Jeremy's Essential On-board Power Tools

Jeremy is a big fan of the website SlickDeals. He loves going on there and looking around, seeing what might be on sale. It’s not that he often buys anything; it’s his version of window shopping.

Still, over the last couple of years he’s found some real bargains. There was the 4’ tall noise-making-when-you-got-close-to-it Chewbacca toy for $10 (the look on my brother’s 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, named Solo and Obi, when they triggered the noise . . .) A 100’ spool of LED lights for $8 (it’s already in the box of odds and ends destined for Calypso). The half price Columbia rain jacket in a green color called “nuclear”, which I suspect he bought as much because he can say he’s wearing nuclear (plus he needed a light rain jacket.)

As we’ve been working on the boat (and the house), we’ve been talking about tools and what will make the cut to come with us. There are screwdrivers and sockets, wrenches and painting supplies. There are also power tools, both wired and cordless. We have all we need, but much of it is old enough to be a little suspect. Batteries don’t hold a charge. Cords need replacing. In at least one case, the entire tool needs to be taken apart and fixed. Still, the idea of buying something new when we’ve got stuff that works (for now) is hard to swallow. That said, there are definitely some advantages to buying new tools.

With rechargeable tools, trying to keep the brands the same means the batteries can be interchangeable, meaning less space/easily replicated spares. Newer rechargeable use lithium batteries, making them more powerful and lighter, to say nothing of being faster to charge. With wired tools, aiming to simplify (for example, there’s a new way of changing out blades on more modern oscillating tools that makes it way easier to use) is helpful.

When Jeremy saw a set of rechargeable DeWalt tools on SlickDeals for half off, he jumped. The kit includes a driver (which I call a drill, though apparently I’m not using the terminology correctly), an impact driver, (which apparently is good when you really need the torque) and an oscillating tool, along with 2 batteries and a charger.

It came in an oversized bag that will quite likely become a traveling catch-all kit for tools in general; the tools will live mostly in sealed bags to protect against corrosion, unless they’re in use.

This may well be the core components of the cordless onboard power tool selection. I’d root for one small electric screwdriver to round out this mix as it’s definitely usual to have both of us needing to use a screwdriver at once; I don’t know how the impact driver works as a regular drill/screwdriver, plus I like a smaller tool that I can use with one hand.

Now he’s on the lookout for a new jigsaw and new palm sander.

Come on SlickDeals. Whatcha got for us?