When you look at carpentry tool reviews, cordless sanders may not seem like a first choice. Even so, tools like the Makita orbital sanders and others have made incredible strides. Some of our guys swear by them as they save tons of time in setup. Another unusual tool that has taken off is the cordless finish nailer. Now, Milwaukee, Makita, Senco, and others have tools in this growing category. With these tools, you can get in and out without using a compressor or dragging an air hose. Our carpentry-focused reviews include best cordless circular saws, best compact miter saws, best orbital sanders, best nail guns, hand tools, and other woodworking tools. In carpentry, quality, convenience, and portability are key. A lot of times you deal with built-ins or other locations where you need everything on-hand. Newer cordless tools are helping, and so are advances in hand tools to do more with less. Above all, quality tools make the difference, so every tool gets a thorough exam against those high standards.
The Ryobi HPL51K electric hand planer is a budget tool that includes some very nice features such as a left/right dust ejection dial, adjustable depth knob and blade-protecting kick stand. This tool really enables easy planning of uneven surfaces – up to 3/32″ in a single cut – and even performs edge and rabbet cuts with the included edge guide.
The Black & Decker JS515 4.5 amp Jigsaw can be found for a reasonable “street” price and offers reliable, if simplistic performance. The saw is your basic model and certainly doesn’t feature many frills besides tool-less changing of both universal and t-shank blades and a handy magnetic storage area for up to 3 blades. If you can find it on sale you may have a deal, but paying retail isn’t something we’d recommend for this model.
Husky, the Home Depot house brand, has some very nice value-oriented knife packages. With their value pricing, the Husky utility […]
