but the Makita sander was rubbish - the velcro pad kept needing to be replaced as the slightest amount of dust between the pad and the sandpaper rendered it useless. So I got a Ryobi... still going strong - can't kill it! Rest of my tools are Makita or Ryobi.
The only petrol powered tools I have are the mower, Briggs & Stratton... just won't stop and my 8kva generator.
Years ago when the orbitals first come out I had the very same problem with a B&D, the velcro was so fine it basically become blocked with dust and that caused the pad to overheat and the velco would peel off.
Most of the time I find hand tools plenty quick enough for most jobs. E.g fencing...a brace and good auger keeps smashing through Redgum posts long after all the batteries are kaputt.
I have to say, at least for smaller jobs around the home I've been going the same way myself. There is zero noise, and my joints don't feel the plain the next day!
On top of this I've regained a lot of temporarily lost skills, I can sharpen bits, knives and axes now to shaving sharp with little to no effort. Lately I've been searching for old style saws, no carbide teeth, I recently bought a secondhand sawtooth setting tool, and I already have the files needed to resharpen.
What's the point of spending 2hrs at gym to use a cordless drill for 30s, I hate gym, I'd much rather be at home and use the brace, an axe or a hand saw?
I still use my 650W corded AEG drill for masonry work, it's 20 years old and still got power the battery models only dream about, the new Bosch Bulldog Brushless goes close, by why bother when the AEG is still going strong.
I read somewhere that the red Ozito tools in Bunnings are actually manufactured by Milwaukee. I am only a very spasmodic DIYer these days but I have owned a red Ozito drill for many years and it has been very good.
Agreed, and the Ozito PxC warranty is even better for non-commercial users, you can just walk in a change your broken gadget at Bunnings no questions asked. At least that was the situation last time I checked, but it only applies to domestic users, not tradies or commercial. But I believe batteries are not covered by this warranty, only the skins. I have heard of some Bunning's Hero type managers who have tried to decline the Ozito warranty, but last time I checked it still exists for the life of the skin, although I've heard it may be reduced to 5 or 7 years.
Which ironically, the big problem for residential users is the batteries, because if they are left discharged for too long they basically die, they must be stored fully charged and recharged sporadically to stop self-discharge. Being stored discharged for long periods increases the risk of a battery fire as crystals form in the battery which bridge or pierce the dielectric layers, one of the same reasons why those old AA or AAA leak! So the business model here is they basically give you the skins as a loss leader knowing most of you will have to invest regularly in the batteries, that is why the batteries and chargers are so expensive relative to the skins. They flog the batteries as "no memory effect", which is true for residential case of partial discharge and full recharge, that wasn't the case for older style batteries that had to be fully cycled to stay healthy.
Running them to dead flat isn't inducing a memory effect, so that claim is a bit of marketing weasel wording, memory effect refers to partial discharge followed by recharge.
Without wanting to offend the Vegetarians or Vegans among us, a warning to the beef and lamb eaters.
I have associates in the food technology sector that are telling me the combinations of fire, flood and weather are going to send beef and lamb prices skyrocketing over the next six to twelve months, this is compounded by legal requirements to fulfill quotas in export markets meaning availability of domestic supply will dwindle. It's much the same story as natural gas. So if you think beef or lamb is expensive now, just wait and see what it's like in six or twelve months.
If you've got a deep freeze the advice is look for deals and fill it now before you can't afford to fill it anymore!
Now before the Vegans and Vegetarians jump for joy.
The very same circumstances impacting the nations herds and flocks is impacting the grain, fruit and veg supply. It's all going up and there is nothing the politicians can do about it. Mother nature has voted!
I think the One nation popularity is due to the appalling Labour Government and the lack of confidence in their attitude to community safety and woeful economic performance.
I think the constant negativity from the opposition is wearing thin with the public, the criticisms are losing their impact in the absence of policy.
People may well vote the government out, but it's not a result of anything the opposition have said, it's because of stupid mistakes the government make.
Not much of an LNP base south of the border in Mexico(Vic), not much of a base down there with the Steak Press Lady and Bannanabe having pretty much zero influence.
FWIW, the same negativity thing is happening to RedTrump at the moment, his base is eroding because people are over the negativity in the absence of delivering real world benefits. Hollow promises fall dead, hollow threats mean nothing to smart people.
One nation voters seem to be multiplying at an eponential rate in some circles. Could be a somewhat genuine 3rd part alternative to libs and ALP and suprise a few.
Most of those LNP or One Nation surveys are being driven by surveys taken in the tropics, where rodeos or B&S balls dominate the landscape, it only becomes a problem when the major parties are hung. Which is another reason why at the moment they are self-destructing, because they've lost the power of influence, so they have become reactive.
They aren't really growing a base, they are just changing the split of what they already have.
The LNP have got another problem across the whole country, kids are leaving family farms in droves, farms are being consumed by corporations and the workers are now employees not owners, when this change happens so do voting patterns.
You mean I can’t take the engine out of my land cruiser and put it into a commodore ? Bummer.
No you have made a false inference.
I can purchase parts and even whole engines from 3rd party suppliers that are price and performance competitive, it's not a captive or closed marketplace.
The average motorist does about 40km a day in Oz, ev have plenty of range for most, esp when after 8-10 years they will still retain 70% SOC. No shortage of ev that have clocked up 300/400 and 500kms+ and are still rolling along fine.
Yes, the bulk of that average is made up within 35kms of a CBD, as accurate as it is it is also very deceptive.
Of course when an 8 year old ICE runs low on fuel you can fill it up and get full range for my longer than average trip, the EV owner can recharge that 8 year old battery stack as much as they like but they'll never get the same range as a new one!
You make it sound like ice vehicles are produced with no emissions from manufacture, zero pollution and running costs and last forever without breaking down and don’t ever run out of dinosaur juice, perpetual motion !
No that's another false assertion, you expose your own desperation.
ICE vehicles like the EVs or other alternatives that will replace them, are not carbon neutral by any measure. All technologies have inherent advantages and weaknesses, wherever the carbon debt occurs, either in use or in manufacture, it's still a carbon debt.
LP, what do you mean about people being locked into ev batteries ?
With power tools having removable batteries all being proprietary fits, you’re correct that once you go AEG you are locked in.
Ev do not currently have exchangeable batteries, with the exception of some heavy trucks and buses. Early on there were 2 types of charging connectors but I believe that is well and truly consolidating, so I’m really not sure what you’re saying ?
The battery is half the price of the car and there are no 3rd party solution, owners are locked in whether you like it or not because it's the manufacturer / vendor that controls your choice. There was an effort several years ago to push for a global standard but the car makers knocked in back in favour of proprietary solutions.
FWIW, a car battery is really thousands of individual cells bundled into parrel battery strings. MTBF of such a large unit quantity means that from day one batteries and the associated strings are degrading. No matter what the marketing spin says, you are going to have to replace them to maintain range and performance. I get that if Joe Average drives 5km a day around the inner city suburbs then range and performance are irrelevant, but 20% of Australia's population live in regional areas and range in particular matters.
There are new battery designs coming, some that last longer, charge faster and are safer, but the car manufacturers are being led kicking and screaming into the change as they already have a large investment in an obsolete technology. The only way this will happen is for governments to legislate, but they won't because the big corporations and billionaires hold countries to fiscal ransom.
By analogy, can you imagine the complaints if somebody invented a new 100% green fuel that was proprietary to a specific brand of vehicle?
The structure of politics has changed, being a State Politician use to be a full career, no less than being Prime Minister.
Now being in state politics is just a stepping stone to Federal politics, the gulf between the roles has grown too big as more and more government get's centralised, ironically while they spend their time telling people and industry to decentralise!
Most of the expensive brands are now made in China as are all of the batteries, I was a Makita fan as they were mid ranged priced and reliable and were USA and Japanese made but now they have joined the other brands in getting their stuff assembled in China.
It's a bit more complex than that, a lot of stuff is getting assembled in Malaysia, Thailand and India as well and there are different configurations. Some of the premium brands also continue to assemble some units in European member states, they are forced to do this because of EU regulations, or they get penalised in some way, tax, loss of grants etc., etc..
A problem is the exterior of all the devices looks largely the same, and there is a lot of grey market trading, so sometimes the discounted version is actually coming from a different site.
I had all AEG stuff when I was younger, before the cordless revolution, it was premium in the corded era but missed the boat on the cordless changeover. I still have AEG corded drills and saws. However, recently in the cordless market AEG has been on the rise in the trade / industrial market, they have switched strategy and leaving the gimmicks to Milwaukee and pushing harder to the trade market with durable basic functionality at a reasonable price. They have basically picked the eyes out of the best features of the other cordless brands and introduced some that are AEG unique. Worth keeping an eye on.
Hardware wise, I've found Metabo to be a premium brand, and if your drill is old enough to still have an interchangeable chuck a huge upgrade is to fit Metabo chucks, which I believe are really Rohm commercial grade chucks in a Metabo disguise.
But for the bulk of users, once they are on a battery platform they are set and will never change, the EV market will be the same and the car manufacturers know it.
It's interesting about the "where you buy" issue, because they all look basically the same on the outside, but they aren't the same on the inside.
FWIW, all the brands do it, Milwaukee, Dewalt, Bosch, Makita, Hitachi, etc., etc.. they have a big box store quality and a trade quality. You do not really see the difference until you either pull them apart or go to have them repaired.
The Bosch Pro Brushless stuff is pretty good, but I don't think you can buy that series from Bunnings although I believe with the start of Toolkit Depo that may be changing. Also once you register Bosch Pro Series on the Bosch-Pt website you get a 5 or 7 year warranty on most things. That was the main reason we went with Bosch Pro at our work, most other brands limit commercial or trade warranty to 6 months or 1 year.
But we always have the debate, should you buy the cheaper tool and replace it every year, or buy the better tools that lasts a few years. The answer is not straight forward if you are close to replacement suppliers, but if you work remotely the better tools are the go.
There is a significant point of difference between battery life in power tools and vehicles, and if you examine figure 2 in the link northernblue offered you see why.
Range is already a hurdle, and the article tries to spin nearly a 2% drop off per annum as a positive. But the harsh reality is many EV engineering solutions will fail as dysfunctional at levels below about 80% capacity due to battery protection measures. It's the same for high end UPS and that application has no battery technology restrictions at all, vehicles aren't at the cutting edge.
Energy isn't a magic pudding, a degraded battery isn't like a half full tank, in fact a degraded battery is the exact opposite of a half fill. A half full tank gives me more performance and greater efficiency due to reduced weight, a degraded battery is a boat anchor because at empty it is still the same weight.
In electrical engineering power is the product of two parameters, voltage and current, when batteries degrade are you lose both and you are always starting that much closer to the functional minimums at which the vehicle will just switch off. That is the difference between usable capacity and total capacity.
I'm not arguing 100% failure rates, but the EV marketing and green evaluation you read largely ignore reality, and all that is on top of the dodgy corporate practises. What some of the EV makers are doing is as bad as what Volkswagen did when it defrauded the public about emissions.
I'm not even going to start with the manufacturing side, that's Nimby.
Black Mirror did an episode similar to this. "Hated by the Nation"
Bees went extinct, so we made robot bees to do the job. These were ultimately hijacked and used to kill people. Person who was killed was whoever got the most 'votes' on social media. Torch and Pitchforks from the comfort of your own home!
Seems ludicrous when summarised, but watch the episode and tell me where the plot hole is, if you can find one.
Sounds like it will remind me of the dystopian plot from the movie AI, which offered a similar damning commentary about the nature of human society.
