“Power to the People!”

Its spring and a self-isolating, compulsory imprisoned, (young) man’s fancy turns to the garden and those DIY tasks. “I’m just going to the shed, my love, and I may be some time”.

My shed was a mess and a bit of a museum of different generations of power and garden tools. I have two hovers and a fairly substantial electric Wolf “drag you along” mower. We no longer have much grass as it was getting too much work to bother with. Paved most of it. When it gets long it’s easier to use a strimmer.

I decided to tidy up my shed so I could actually get to things and create a workbench for my projects. Here’s Before and After:-

On the left of the After photo you can see some power tools and that is the main subject of my article. I once bought a wonderful Ryobi metal stick with hedge cutter (multiple angles), strimmer (metal disc or nylon) and a chainsaw (never used). It’s too heavy and does my back in. Getting older with the recent six months out of action with sciatica I needed tools that were lightweight. For convenience I didn’t want to keep dragging out the extension lead and running it around objects in the garden. Also, with Harvey the Black Lab I didn’t want to worry what the cable brushed over.

I went Battery in a big way.

From left to right:-

Einhell Blower – very lightweight and surprisingly powerful.

Worx Strimmer – powerful and bump nylon feed.

Einhell Grout between the patio paving – a spinning abrasive wheel that digs out the grass and weeds.

My shed is full of battery chargers (Li-Ion of course):-

In this photo I have two Einhell chargers and two for Worx equipment. I also have a cordless Einhell sander.

On my workbench I have more:-

Here I have:-

Black and Decker – Drill/Hammer/Screwdriver (2)

Worx – ZEN garden shears (has three attachments)

Worx – Multi-purpose cordless saw. (My absolute favourite tool)

The reason I have so many chargers and batteries is due to some purchases coming with an additional charger and battery.

These tools deserve special mention. The B&D drills are the best I’ve ever used. Tremendous torque. I’ve had a battery in one for nine months and it still functioned at full power whenever I used it. I found a cheap spare without a battery which is why I have two. One with a drill bit and one with a screw bit.

On the screw bit I have a magnetic screw holder known as “Magnet Driver B50 Screw Holder Magnetic Attachment Set” (from Amazon and others).

It comes in a set of five to fit drill bits of different sizes and Philips screwdrivers. Recommended.

Finally I would like to feature the Worx cordless saw. Most fun I’ve had with a battery powered tool (!).

Here’s a close-up:-

Worx multi-purpose saw – By Lugosi for Going Postal 2020

Note it isn’t called a “jigsaw” because it does more than that. Is that blade facing the wrong way? No! The genius of this saw is that it rotates so that the blade is in line with the saw body. It rotates by 90 degrees.

It turned me into a lumberjack. I have a buddleia that was out of control. Some branches were 30 foot high with thick branches. No problem. The saw took them down with ease. It comes with two wood saw blade sizes.

Here are some branches. I have cut some growth that was even thicker:-

We no longer need cables. The Li-Ion batteries seem to have changed the way we do our DIY and gardening. I find I am more likely to do a task if all I have to do is grab the tool and slot in the battery.
 

© Lugosi 2020
 

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