The Homestead That DeWALT Built

If diamonds are a girl's best friend…then tools are a guys best pal!

On every young man's journey to adulthood there are many life choices. What career will I choose? What am I looking for in a partner? What is my purpose in life?

All of these pale in comparison with THE big question in life…What cordless tool system will I choose?

What are cordless tool systems?

In the old days, you bought a cordless drill and it came with a battery and charger. Then later you decide you need a cordless leaf blower. It came with its own different style battery and charging system. Over time you have an arsenal of different tools which is great, but having lots of different styles of batteries and chargers is not so great.

In the early 2010s, large cordless tool companies started rolling out lines of high quality lithium batteries with a line of high quality cordless tools that were all compatible with the battery system. The incentive was for the customer to invest in their battery system, and that battery could power any number of tools in the brand line.

Another benefit to investing in a battery system instead of just the tool, is companies started to offer tools without batteries and this made tools more affordable! If I have 6 batteries already, why would I need another one when I buy the tool? It sheds $50-$75 off the retail price by just selling the tool alone.

Does the brand matter?

There are lots of tool brands out there. Below is a picture that represents the landscape of power tools.

Every individual has different factors as to which tool system they should commit to.

• What are the tools being used for? Professional trades or DIY Weekend Warriors?

• Are the tool systems sold near me? For example, I love Menards for building materials, but they only carry their own line of tools called Masterforce and Bosch in my market. Luckily I have a Lowes nearby that carries DeWALT, Craftsman, Kobalt, Milwaukee, and a few other lines. I don’t have a Home Depot in my market.

• Does the line carry all the tools I would want? Smaller tool lines like Ryobi, Kobalt, Craftsman, and others may not branch out into tools you may eventually want/need such as landscaping, roofing, plumbing, electrical, or ancillary equipment like radios or lights.

• Affordability? There are definitely tiers of tool lines. Of the tool lines that are available to me in my area, Milwaukee and Bosch tend to run the most expensive followed by DeWALT and Rigid, then the bottom tier includes names like Ryobi, Stanley, Flex, Kobalt, and others.

As for me and my house… we will choose DeWALT!

I purchased my first set of DeWALT drill and driver combos probably around 2015 and have become more of a fan of theirs as time goes by. I really like how they are the perfect brand for do-it-all DIYers like me. Whether I’m building a house, animal structures, pens, fencing, or making something fun for the kids, DeWALT has the tools I need that make my life easier!

Let’s Talk Power.

I’ve been a fan of DeWALT even before they came out with their 20v Max line of cordless tools. I had the old 18 volt Nicad battery. They were very good, but the battery life faded with time. Since the rollout of the 20v Max Lithium batteries (and now 60v) their batteries stay strong and I have only had to replace 1 battery in over a decade.

Batteries are measured in AH or Amp Hours. An Amp Hour is a unit of electric charge that measures how much current flows over time. It's often used to describe the capacity of batteries. It does not necessarily mean if you buy a 1 AH battery it will last for 1 hour of running time, but it helps you gauge to ensure you have a big enough battery to complete a task.

If you buy a tool that comes with a battery it will generally come with either a 20v Max 1AH or 2AH battery, or sometimes they come with a 1 or 2 AH Powerstack battery. The Max batteries are the standard batteries that if you were to tear the battery case apart are simply multiple rechargeable AA batteries soldered together in a circuit that hold power. The Power Stack is a unique battery which is a small stack of Lithium Battery Plates. These batteries are usually more expensive because they are lighter and more powerful than the Max batteries. I have additionally bought multiples of 3,4,5 AH Max batteries as well as a 9AH 20/60 Felxvolt battery.

The 20/60 Felxvolt battery. Is very unique because it is very powerful, and can run either as a 20 volt battery or a 60 volt battery. DeWALT has come out with larger cordless tools (like my skill saw) that require more power. These tools are as large as push mowers, table saws, miter saws, and propane powered heaters. This flexvolt is my nicest battery and it costs a good bit more than my others.

When you buy a battery, you generally get a charger with it. All of my 20 Max, Powerstack, and Flexvolt batteries are totally interchangeable on the chargers I have acquired throughout the years. This is sooo handy! I can keep some on the job site, in the car, or in the garage to ensure I always have a backup battery ready when I need it.

Enough about the batteries, on with the tools!

Here is a list of all the DeWALT tools (powered and non powered) that I have owned in the last decade:

2 Drills- 20V Max Brushless. Perfect for drill bits, paint stirrers, tulip bulb augers, and of course screwing. However I find that I have moved to using the impact drill for most of my screwing.

2 Impact Drills- 20 V Max Brushless- At first I did not see the need for this type of tool. It came in a combo pack with my drill and I didn’t use it all for the first year. Then I would be doing a woodworking project and it was so handy to have my pilot hole bit in my drill and use the impact to drive the actual screw. I also noticed I loved that it was more compact in size than the drill, meaning I could get it into tighter areas easier. Now it is my go to tool for running screws. I bet I put 5000 2-3 inch screws in when we remodeled our house and always used my impacts.

Brushless Reciprocating Saw- XR 20V Max Variable - The XR line of tools is built a little more rugged than the standard 20V Max tools. This Reciprocating saw is compact enough that I could get into a 16” wall cavity and came in very handy doing demolition and cutting in windows. I like that it does not need a chuck to release the saw blade.

DeWALT FLEXVOLT 60V Max Brushless Cordless Circular Saw with Brake- This was the most expensive cordless tool I have bought, but it is such a beast! I use this to break down full sheets of plywood and it has power to spare! This is the saw that requires my 20/60V 9AH battery. I can run this saw all day and still have battery left to spare. It does not run on the 20V batteries I have, which is a bummer, but I’m glad that I upgraded to the heavier duty circular saw.

DeWALT XR 20V Max Brushless Drywall Screw Gun- I did not know if I needed this tool or not because I had a corded version of it. If you don’t know, a drywall gun is unique in that you can place a screw on the head of the gun and until you press the gun into the drywall the screw will not fall or spin. It is on some sort of a clutch that doesn’t engage until the pressure is applied to the wall. This makes installing screws much faster. I used the corded drills for most of the first floor and it was awful. It was heavy and I only had 1 outlet that worked in the house so I had extension cords stretched everywhere. It was always a tangled mess that slowed me down. I decided to buy this cordless tool and it made life so much easier! First it is much lighter than the corded version and I was installing drywall over my head most of the time. Second, it came as a package deal with 2 small 2AH Powerstack Lithium batteries and between those two they lasted me like all day! The biggest selling point was that on this cordless version there was a new setting that the drill did not engage at all unless the pressure was being applied to the wall. This is different from the corded version. The old one was constantly on, but not spinning the screw. It was loud and stripped many screws. I didn’t even have to pull the trigger on the cordless version! It was ergonomically different from most drills to help you get good pressure going towards the wall. Owning this tool was the deciding factor between me doing the second floor drywall myself for $1800 vs paying a contractor $6500.

DeWALT XR 1 Speed Cutting Cordless Rotary Tool- Again, I had a corded version of this but owning this cordless version made me go much faster and did not have all the headaches of cord management. This tool looks like drill bit spinning and you use it to cut out electrical boxes and light boxes from behind the drywall. This tool was a luxury and I was glad to have it!

DeWALT XR 20V Max Brushless Oscillating Multi Tool- This is the tool that I use the least, but am glad I have it when I need it. This tool is used to cut in very tight spaces like trim, door bottoms, around outlets, or to sand or grind small areas.

DeWALT Framing Hammer- I have had several hammers over the years and most of them were the old trusty Estwing framing hammers with the metal tops and blue grips. These are great tools. However, my children kept running off with them while I was building the house and one day I found myself hammerless. So I ran to where everybody know my name…Ace Hardware… and to my surprise found a DeWALT framing hammer. I bought it out of brand loyalty and am glad I did! It is a great length, has nice grip, and is lighter than my Estwing hammers. Another nice thing is that I can spot it in the room because the yellow handle sticks out more than the blue of and Estwing.

DeWALT Bluetooth Radio and Headphones- I was originally going to say that these were just toys or luxuries, but if you are going to be by yourself all day it is important to keep yourself engaged and protected. The Bluetooth Speaker is powered by any of my batteries and connects to my phone. I am an audio book fiend! So when I was building the house I listened to more than 20 books! The DeWALT Jobsite Wireless Earphones have been my best find yet! At less than $40 they are super high quality, comfortable headphones. They are bluetooth and are charged on USB C cables same as most phones and chromebooks nowadays. The battery on these lasts over 20 hours! I really liked how they could take phone calls easily with just a tap of a button. These are also loud enough I can hear the audio over the work I was doing.

I also have a Leaf Blower, Weed Eater, and Extension Saw for outdoor use that all run off of any of my DeWALT batteries. I love the leaf blower and use it often. It is hand held and does a great job. The Weed Eater is okay. It is a little weak for some of the big areas of weed eating that we have, but that can be a good thing. I feel comfortable turning my 12, 10, or 7 year olds loose to weed eat around the house knowing there is little they cause any damage. Finally, my Extension Pole Saw works great… I just no longer have any trees on my property to put it to work.

68,000 BTU Cordless Portable Forced Air Propane Heater- My final DeWALT tool is the only one I have ever had any issues with. Last winter the kitchen and master bathroom pipes froze in the wall so I went to Ace and purchased this heater to put in the crawl space. It worked great! It was so cool that it could be powered off of an extension cord or you could use a 20v battery. It hooked up to propane and was very nice. However when I went to use it this winter (the coldest freakin winter in recent memory) I could not get the unit to power up. I have been messing with it all winter and still cannot get it working. I’m hoping DeWALT will come through and help me resolve this problem but so far I have had no luck.

Final Thoughts

Today’s article is not to flex about all the cool tools that I have, but rather to help you understand that picking a brand and battery system should be the core of investing in your tools for the future. I can honestly say that DeWALT helped make building my homestead and remodelling my home an easier and more enjoyable experience because of the joy of using their tools. DeWALT has always been a great product for us and I strongly endorse their products.