Thread: Cordless Platform Advice

I went to totaltools because its walking distance from home. But since it came up, here is some info.

Totaltools was sued in 2020 by Sydney tools for using an ex staff password to obtain commercially sensitive emails and use them to their advantage. The CEO of totaltools was directly involved. I dont know what the outcome of this is.
Totaltools is a franchise based system owned by a conglomerate. Metcash owns the big share of the company along with Mitre 10 and Home Hardware and IGA.

Sydneytools is owned by the Bey family entirely.

If big corporate bothers you (it should) then you can buy metcash shares and think of this as making returns for mum and dad investors

I would imagine that the local staff are what makes any of these better than the other in terms of experience. But when looking at these tools, Sydneytools had a much wider range IMO. My local Totaltools is half staffed by kids who dont know much about the tools and half by people who are very vocal about the tools but i doubt they use them much.

BTW, i love this drill and driver. the feel and size is spot on and i have no idea how i have been using old drills on screws all these years...impact driver is a-mazing! Thanks for the tips!

For queenslanders and possibly others by mail order there is the third option, Trade Tools. Head office is here in Brisbane. Been there for decades. As far as I know they are still privately owned. I believe they started by building their own compressors then branched out into tools. The staff are ok, the prices as per total tools etc.


2c.


TradeTools | Huge Range, Great Service

I've read the thread with interest.

Wwaaaayyy back in Dec 2014 I bought the Makita Combo 18v kit.

It was $369 (according to my spreadsheet). It came with two 3Ah batteries and a charger. I have to admit I'm a bit amazed at the date I bought it.... Its still 100% excellent and I've used it a lot.

The hammer driver is incredible. I've used this for 90mm bugle-headed bolts into hardwood, fixing about 50 metres of ancient fencing that was held up more by screws and wire than timber, and a zillion projects. Its powerful.

Have to say the batteries seem to be in great condition still. The drills have no apparent wobble, gremlins or idiosyncrasies.

I was pretty mazed to see the equivalent kit, in brushless, sells for $329... not bad! (but only one 5Ah battery).

It has long been on my mind to pick up a second or third drill, for as others have said here, its mighty convenient not to be swapping out bits and extensions while working. I've often found that having two drill bits and a chamfer bit simultaneously loaded would have been mighty convenient!


On extras, I recently bought the new Makita 1/4" palm router (DRT50Z)... LOVE IT.... and been thinking seriously about the small circular saw for doing sheet stock while its still on the trailer. Power points and extension cord availability where I live ATM is unavailable.... (new unit blocks are a bloody PITA).

I'd 100% recommend the Makita.


BTW, I'm surprised the Metcash deal for Total Tools is so small....

The owners of the Mitre 10 Home Improvement Chain in Australia, Metcash (IHG) has entered the final stage of negotiations to acquire 70 per cent of Total Tools Holdings (TTH), for $57 million, with an option to acquire the remaining stake at a later date

and this from my ASX feed:

Metcash Limited (ASX:MTS) today advises that it has increased its ownership in Total Tools Holdings Pty
Limited (TTH or Total Tools) from 70% to 85% for an acquisition cost of $59.4 million.


TTH is the franchisor to the largest professional tools network in Australia with 90 bannered stores across
Australia, and it is complementary to Metcash’s Independent Hardware Group. Total Tools has a history
of strong performance, and this has continued since Metcash acquired its 70% stake in September last
year with the business contributing EBIT of $24 million for the eight months ended 30 April 2021.


Metcash has also increased its debt facility to TTH from $40 million to $65 million. TTH has significant
growth opportunities and this increase, together with a portion of the consideration for the additional
15% holding, is expected to help fund TTH’s growth plan as outlined at Metcash’s Investor Day held in
March this year. This includes expansion of the store network and the acquisition of an ownership interest
in a select number of stores.


Metcash continues to have a pathway to full ownership of TTH towards the end of FY24 with put and call
arrangements in place.

I'm a bit surprised by the structure of this deal. As always, the bizdevs and CEO are playing with Other Peoples Money.

Not so great on the debt. Looks to be a David Jones....

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Price wise I have found ST and TT to be identical. They will actually check prices while you are at the register and then match them. My local TT beats ST hands down for service

Yes the advertised prices are usually dollar for dollar but when in store ST will often trim another $10-15 off a skin and have discounted Consumables including Festool ones
Maybe they only do it for tradies for repeat business I don’t know but I have no complaints with them. I actually have to drive past TT to get to my local ST. Both stores seem staffed with equally knowledgeable people.

If I stopped to think about who to buy from I probably wouldn't buy much, so I tend to give my meagre custom to stores that provide some form of service whether its on-line or in the store. There are 3 local TT stores that I have dealt with in the last few years. Their service varies quite markedly from good to poor so I haven't been back to that one.

As far as cordless power tools go I ended up buying most of my Makita skins from Bunnings. I worked out what I wanted by looking at the Makita website and found prices were pretty much the same everywhere but as I had a trade card at the time I got it for a few cents cheaper at bunnings. There was only one they didn't have in stock at the time and had to be done s a special order but it came in quickly enough.

Was ready to chime in with a couple of points here but the OP has his answers and has acted upon them. I went with Makita 18V about a month after it arrived in USA, and about 2 years before it appeared on our shores. Have never had an issue with them, despite all of my gear coming from the US way ahead of the particular product making its way here. When we packed to move 7 years ago, all my batteries were charged and packed, hoping that I would have a workshop and access to the gear within about a year. Six years later, I got everything into the new shed (long story, not allowed to build shop before getting COO for the house, issues with first builder unable to work from floor drawings and detailed statement of requirements, move to a different builder, legal issues with first builder, slower than expected build etc). About the first thing I hunted for was the Mak chargers and batteries, anticipating placing a fairly large order for new batteries. To my surprise, I cycled all 8 batteries through chargers and all were fully charged within five minutes each, and have done a power of work since and I believe that they did not suffer from six years in storage.

I haven't been looking for new tools for some time, but a few years ago, Bunnings had their own Makita product range, not listed on the Mak web site, not available anywhere else, just to dodge their lowest price obligation. Others had extremely similar looking and specced products, often cheaper, but the model numbers were different and Bunnings wouldn't honour the price promise unless it was for an item with the same model number. So effectively they had an an exclusive range, similar to their deal with Ryobi to be an exclusive outlet.

A lot of people like the larger capacity batteries. I understand their reasoning if they are doing repetitive jobs in the open, but I prefer the smaller/lighter batteries like 1.5AH when working in tight confines as the tools are lighter and easier to get into restricted spaces.

Originally Posted by malb

I haven't been looking for new tools for some time, but a few years ago, Bunnings had their own Makita product range, not listed on the Mak web site, not available anywhere else, just to dodge their lowest price obligation. Others had extremely similar looking and specced products, often cheaper, but the model numbers were different and Bunnings wouldn't honour the price promise unless it was for an item with the same model number. So effectively they had an an exclusive range, similar to their deal with Ryobi to be an exclusive outlet. .

When I looked in 2019?, all the Makita 18V drill skins on the bunnings website were also on the current Makita Website and I just checked again and it appears to be still be the case. I have occasionally seen drills in kits (drill / driver/battery) at bunnings that were not on the Makita website. Not sure what they were but in one case it was just an older model. There are of course many more models available than are in stock at any bunnings store but they will usually get them in for you although the price might not be as good as elsewhere and these special orders don't attract their price match guarantee.

If you're talking about the price, I think Total Tools is a franchise system so purchasing shares in the franchisor doesn't mean you're getting the stores and their stock and businesses themselves, but ownership of the entity that runs the system and clips the ticket for all the stores.

One thing I don't think most people are aware of is just how easy it is to repack these batteries.

They use a common-as-dirt format called 18650's

Here is a video on how to replace your batteries when/if they die....


Edit - didn't mention. This video highlights an expensive as hell battery spot welder. A $50 jobbie off Amazon will do this just fine. Nickel strips are super cheap on AliExpress.

P.S. I thought to add this video as battery gear is everywhere now. I see a SHOCKING number of packs tossed. There must be a business in repacking these....

WoodPixel, thanks for the recommendation on the trim router. Ordered one today from Total Tools. They have an amazing deal where you get 20% of the amount spent as store credit for today only. Credit has a short life, but was too good to go past. Worth looking into. Online orders included.

cheers,

ajw

I know you have bought the tool already but makita was a good choice if you say you do some yard stuff. At the moment they have the most extensive range of garden equipment. Got a cordless chain saw and its so nice not having to smell 2 stroke and its quiet. Prob not suitable for professionals but for home use its great.

I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts but Ive had dewalt 18v NiMH, and 2 different bosch blues (one of the early ones when li ion was new and then a brushless one a few years old) 18v cordless drills and the thing that breaks is the chuck! The dewalt had a jacobs chuck and both the bosch had rohm. The jacobs chuck had a really hard life so I happy with how long it lasted but both the Rohm chucks in the bosch are not great. the brushed bosch chuck died but before that every now and then it would lock up and make a high pitch sound. It died eventually - maybe 10 years? Maybe Im asking too much. The bosch that is newer makes the same sound but hasnt died yet.

I know the higher end makitas use yukiwa chucks - I had a quick play with one in the store and it is SUPER smooth to operate. Interested to hear about its longevity if anyone has comparison to other brands.