Recommend Cordless Tool Set

Curtis reminded me of something: repairs and used tools at the homeless despot. I had one that seemed to be the major repair center with plenty of repaired options.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Another tip.... Don't get the Black Friday version at the box store.  Their Black Friday stuff is all outsourced, including most tools.  Ridgid will send specs to a random, cheaper manufacturing third party to make them cheaper.  You can always tell because the box says something like "Black Friday" printed directly on the cardboard.  If they're having a sale and it says black friday on the pricetag, great, but make sure the box doesn't say "special buy" or something.  If it says "special buy" it might as well say "assembled by a third party that doesn't know what they're doing."

If it says this, pass:

Absolutely none of this is true.  The tool companies do not outsource the Black Friday bundles to a third party to make them even cheaper.  They often spend a bunch of time and resources on special packaging for these sales events to drive additional sales and reach new customers.  They will often take a margin hit on these promos to generate new business or move a lot of product in a short period of time. 

Third party assemblers are never actually cheaper in the power tools industry at least for companies like TTI or Black and Decker.  They have their own lines setup and control the quality and labor/material costs very closely. Anytime you go to a third party there's more middle man money hidden in costs and quality suffers.

Source: myself - former design engineer for Milwaukee Tool/Empire Level and Engineering Manager at TTI. I have worked on several projects like this for seasonal promos.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

There are basically four levels of quality.  As a carpenter who used to be a warranty repair tech for HD, I've come across a ton of time with all of these tools.

Top notch:  Milwaukee.  I never saw one in for warranty repair.

Mid-level:  Ridgid, Dewalt, Makita, Craftsman.  Of these four, Ridgid has a lifetime warranty on some of their tools.  Important to note:  All of these (except Makita) are now under one umbrella owned by HD.  Still independent manufacturing, but they are starting to get homologized

Meh:  Ryobi.  Endless number of tools ranging from very useful to the ridiculous.  Only one on this list that I know has a blower tool

I need to address this as well separately, this is a very "10 years ago" look at the power tool industry.     For one HD no longer repairs broken tools, this is handled by the manufacturer and Milwaukee is one of the few that will actually service and repair rather than replace tools today.

 HD does not own any of these brands. Dewalt and Craftsman are owned by Black&Decker. Milwaukee is owned by TTI who also has the licensing rights for Ridgid and Ryobi power tools.  Makita is still owned by Makita, however the tools we see are a very different level of quality than what is sold in Japan.

I asked the same question a while back, and based on the things I read from everyone I ended up buying Ryobi for the price and variety of tools. It's worked out very well for me so far, though I don't put my tools through too much punishment. I bought a combo kit with some basics like a drill, driver, sawzall, and light. Later I got an HP One+ (for the extra torque) 1/2" impact wrench that I use all the time, and I also got one of those tire/ mattress inflator tools that gets more use than anything else combined. I don't think you can really go wrong - my parents have Craftsman and Kobalt tools and those work great as well. But all in, I think I've spent less than $500 and I have four batteries and a bunch of tools that I get to play around with :)

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Thank you.

I bought almost $800 worth of Milwaukee power tools and 5 batteries from HD for under $300 because of their Black Friday bundle deals + military discount. I was notified via the app and used the app to combined some to get what I want. 

I do have Ryobi stuff for lawn tools, inflators, and shop vacs. I recommend them too.

I bought into the Ridgid system 10 years ago or so because of their lifetime warranty on batteries and tools when you get them from HD.  While I do wish they had more tools in their collection (Ryobi and Miluakee seem to be the kings of that) I have been happy with them.  I have had to use the warranty a couple times and I was expecting to have issues because quite simply the tools were well used.  However there were never any problems.  Took them in to an authorized repair place and they either fixed the tool/battery or ordered replacement.  The only down side is you have to wait for parts you are without a tool for awhile.  Sometimes turn around was less than a week.  My reciprocating saw took about 6 weeks.

I have a ton of Ryobi stuff and have never been disappointed in a tool from them. The consistent battery thing is so nice; I have a drill from the 90s that I can still use with a nice modern battery. That drill is a little hinky just because of my poor treatment of it (I tried to use a tap in it .. not the best for the chuck). Otherwise all the tools have been great. I had the reciprocating saw quit working once because I was cutting plaster overhead, and it got jammed up with plaster dust. I disassembled it and found all metal gears and no actual damage just a jam. I cleared that and the recip saw continues to work well to this day, 8 years later.

I WANT to be the type that *needs* the heavier duty stuff like Milwaukee makes but the Ryobi stuff just keeps working for me so I can't bear to part with the money to replace it with the higher end stuff. I did buy the high torque impact from Milwaukee on sale and have enjoyed the ever living hell out of it. It's amazing. And then Ryobi released a comparable tool this year, much to my chagrin. That's OK - my Milwaukee is still awesome.

Like everyone else is recommending, go with ryobi.

DTO is having a 50% off sale on a bunch of stuff today/tomorrow, which is worth pulling the trigger on.

For the 18V one+ stuff, you have regular batteries and HP batteries. They both work in all the tools, but if you put an HP battery in an HP tool, you get More Power. Do you need More Power? Meh, sometimes for beefy stuff it's nice, normally nobody cares.

For the blower, get something that's on the outdoor battery ecosystem. Yes, it's a second set of batteries, but nobody makes a good 18v blower.

Get these:

Drill and driver kit (the good ones): Direct Tools Outlet Site | Direct Tools Outlet Site 

Blower kit (decent one): Direct Tools Outlet Site | Direct Tools Outlet Site

Both half off the already cheap price, it's a no-brainer. Then you can add more tools to the outdoor line and to the 18V line any time you need.
 

I guess my info is a bit old.  It has been nearly a decade since I worked for HD.  At the time, HD owned Black and Decker, the umbrella under which some of those fell.

Disregard my post, I guess.  

Scuttling away.