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I'm a new home owner. I need to do some fence work. I want to build some shelves. Do some outdoor landscaping. Fix stuff that needs fixing (the house is more than 25 years old, previous owner jerry rigged a bunch of stuff). I'll hire a specialist for the blow up/flood/burn down your house if you get it wrong kind of stuff.

Currently I have a generic toolbox with screw drivers/hammer/pliers/wrench bits and a power drill. This allows me to get most assembly and some minor fixing done.

I'm considering buying a cordless power tool kit which includes

  • Circular Saw
  • Drill Driver
  • Impact Driver
  • Multi-Tool
  • Reciprocating Saw
  • Worklight

The kit comes with a battery, I already have one, and I plan on picking a couple spares, so theoretically I should never run out of juice.

There is a series of nailers(finish/brad/staple) with a built in air compressor which work with the 18v battery, so I considered picking up the finisher (pop, pop, pop, pop, new pickets and a few shelves, done).

For generic fix your home kind of stuff, what would get me the most bang for my buck? The finisher would join together most stuff, but my research indicates that stuff built/repaired that way tends to fall apart quick. Of the stuff in the combo kit, the Impact Driver would probably keep stuff together better, but there is a time penalty (I guess?). So long as I do a counter sink first and putty the hole, there should be much structural(cracking) or cosmetic issues?

I'm leaning towards the kit, since I think I would be able to get more use out of it after I take an intro to woodworking class, and it only cost 50 bucks more than the finisher.

EDIT: I wasn't sure if it was okay to post tool brands but it looks like its okay from the answer and comments. The combo kit is from home depot, same with the finishing nailer

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  • toolguyd.com/is-dewalt-phasing-out-18v-tools-and-batteries
    – Mazura
    Sep 29, 2014 at 5:04
  • @Mazura thanks for the info, the combo i'm talking about is not dewalt. homedepot.com/p/…
    – ton.yeung
    Sep 29, 2014 at 18:06
  • My 2 cents: If it doesn't say Bosh, Hilti, Milwaukee, or Dewalt I wouldn't buy it. I avoid Makita and Ryobi like the plague.
    – Mazura
    Sep 29, 2014 at 22:49
  • @Mazura Can you elaborate? Most everyone I know uses Makita. Some of them are small time contractors. The rest of the people I know with power tools use Ryobi. I haven't heard of anyone with any particular problems.
    – ton.yeung
    Sep 30, 2014 at 5:56
  • My experience with them was long ago, I'm sure they've improved. At that price point, that's actually not a bad set. Having used all of them, I guess I settled on these brands, at the time they all came of age. Just be sure you respect the manufacturer, you're going to be buying more tools and batteries, ect from them.
    – Mazura
    Sep 30, 2014 at 6:33

2 Answers 2

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Impact drivers are great tools if you ever want to drive screws; they are far easier to use for this than drills are. I think a finish nailer is a bit more of a niche item; you can use it to put up trim (baseboard, casing, that kind of thing), but you can't use it for anything structural as the nails aren't big enough.

I've owned two Makita impact drivers and have been happy with them, though mine are from the pro line and I don't know about the quality of the combo kits.

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If the impact driver is similar to this, then it is basically a impact screwdriver. They are very helpful for driving large/long screws and significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to drive a screw.

The kit is a great idea if you have the money to invest and are going to have projects to use the various tools on.

If you are going to be buying this new, i would look at the variety of tools for that particular battery, and try to maximize the number of tools that you can run with one power system. Also look at the lithium battery powered tools as they are much lighter than NiCad or NiMh batteries.

It is a little bit hard to tell from your question, but if you are contemplating buying a pneumatic nail gun at this stage, don't! Unless you plan on building lots of cabinetry or putting moulding in your house, then it is a waste of money at this point. Most of the projects you talked about in your question would work much better with screws anyways and dragging a pneumatic hose around is a pain. thats why you are going cordless in the first place right.

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  • I've added the links to the products I was thinking about. They're 18v lithium ion. All the products (including the nailers) are cordless. The nailers sound like they're pneumatic, but without dragging along a compressor.
    – ton.yeung
    Sep 29, 2014 at 18:10

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