Don’t know just when it happened but I almost always use cordless power tools compared to the ones attacked to the wall. The only corded power tool I have used in the last few years is a random orbit sander. My stationary tools still are electric such as table saw, band saw and drill presses. Some of the reason is I don’t do as much of that kind of work but I really think most of it is because the modern cordless tools are great.
It has been so long, more than 10 years, since I purchased a corded tool I cannot remember what it would have been.
Even the gardening type tools I use are now battery operated. Like chain saws, hedge cutters, leaf blower, sprayer and string trimmer. The wheeled string trimmer and riding mower are the only gas exceptions.
I own two cordless drills, the rest of my (about a dozen, all Bosch) powertools is with cord.
Last year I bought a second hand Bosch 420E drill, because I could not get a replacement bearing for my whining old Bosch 400E.
I’m not sentimental, but at my age I need a drill stand for “precision” jobs. And I didn’t want to buy a new drill stand. And the 400E and 420E have a collar that fits my drill stand.
I prefer corded tools. I’m not really into DIY, so my tools are used occasionally and anything cordless would have a flat battery when I wanted to use it. My mains-powered drill always works when I want it.
A couple of years ago I tried to buy a hand-drill for the sort of jobs where I want a pilot hole for a screw and had a devil of a job finding one. In the end I hit up eBay and found a circa 1950 Stanley for £10. It works perfectly and will out-live me.
I don’t think I own any power tools, but I do have corded and cordless tools.
Sometimes I go for cordless tools for the convenience, and other times I go for corded tools if they have superior power.
The oldest corded tool(s) I have are two Black & Decker U-400 utility drills circa late 1950’s based on the near-sequential ser. #'s. Solid die-cast metal housing, heavy. Both came from my Grandfather’s auto electric shop, both work fine. I use one of them fairly often on the bench. It’s cosmetic condition is what you’d expect from a 70+ yr. old well-used power tool. The other U-400 is mostly pristine & very seldom used. Sentimental value because Grandpa.
The newest corded hand tool is a Fein Multi-Tool circa 2010 or so. Not used often, but a vibe tool works where nothing else will.
The newest corded tool overall is an electric snow shovel I bought 2 yrs. ago. Think lightweight walkbehind, push snow blower. A 120vAC, 13A beast that makes short work of my driveway & walkway to the front door for up to 10" of soft snow. It struggles some if there’s a layer of ice involved. Won’t faze the ice dam at the street after the plow passes.
Oldest battery tool is a HF drill that’s in the scrap pile 'cause the NiCad battery is NLA from HF or anywhere. The local Batteries Plus store rebuilt the NiCad battery once years ago for too many $$, but won’t do that any more. Too bad, 'cause it worked like a champ.
Newest battery tool(s) are a DeWalt drill / power driver set that came with two NiCads on closeout when LiIon was just beginning to be available. I milked the NiCads as long as possible until they lost most all capacity. I bought the DeWalt LiIon conversion kit to keep them going. Kit is f-ugly but works fine.
I only have few tools that are corded; a miter saw, two orbital sanders and dremel tool. when my next home renovation project happens, I’m definitely buying a cordless sander.
Bought a corded Makita circular saw ~24months ago.
Also bought a cheap corded SDS Plus drill about 4 months ago to dig up some concrete in the garden, works a treat.
On the cordless front, I’ve a DeWalt combi drill and recently acquired a DeWalt oscillating multi tool.
The corded Vs battery decision comes down to power and runtime require, with a balance of whether I’m going to want to turn the house electrics off before doing work (drilling into walls etc).
Except for a few cordless drills and some small tools most of my stuff is still equipped with a cable. If I had the need to buy new tools, I’d get cordless tools, preferably all with the same battery system. But most of my tools aren’t used frequently enough to justify getting new expensive stuff. Actually many of them are well past 25 years old and still work fine.
Plenty of cordless, but if you want More Power (ahr ahr ahr!), you need corded.
Borrowed my neighbor’s oscillating saw (or whatever it’s called), and it was okay for snipping thin branches close to brickwork.
Got one of my own, corded, and man, I never nudged it past minimum because it it was so powerful that I thought it’d get away from me.
Ditto with hedge trimmers (the ones that look like a sawfish’s beak). His cordless was okay, but forget about thick/woody branches. Mine was like a chainsaw in comparison.
Oh, I should add that I had that trimmer for years before. Didn’t just buy it because I saw his. I think he wanted to lend it to me on the spot only because that pine thingy I got in front was getting unruly.
The power gap between corded and battery power has really narrowed since the early days of cordless tools. Lately, about the only thing I remember a battery being short on power was tough cuts with a circular saw but many corded ones would have had a hard time doing it too.
Runtime can be a big drawback. My Dewalt angle grinder will drain a battery in less than 15 minutes.
In my life now I use corded except for having a battery drill for the luxury of it and the screws, and use it a lot, but I don’t mind plugging in the circular saw 2 or 4 times a year or the sawzall every couple of years.
