Away from mains power.

[doug748]

What is the best way of powering hand power tools? I have a 450 watt belt sander and intend to buy a cheap random orbital sander as well, probably need at least an hours use, or more, each visit I could:

a) Buy an inverter and use the car battery plus back up batteries

b) Buy a small generator (probably secondhand) and use that

c) Buy new cordless tools and recharge at home, or in the car?

I am not keen on any of the options for various reasons. What does the team think, what do you do?

.

 

[B27]

Depends on the job in hand.
A lot of work can be done with manually powered hand tools.
Some workpieces can be moved to where the mains is available,
I have a very long mains lead, I can barter for power.
I use cordless drills.
I have a small inverter which I could use.
Worst case, I can probably borrow a generator

Plan the winter jobs around the facilities available.
Next winter I might take the boat where power is available and do some jobs which aren't worth doing the hard way.

 

[andyb28]

Borrow a generator is probably the easiest option.

I have a 2kw Honda and can run tools / hoover etc off it.

 

[Neeves]

Depends what you are doing and the location.

We had and have an inverter so I can use the same tools I use at home (and do not need to have 2 sets of tools, one mains, one battery. But I do have a small B&D hand, battery, drill. Battery drills mean you should really buy from one manufacturer so you can use the same batteries. The one manufacturer may not have all the tools you want or like. The inverter can be useful for other tasks, boiling a kettle. Some tasks need 'better' tools - a hand drill cannot replace a good bench drill. An inverter needs a decent battery

Horses for courses.

Its an impossible question to answer without more information. Location, Location, your bank balance, what do you actually want to do......

Jonathan

 

[bedouin]

"Hours or more" means it has to be mains powered. Batteries are great for things like drills that require only a few minutes use but not for tools.

Best option is probably a "suitcase generator"

Alternatively find somewhere that has a power hookup for the days when you are doing a lot of work

 

[doug748]

Anyone had any luck with inverters and power tools? Something like this seems attractive:

1500W Car Power Inverter DC 12V to AC 220V Converter Modified Pure Sine Wave UK | eBay

However some people have reported them unreliable and there is a lot of nonsense in some of the ads. Do they ever work for what I have in hand?

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Anyone had any luck with inverters and power tools? Something like this seems attractive:

1500W Car Power Inverter DC 12V to AC 220V Converter Modified Pure Sine Wave UK | eBay

However some people have reported them unreliable and there is a lot of nonsense in some of the ads. Do they ever work for what I have in hand?

If its really for hours at a time you need to lug a spare car battery around or run it use with running car engine. Certainly we never had much joy of inverters and have several unwanted in loft. A small suitcase gen is probably your best bet for extensive works and one can even hire them - though it may be just as cheap to buy and resell.

 

[Poignard]

How about Ryobi cordless tools and this to re-charge the batteries from the boat or car 12v supply?

https://uk.ryobitools.eu/batteries-...-chargers/18v-one-chargers/rc18118c/rc18118c/

 

[doug748]

Interesting. The Ryobi option looks good but could work out pricey for spare batteries and associated kit. I may end up doing it in the end.

I have located a used cheap Chinese generator, of the worst sort, and will see how I get on. Sometimes cheap stuff surprises, I got 15 hard years out of a basic two stroke strimmer I bought secondhand for twenty quid. Will report back.

.

 

[MontyMariner]

Buy an inverter and use the car battery plus back up batteries

Using car battery suggests you don't have a boat battery or not much of one!
Is the job being done on a boat?
If it's on land then using the car battery and decent jump leads is a possibility providing you don't run the car battery down and can't start the car.
Personally, I would use a generator, but make sure that it's up to the job, a true 1kW should be adequate as some only push out 850 watts which might not be sufficient.

 

[Stemar]

Cordless drills, at least the good ones, tend to have a pretty decent battery life, as their use is intermittent. I haven't used cordless sanders, but would expect the battery life to be limited, as they tend to be used continuously for a fair while. Running a sander for 15 minutes won't seem like long, but 15 minutes of actual drilling or screwing will be more like an hour or more's actual work.

 

[Wansworth]

The Shiphappens crew see to work normally with an inverter connected to solar panels and batteries

In a small place like a yacht working with hand tools and sanding by hand creates less dust etc

 

[Rappey]

I have most cordless tools which have replaced the mains powered versions.
Planer, sds drill, impact driver, drills, multi tool, angle grinder, jig saw..... some of these perform better than the 240v they replaced with plenty enough run time to do the job in hand.
18v Random orbital sander - it works well and goes for a long time , but.. it struggle a little with p40 and p60 zirconium grit due to lack of power so i tend to use a 450w mains for larger sanding jobs.
I borrowed a mains random orbital which was less than 200w and it used 17 amps through the invertor.
For lots of sanding i would suggest you need either a good battery bank and invertor and some way of recharging or 240v mains from a generator .

 

[ylop]

What is the best way of powering hand power tools? I have a 450 watt belt sander and intend to buy a cheap random orbital sander as well, probably need at least an hours use, or more, each visit I could:

a) Buy an inverter and use the car battery plus back up batteries

b) Buy a small generator (probably secondhand) and use that

c) Buy new cordless tools and recharge at home, or in the car?

I am not keen on any of the options for various reasons. What does the team think, what do you do?

.

B - is the easiest option.
A - provides flexibility to reuse battery and or inverter on the boat if you wanted to
C - is fine if you can live with one charge per day or buy spare batteries (expensive). You won’t charge most batteries from a car in the time it takes you to deplete 1 battery.

There is an option D which you’ve not mentioned which are lithium batteries with an inverter built in. They are more expensive than a cheap generator but less maintenance/hassle. There are some big brands Bluetti etc - but many cheap copies - beware misleading specs on the copies they seem to jumble A, Ah, W, Wh, mA, mAh etc. if you want an hour of power tools that might work, if it could be 4 hours then you’d probably need such a big one that only a real generator would be sensible.

 

[Seven Spades]

How big is your boat? The Victron Quattro is a brilliant shore-power/charger and inverter system and will provide for all your boat needs. You could add to the an isolator for added safety.

 

[Kelpie]

Corded tools are cheaper and more powerful than cordless. I would vote for a generator.

(Of course if it's just a bit of drilling and light sanding, cordless will be much more pleasant to work with. But anything involving grinding is a different story, battery life measured in minutes).

 

[billskip]

I am not keen on any of the options for various reasons. What does the team think, what do you do?

Invent a windup clockwork one.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

What is the best way of powering hand power tools? I have a 450 watt belt sander and intend to buy a cheap random orbital sander as well, probably need at least an hours use, or more, each visit I could:

a) Buy an inverter and use the car battery plus back up batteries

b) Buy a small generator (probably secondhand) and use that

c) Buy new cordless tools and recharge at home, or in the car?

I am not keen on any of the options for various reasons. What does the team think, what do you do?

.

I bought a 5kVA generator on here, typical frame type that you see in Machinemart. I used it for 3 years on a refit powering lights and tools. The generator solution based on my experience worked for me, it was used a lot, quite productive. Downside, it is loud and the voltage is not clean on the basic type of machines. In my case, all the power tools worked well. The flexibility of an extension lead, power tools, heaters, vacuum cleaners and portable lights all running from the generator was a boost in the darker evenings. Very easy to sell on as well, always a demand for generators.

I would recommend the generator, loads on the market new and second hand at fair prices.

For example Petrol Driven Generators - Frame Mounted - Machine Mart

 

[B27]

Down side of a generator is it needs shelter and security and takes up space.
Also the noise and fumes may not endear you to the neighbours etc.
Some places it's OK, others it's not.

It's not an efficient solution to the small jobs where you might be using a light and 50W of tools.

It really comes down to what work you need to do.
Sometimes the proper answer is to move the boat to suitable facilities, or buy a boat which doesn't need industrial work done on it.

 

[wallacebob]

I bought a 2200kw Machinemart genny, used for £50. Perfect, that’s the minimum power to run a grinder/polisher/heater/etc. It’s not lightweight; two handed lug. Reasonable quiet, has economy mode. Use E5 fuel to guarantee starting, and change the plug.