18V cordless tool kit
Includes drill, jig saw, detail sander and torch
No idea if it's any good or not (the 1 review left on the site is average)
giving this cordless kit the respect it deserves - what sort of dog do you have?
with that said, I've bought inexpensive cordless drills and they were ok for basic stuff. My brother in-law (who is a plumber) came over to help do some maintenance around my house for an entire weekend with his professional $500 cordless drill (forget the name).
That drill was awesome. whilst I'll probably never buy something that professional (without the tax benefits/writeoffs) at the same time I doubt I'll ever buy another cheapy again.
I agree with everything you say… however I still have two 'Ozito' brand $50 cordless drills supplied with twin NiCD battery packs that are now over 5 years old and originally purchased for a one-off intense weekend job (assembling furniture and mounting monitors for a 500 staff office move) and even after leaving them for over 18 months at a time I'm still able to recondition the battery packs and make them work nearly as good as new! Sure they're not top quality and you wouldn't want to rely on them to earn a living and sure I use a $400 specialised RC battery charger to bring the batteries back to life each time BUT the point is they're still going strong and as my other two cordless drills cost over $600 each I'm extremely impressed with the value I've managed to get out of my $50 purchase.
Look after the batteries, NEVER leave them on charge for more than say 10-15 hours at a time with the crappy plugpack chargers they supply and if you don't use the drill often be sure to keep the batteries topped up once or twice a month. Follow these rules and you should have a pack like this for at least a few years for general home or hobby type use. If anything dies within the warranty period be sure to take it back and get it fixed or get a refund. Easy!
Don't paint all cheap stuff with the 'crap' brush straight away. Some of it can be pretty decent if it's given a little bit extra attention & care (ie. the batteries). If you're talking cutting accuracy and pure grunt then that's a different story ;)
Hey SteveAndBelle,
What battery charger and reconditioner do you use? I'm interested in getting something like this for my current and future NiCad battery-powered devices.
What would you recommend? Thanks!
Hi FreaqyGeeq.
Well, I purchased a Bantam E-Station BC8 about 4-5 years ago at the peak of my hobby RC enthusiasm. I needed a top-quality balance/charger for my LiPo packs (VERY expensive and volatile at the time) so I blew about $450 on the beast including the USB interface cable. It did and still does a brilliant job of charging, discharging, balancing & conditioning different chemistry cells & packs and outputs crazy graphs etc. via USB so you can really keep an eye on your battery investment over time.
About 6 months after that I cracked the elusive 100kph barrier with my RC car and in the process drew too much juice from one of my LiPo packs and puffed it. Luckily I anticipated this with just enough time to back off so it didn't explode (yes, LiPos can go off like a grenade) so it just puffed up and died but I kissed goodbye to $300 worth of battery pack :( I had a second pack and once I replaced the melted chassis and rebuilt the car I sold all my RC stuff and moved on to other hobbies. I kept the E-Station charger though as it's so versatile and since then I've used it to charge prototype 36V e-Bikes and cordless tool packs and car/truck batteries and the list goes on & on.
I also purchased an IMAX-B8 a few years back for a crazy $40 odd purely as a 'dumb' charger for stuff that I wasn't too worried about. It's nearly a direct rip-off of the Bantam E-Station in every way however the IMAX doesn't come close to the quality & reliability of the E-Station. Still for a TENTH of the price it's a friggin' amazing charger and I've done many similar things with it than I have done with the E-Station. Mine has a fault in that it's supposed to discharge at 5A however it can't handle anything above 1A and throws up an error if you try. No biggie as it just takes five times longer to discharge stuff so I'm not too bothered especially as I have the better one I can use if need be. The buttons on the IMAX are also dodgy and it can sometimes be difficult to work through the menus however that could prolly be fixed by opening it up and adding some packing between the buttons and the actual switches. Again, no biggie but it does prove you get what you pay for.
Just looking on eBay now, the Bantam E-Station can be had nowadays for as little as about $140 and you can get IMAX balance chargers from about $20 but please note that both units need an external 12V Power Supply. You can get other models with 240V power supplies built-in but they cost more. Also, you may need to look at newer brands & models as I'm sure they've come a long way since then too.
Awesome, thanks for the mega-detailed info… I really appreciate it!
I also have an 18V Ozito that is well past 5 years old.
I've never reconditioned the batteries, and both work well enough and for long enough to still be incredibly useful whenever I need them (which is admittedly only a few times per year)
One thing I am careful about is not overcharging. They recharge within a couple of hours and they come straight off. However both of them have been charged and then not used for a month or more.
Having said all this, the newer models of cheapie drills are of noticeably inferior build quality to my Ozito and I probably won't buy another cheapie
I'm a tradesman and wouldn't even use any of these
In other news, Cadel Evans said he would not ride a Huffy/Repco.
Bought 1 before and return it next day…way way under power….
cheap or crap. up vote anyway for the good deal. i agree, if you are not professional tradesmen, this pack probably will suffice for your weekend projects.
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If you are after a drill, Aldi had a nice Lithium Ion one the other week (http://www.aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_23867.htm), with 2 batteries. Was originally ~$80 but, as Aldi often do, it was dropped to ~$40 to clear stock after a week or two.
Also, their drill bit set was reduced by 50% (at original price they were considered a bargain, as per previous bargain http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/82227) to $12.
Not all stores will have dropped the price the same, or even at all, this was at Chirnside Park, Victoria.
Memories…memories…IOI
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/78864
Bought it because that was cheap but end up in garage unused and unopened…no wonder I am broke..hahaha
The word 'bargain' is so subjective. What one person thinks is a bargain, another thinks is a complete waste of money. Like this 'bargain', for example. I'm a tradesman and wouldn't even use any of these 'tools' to throw at the Indian Mynas that eat my dogs food. Why my dog won't chase them away himself is another matter. Especially when he chases birds at the park. I'm getting off topic now. If you read the review, the fella says the drill stopped working the second time he used it. If you factor in your time being worth money, it's hardly worth buying this junk, because you'll be wasting your time returning them, standing in line at BigW behind the sweaty large bloke who wants to enquire when they'll have XXXXXL sweat pants back on sale. Nina at the front desk won't know, she'll have to page Steve from Homeware and he'll take 10 minutes to come back with an answer. You don't need this. Oh, and they're NiCad too.