Do corded power tools still matter? They do to me. I own as many corded power tools as I do cordless power tools. But I wondered about it the other day when I picked up my corded worm gear circular saw, plugged it into a 120-volt outlet and made a few cuts. I don’t use that saw as much as I used to. I’m just as well off making a few cuts with a small and light cordless saw. Still, if you need a nearly indestructible saw, the Skilsaw worm gear comes as close as possible to that high-water mark.
But, strictly speaking, are tools like that still necessary? I asked two men whose trade experience and skill I know and respect. One is Mark Clement, a Popular Mechanics contributor, carpenter, remodeler, deck builder and proprietor of MyFixItUpLife. The other is Peter Toomey, a carpenter, deck builder and inventor of the Rapid Rafter square.
Mark Clement’s take on the subject:
“I’m sure there’s a white board somewhere with ‘phase out corded power tools’ written on it. But that would be a mistake. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll never give up my impact driver, and I make most of my cuts today with a cordless circular saw. But there are some tools that are better as corded than they are cordless. For example, think what happens when you’re in the middle of ripping a 12-ft. long piece of lumber with a cordless table saw. The battery quits in mid cut. Now you’ve got two problems. First, you have to get the battery out of the saw and go get a battery from what I call the battery farm–the pile of chargers and batteries that everybody keeps running on their site today. The second problem is that you have to restart the cut. The same thing can happen with cordless miter saws. This isn’t to say that cordless table saws and miter saws don’t have their place. The question that you have to answer is whether that place is with you. A better way to look at the entire topic is this: you trade cord and air hose management for battery management. The upside to batteries is no power cord. The downside is no power cord.”
Still, Clement is bullish on the future of cordless power: “Cordless power tools have come a thousand miles from where they were just a few years ago. They’re only going to get better.”
Peter Toomey’s take on the subject:
“Years ago, I swore I would never own a cordless tool,” he said. “Today, we’re entirely cordless DeWalt users.” That includes everything, he says: circular saws, drills, impact drivers, hammer drills. He rattles off a long list of reasons why he went cordless, but doing away with extension cords headed the list. Extension cords used on construction sites get trashed, Toomey said, and require electrical tape to repair them. That increases the shock risk to the carpenter and also gives way to another frustration: if carpenters are relying on new-construction outlets to run power through the cord to their tools, chances are pretty good that they are plugging into a GFCI/AFCI-protected circuit (GFCI: ground-fault interrupter; AFCI: Arc-fault interrupter) . “It hardly takes anything to trip a breaker on one of those circuits,” Toomey says. The electrical threshold to cause a trip is so small that common dirty and wet construction site conditions are more than enough to cause a tripped breaker and the attendant frustration of having to stop work and reset it, he adds. He also describes the frustration of climbing ladders with a power cord dangling down from the tool to the ground. The more tools you bring up the ladder, the more difficult this becomes. It’s not unusual to climb a ladder with a hammer drill, a saw, and an impact driver. “It’s just not practical to do that with corded tools,” Toomey says.
So Where Does This Leave You?
The dilemma of cordless or corded is very similar to what I see in outdoor power equipment where it’s a question of going with battery or gas engine power. Cordless outdoor power tools do a remarkably good job and compare very favorably to their gas engine counterparts. Cordless power tools run far quieter, more cleanly, and cooler. When you’re done with a job, you don’t smell like small-engine exhaust. Still, for the toughest or largest jobs, when using a cordless tool you’re going to have to swap out the batteries more often than you might think. Or it just makes sense to turn to a gas engine tool to get the job done.
A recent example from my own experience helps to make this point. When I had to cut up a fallen Osage orange tree, I used a gas engine Stihl MS261 . Using even one of the best professional-duty saws available today, such as one of the saws we recently tested, I would have gone through at least three batteries and maybe more. Zipping through one battery after another isn’t a problem if you’ve got that many large batteries that are charged. It’s a problem if you don’t have them.
So let’s say you’ve got a couple of dozen cuts to make in ordinary framing lumber in a day’s work or that many cuts to make in tree limbs that are 4 inches in diameter or smaller (a typical size of a downed tree branch). There’s no reason why you should use a corded power tool or a gas engine chainsaw for that. The work is difficult but not severely so. It’s routine work and it will not produce so much heat in a cordless tool or its battery that you risk tripping the tool’s thermal cutoff feature. Likewise, drilling a couple of dozen holes or driving that number of screws or even twice that number. All of the cordless pro-duty drills that we have recently tested are more than up to those jobs.
So, bottom line, when do you go with a corded power tool?
Use a corded tool when the cutting, drilling, grinding, or sanding session requires a large bit, blade, abrasive wheel, or abrasive belt that is making a large contact surface area with the workpiece and the contact time is long or frequently repetitive. These are the conditions that may engage the thermal overload protection in a cordless power tool’s battery and the tool itself. This will prompt the need to either swap the battery for a cooler one or mix and match your jobs with a corded (or gas engine) power tool.
Corded Power Tool Hall of Fame
Here are our nominees for the Corded Power Tool Hall of Fame. All of them stalwarts that enjoy a well-earned reputation of 120-volt performance and durability.
Milwaukee Magnum Hole Shooter
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The Latin phrase sine qua non (that is, something that is indispensable or essential) well describes this famous 1/2-inch drill. Its fame is justified. This old-school drill combines torque, accuracy, and durability. If you spend a lot of time making and tapping holes in metal, by hand, you need this.
DeWalt Joist Drill
People who are too young to remember may not know that DeWalt’s institutional power tool expertise traces back to both the DeWalt radial arm saw and Black & Decker’s industrial tools division. These corporate entities were well regarded for making fearsome power tools, and that in-house expertise is what formed the basis for DeWalt’s successful launch as a power tool powerhouse. This joist drill perfectly embodies that heritage. First, it’s powered by an 11-amp motor that transfers its torque through a two-speed gear box. This helps explain why its capable of running a 6-inch hole saw through framing lumber or a self-feed bit up to 4-5/8 inches or a ship auger up to 1-1/2 inches. Fortunately, the drill (and the user!) are protected by a clutch in low speed. Those big bits are known to lock up in framing lumber, resulting in massive kickback and injuring the operator in the process. The clutch prevents (or greatly reduces) the likelihood of such a catastrophe.
Skilsaw Worm Drive Circular Saw
Skil pioneered the handheld circular saw in America, and this saw is largely responsible for helping carpenters (especially those west of the Mississippi, where its left blade is preferred) meet the demands of sawing lumber for what has become known as the Postwar Housing Boom. The saw’s 15-amp high torque motor, oil-bath gears, and overall durability became the standard by which all competing saws were judged. Such was its durability, that it became the go-to tool for union carpenters cutting miles of lumber and plywood necessary for concrete highway and bridge construction. Many construction companies that do that work still insist on this saw. In itself, that’s a testament to the success of the decades-old design.
Milwaukee Super Sawzall
Today we take the reciprocating saw for granted. But there was a time when this iconic power tool did not exist. Then Milwaukee Electric Tool invented it in 1951 and billed the tool as the first portable, handheld electric hacksaw (hacksaw machines existed decades before). It soon became clear that the tool had more to offer than just sawing metal but could be widely useful in carpentry, remodeling, and the rescue and extraction work practiced by fire departments freeing people trapped in damaged cars. Improvements in blades have tracked right alongside the tool’s development. Today, the reciprocating saw is considered an indispensable power tool and Milwaukee’s Super Sawzall is considered by many to be the gold standard of the power tool. We’ve tested the corded variation against all comers, and so far it hasn’t been outcut. That’s due, we think, due its stout locomotive gear train, a robust 15-amp motor and a reciprocating action that you can select (or deselect) for maximum aggressiveness.
Hougen Magnet Drill
Hougen invented the small portable drill press that holds itself to a steel beam or plate with an electromagnet. Today, these tools are known as magnet drills. Prior to this invention, putting a large hole in a steel beam, plate or truck frame was an extraordinarily difficult and labor-intensive process. Steel workers and mechanics would use anything from a torch, to a hand drill, to a drill press to do this work–often with mixed results. By inventing the magnet drill, and the specialized annular cutter bit that these machines take, Hougen greatly simplified the process. Although it’s not widely known today, it was Hougen’s dual inventions of the magnet drill and Rotabroach annular cutter that spawned the industry of this equipment that exists today. And to this day, no other manufacturer builds them better or knows them more thoroughly than Hougen. It still builds the widest selection of these machines and their cutters.
Makita Belt Sander
Sadly, big corded belt sanders have fallen out of favor with woodworkers. That’s a shame because until you’ve used a really good one, you’ve got no idea just how effective these tools are at surfacing a piece of wood. They also do other things, such as beveling wood, metal and even glass. Woodworkers who have a deft touch with them are known to accurately fit hand-built drawers. They’d be done with the work in a minute or two where guys like me would be still fussing with the drawer and a hand plane to get the drawer to fit. Makita is the last company to build a full section of these beauties. The company takes them seriously, equipping the machine with stout motors and equally stout roller assemblies that accurately track the belt. Each tool is equipped with a dust bag that doesn’t fall off or fall apart after a few months of hard work.
DeWalt Bandsaw
An entire generation of metal-working tradespeople grew up using the massive hand-held bandsaw made by Porter-Cable. Called the Porta-Band, the worm gear power tool was prized by plumbers, mechanical contractors, metal fabricators, and welders. Although the Porta-Band is no longer made, the massive 10-amp DeWalt is a likely heir to that famous throne due to its depth of cut (5 inches in square stock), power (10 amps) and speed adjustability (100 to 350 rpm). Whereas the Porta-Band made use of an oil bath worm gear, the DeWalt requires no lubrication. Quick access to its motor brushes makes what little maintenance it does require a simple five-minute repair.
Makita Planer
A 12-inch handheld planer is not a typical construction tool. Let’s rephrase that: A 12-inch handheld planer is a typical construction tool when you build timber frame structures, whether they be houses, barns, or gazebos. The big Makita is powered by a 15-amp motor and weighs 40 pounds. Yeah, it’s a lot of machine to move off the beam at the end of the cut but look at the bright side: it’s capable of planing a 12-inch-wide beam in a single pass. And besides that, Makita wisely equipped the machine with a front roller to make it a bit easier to return to the cut’s starting point. It’s also the only planer in this category that costs thousands of dollars less than European machines.
Ridgid Power Drive
One look at the Model 700 and you can see why many people feel there’s just one name in plumbing tools: Ridgid. The company has perfected both hand tools and power tools for working with pipe. The Model 700 handheld power drive for threading and cutting pipe has a spec sheet that reads like something from a generation ago: US made, die-cast aluminum body and head, double-throw power switch, threads pipe from 1/8 in. to 2 in., cuts right-hand and left-hand threads. Even its metal box is the traditional Ridgid red double-clasp, two-handle box familiar to generations of plumbers and electricians. If this tool doesn’t belong in the corded power tool Hall of Fame, then nothing does.
Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.
