full power position, I could keep the saw running. The readout said 275-280 watts. I don't think the saw would have kept it up if loaded.

I went back to the instruction manual and found "The output of the PS2000 is non-sinusoidal. some sensitive equipment may be damaged by the inverter's modified sine wave output or may not operate correctly. These devices may include but are not limited to:
*Electronics that modulate RF signals on the AC line.
*Speed controllers in some fans, power tools, kitchen appliances, and other motors.
*Some chargers for re-chargeable batteries.
*Metal Halide lights."

The speed control on my Sawzall does NOT like the output of this particular cheap little inverter. There's a lesson in here for inverter users. Study before you buy.