Favorite / Best CORDED Power Tools?

[Kev442]

Drove across town last year to buy a keyed 1/2" B&D drill for $5. When the going gets tough, you want a keyed chuck.

 

[anndel]

I have several, my table saw, routers & metabo grinder. I have the Milwaukee M18 Fuel miter saw with a 10 inch blade and it struggles cutting 1" x 4"s. Thinking of selling it and replace it with a corded Dewalt.

 

[Jerryrigged]

I primarily use corded power tools as a home diy and fiy (Fix It Yourself) guy. I even use a drill and saw that my father used before he gave them to me. Both tools are from the 80's and still work great.

 

[jgromada]

I think in a lot of cases where the tools is only going to be used infrequently I will look for a corded tool rather than a cordless one.

My favorite is my right angle drill, a Milwaukee 1107. I have other cordless drills like a DeWalt but nothing drills with a spade bit through a floor joist to run wiring like the Milwaukee . The DeWalt which is brushless will stall and it can eventually do it but takes 3x the time of the Milwaukee.

Likewise i have a worm drive Skilsaw that cuts anything with hardly a hesitation. I suppose if i had a 36/40v powered saw it might be comparable, but at what cost?

For a jigsaw i suppose there are times it would not have to deal with a cord, but i love my Bosch 572EBK jig saw. It is powerful and easy to use.

 

[dnschmidt]

Each has its niche. Milwaukee, drills and Sawzall. Bosch jigsaws and routers, Hitachi has a couple of good routers and some decent grinders. The TR12 was the best plunge router they ever made. DeWalt miter saws and routers (There routers came from Elu of Switzerland). Metabo grinders are in a class by themselves. Fein Multimaster same story.

This is the best part about corded tools. You can pick and chose the best in each category. With cordless you're stuck into a battery system. With corded you are not.

 

[dutchgray]

I still use plenty of corded tools at work building, Cordless is great, especially for the common most used tools, drills, impact driver, multi tool but there is a lot of stuff where its not worth it to me to upgrade yet, recip saw i use every couple months, I have a small trim circular but my corded Skill does most of my cutting, SDS drill I have both, the corded is faster to use so unless its just a few holes, the cord comes out, grinders, I hate the cordless ones as everytime I use one it seems to run out just before I am done with it, plus I have 3 5" grinders in the van at all times.
Best corded stuff for me, Elu router and power planer, Makita right angle drill for joist drilling and 5" grinders.

 

[racerex]

Sawzall. I once cut up the body of a VW Golf with a Milwaukee Sawzall and disposed of it in my garbage can. Yeah, it took a few months to finally get rid of it (i.e., garbage pickup only once a week and I tried no to go too heavy on the cans). Needless to say, I gave the DPW guys a good Christmas tip. Between the time it took to cut it up, the electricity and the cost of the Lenox blades and the box of heavy commercial garbage bags, I should have just tossed the body on a trailer and took it to the junkyard.

 

[Downwindtracker 2]

Each has its niche. Milwaukee, drills and Sawzall. Bosch jigsaws and routers, Hitachi has a couple of good routers and some decent grinders. The TR12 was the best plunge router they ever made. DeWalt miter saws and routers (There routers came from Elu of Switzerland). Metabo grinders are in a class by themselves. Fein Multimaster same story.

This is the best part about corded tools. You can pick and chose the best in each category. With cordless you're stuck into a battery system. With corded you are not.

You said it better than I could.

 

[Ton ton]

DeWalt 1/2" drill 1,000 rpm. I use it to run a gear drive winch. Made in the USA with global materials. DW235G.

 

[Trapps]

CAUTION: OPINIONS AHEAD. And, they mirror what many others say about a niche or strength.

As many have said, its hard to go wrong with most major brands - Milwaukee, Bosch, DeWalt, Makita, etc. Even value priced products from Hitachi, Ryobi, Rigid, Craftsman, etc. provide a decent tool for the DIY/Hobbiest (is that even a word? ).

Having said that, I think many companies have something they do very well; perhaps better than the others. A huge number of users/owners would argue a corded Milwaukee Super Sawzall is the benchmark for a reciprocating saw.

My Bosch Jigsaw has nearly 20 years and thousands of cuts on it; it still cuts smooth and true. Same for my Porter Cable Router, albeit with a lot less use over the years.

I am less convinced on circular saws. I own 2 DeWalts, a worm and a standard (both 7 1/4) and they work well. The Worm is a heavy pig but it's been called on to rip 3 layers of 23/32 on more than one occasion and done so with out flinching. I've used Makita, Milwaukee and Skill circular saws over the years and I have not found one to be dramatically better than the others. Just be sure to use a quality blade, no matter which flavor of saw you choose.

If I did not have Bosch Hammer drills, I'd have Hilti.

I don't currently own a corded regular drill, but I'd buy a Milwaukee if I needed one. I had one, it grew legs and left me years ago. I replaced it with a cordless 18V DeWalt. It was not the same (meaning not a suitable replacement for the corded Milwaukee) and it did not last, granted it was the batteries that failed and this was 15 years ago when cordless tool battery technology was no where near where it is today. I have since jumped on the Bosch cordless bandwagon after buying and using a Freak...

I've been through Porter Cable (wore it out) and Bosch orbital sanders, neither impressed me enough to buy again or recommend.

I've never owned a Festool, Fein, Mafell, or any super premium for that matter. Talk about eXXXpensive I'm sure they are great, but some of those are double the price of tier 1 (again with the Red, Yellow, Blue, Teal) options.

 

[Krokodil]

My Bosch brushless 18V cordless drill is up to most tasks, but when it gets really serious the corded Fein BOP13 comes out. Love that drill.

 

[GTO]

I would say my Bosch 4-1/2" grinder and my 1/2" drill.