Does the OB have a preferred brand of power tools they recommend?

I had porter cable and my drill quit working so I went with Dewalt. Dewalt has been great and I started buying some of the yard tools for light work around the house if needed. Keep all my gas stuff at the ranch but the electric chainsaw, weed eater and hedge trimmers work great for smaller jobs.

Can’t go wrong with Milwaukee either but I grabbed a dewalt drill set because it was on sale and I just stuck with it.

Everything I own is dewalt...they've been great and the stuff isn't too expensive

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Leaning towards Milwaukee, but wanted to ask what others are using. This is for home DIY stuff.

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Ryobi, for that specific reason.

Milwaukee is best, Dewalt solid second.
Ryobi is about 90% of the quality, for 50% of the price.

I have quite a few brands (either sales, or specific tools). If I'd have tried Ryobi before getting my Dewalts, I would never have bought into Dewalt at all- they're good, but not worth the difference in price.


The true beauty is that Ryobi makes just about any tool you can imagine for that format, and they're cheap to buy.
I picked up a cordless wet-dry shop vac with attachments last month for $20.
I already had their handheld vacuum for cleaning my car interior, and have a Ridgid corded model for serious work. But at that price, it's a WHY NOT? choice.
I also use their dremel platform, battery plugs into the base and you have a wand on a cord from that.
I have their (discontinued) multiple-head multitool that takes Ridgid heads, and picked up every head I could find. Oscillating tool, dremel, 3/8 ratchet, tin shears, etc.
Have a Ryobi 1/2" impact wrench, with a 4amp battery it takes my Silverado's lug nuts off with no problem at all. Cost me $100, with said battery.
Their fans are less than half the price of the Dewalts, as are the lights.


The modern lithium batteries, especially if you get a brushless motor, make even the cheapest brands functional. I have some HyperTough (red brand from Walmart) tools, I picked up a 4 tool kit for $35. Not as good as the big brands, but still better than any NiCad tool I ever used. I've used the Sawzall and circular saw, with Diablo blades they work great, as good as my Ryobi's. I use that brand particularly for the yard- got a 20v hedgeclipper for $35, and a blower/weedeater combo for $80, both on sale. The blower in that set is a 40v (uses 2 batteries), and is a fricking beast. It also came with 2 2.5amp batteries and a normal, 2 battery charging deck, instead of the junky small ones that normally come with HT tools.

I also have a similar blower/weedeater combo from Ryobi, it's a much smaller blower, good for clearing the driveway or roof.

The one tool I would say is worth the premium, is the Milwaukee 12v line, specifically for the 3/8 ratchet.

I personally run two tool brands now.

Dewalt and Ryobi. For the tools I use the most or when Dewalt just has a superior tool I get dewalt. When the cost difference gets huge I look at what Ryobi has. I am 100% sure the dewalt brad nailer is better than the ryobi but I got my Ryobi brad nailer for $99 and the dewalt is over $300

Ryobi also has some GEMS in their line up. I got the Ryobi Track saw for a little over $200 and the tracks are excellent. The saw itself is OK, it cuts just fine it just has a bunch of composite parts where most brands use metal. The tracks are as good as any other brand out there, you know it is better than most I have encountered. Maybe Festool and Makita have equal tracks.

Ryobi batteries are dirt cheap when on special so adding a second ecosystem wasn't a big deal for me.

Last spring I grabbed a bunch of Ryobi stuff at the pawn shop and it works great. Look like an ot baller for <100.

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specifically for the 3/8 ratchet.

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Is awesome. What a game changer for me.

I have Milwaukee cause that's what I started with years ago.

If now I'd go Metabo or ryobi

After buying at least 2 new Dewalt drill/ battery sets because they were on sale and better value vs just replacing bad batteries, I switched to Ryobi and haven’t looked back. Have had the set for years and all the batteries still work great and everything has all the power I need. Have put it through all kinds of hell.

Milwaukee

I really like the Milwaukee M18 series of tools. My favorite is the Milwaukee 2719-21 M18 fuel Hackzall. It is small and claims to be the fastest cutting and most powerful one-handed reciprocating saw on the market. You can hold the saw with one hand and hold or stabilize what you are cutting with your other hand while cutting. I use it a lot to cut fallen branches for firewood, pruning small branches, cutting any long items going in the garbage can, cutting metal rods, pipes, and basically any demolition jobs needed for wood, metal, plastic. I use the M18 High Output batteries and not the standard M18 batteries.