What Did You Buy Today?

12'x6.5' 10klb dump trailer.
Already used it to haul 10 loads of snow out of my driveway to help speed breakup along. :)

 

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Sigh. I sold my 6" Craftsman to my friend Brian, and spotted this as I was waiting for him to come pick it up. I was the first person to contact him with anything other than "is it still available" and he held the deal for me. Pratt and Whitney #3 benchtop miller. I will live in the back of my truck for at least until tomorrow afternoon, but it will be dry the whole time (not that it matters with the condition it is in) and then I will have time to disassemble it to get the weight down to a manageable level.
 
We can’t even buy a new Stihl in California. It is total nonsense. The only thing we can buy is an electric chain saw. It is ok if you are a homeowner with one tree to prune. What do you do if you have two hundred acres to prune.
To save the planet you haul around a gasoline generator to power the chainsaw?

I have a plug in electric on a pole for use around the house. Wouldn’t want to have the weight of a gas saw on the end of the pole. My hurricane emergency chainsaw is gasoline. They have to be gas powered.
 
i bought what ended up being a counterfeit 6" mitutoyo digital caliper off craigslist today, its accurate, and i really only paid double what the same hf woulda cost me but now i know what to look for
Happened to me, too, though with a vernier caliper. I use the fake, but I also have a real Mitutoyo that is better in every way. I was refunded for the fake and told to keep it. Might as well—keeps them from selling it to some other sucker.

One good bump and it won’t be accurate—good bumps were how they adjusted it in the first place.

Rick “stays away from used Mitutoyo—too many fakes” Denney
 
To save the planet you haul around a gasoline generator to power the chainsaw?

I have a plug in electric on a pole for use around the house. Wouldn’t want to have the weight of a gas saw on the end of the pole. My hurricane emergency chainsaw is gasoline. They have to be gas powered.
I have a couple Echo DPAS 2600SB power heads with a number of attachments for trimming, pruning edging, and hedge trimming. The power head with the 17" string trimmer attachment and a 2 AH battery weighs 10.2 lbs. With the 5AH battery it weighs12.4 lbs. I also have a Toro 51918 18" gas powered brush cutter/trimmer. It only weighs 12.5 lbs.

The electric trimmers are easiest to use for the small jobs in that you can just grab them and go. However, they don't have the power or stamina of the gas powered one. The gas one will work a couple hours and only have to stop for 5 minutes to refill the tank. It takes at least half an hour to charge the smaller batteries for the electric trimmers, and over an hour for the larger ones.

I also have a gas-powered Husqvarna 550 chainsaw with a 28", and an Echo cordless one with an 18" bar. The Husqvarna weighs in at 11.7 lbs. and the Echo weighs in at 12.7 lbs. with the 2.5 AH battery and 14.9 lbs. with the 5.0 AH battery.

My conclusion is that the "cordless" power equipment is the same or more weight than comparable gas models, and they have an operating window of less than half the gas-powered machines.

Don't even get me started on electric walk behind or riding mowers. Several neighbors have them and can't even finish mowing their yard before the batteries go dead. My little JD445 will run circles around them and cut grass all day long without a break.
 
One advantage of battery powered lawn equipment, that probably doesn't apply to anyone on this board, is that the battery equipment takes less mechanical know-how to keep running long term. My brother likes it for that reason, and it is total appropriate for him.
 
One advantage of battery powered lawn equipment, that probably doesn't apply to anyone on this board, is that the battery equipment takes less mechanical know-how to keep running long term. My brother likes it for that reason, and it is total appropriate for him.

I use a battery powered trimmer and blower and have been happy with them. They are light, good enough for what I'm using them for, and work well. For a pro, probably not great. For a home guy, lots of good uses for them. And I'd rather rebuild battery packs than the ridiculous tiny engine carbs with tiny holes getting clogged all the time thanks to emissions laws.

I haven't tried the bigger tools like mowers or snowblowers. I have existing gas versions that I'm planning to use till I can't fix them anymore. Sounds like it's very dependent on your particular needs, but they generally have good reviews. The older battery tools kinda sucked, but the modern ones seem pretty good for a lot of uses. I do wish governments would let them improve and take over organically though. They aren't able to do everything yet. They might get there, but pushing them too fast will make people reject them.
 
One more thing to mention about battery garden tools, then we should move on....

If your wife is like mine, refueling (especially with premix) is a non-starter. Also, pull starting difficult machines is also a no-go. Swapping a battery is easy and "clean" so even if the lawn only gets half mowed at a pop it's a win for me that either of us can do the job.

We no longer have the lawn or the mower but the Greenworks unit we had would get it done if both batteries were charged. Now, if only they had a self refilling weed whipper ;)

John
 
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