I Love Worx Tools

In prior posts I’ve written a love letter to the S&P 500 and one to Costco. Love is a strong word, but the S&P 500 has proven to be a tremendous wealth-builder over the last 100 years. And Costco has had tremendous success as a business while treating its customers, employees, and its suppliers and business partners well.

Why Now?

So why am I sitting down today to pen my love letter to Worx?

Yesterday I was working on an outdoor dining table. The table-top is 10 feet long and uses 2 inch thick pressure treated boards. It takes some serious horsepower to cut them.

In the past, I’ve used my Bosch circular saw, which is a great tool, but I despise it. It’s loud, it’s heavy, and the cord always seems to be in the way. I tend to avoid using it if there is any alternative.

Last black friday, I bought myself a gift – What the heck? I deserve it, right? Here it is.

The Worx saw weighs about half of what the Bosch weighs. This is a big deal for maneuverability, especially for us older dudes. It never feels like its getting away from me. It’s quite a bit quieter, and no cord. I’m no longer adjusting the cord in the middle of a cut. It’s a delight.

Clever

And the people at Worx are clever. Have you ever been frustrated while cutting something with the circular saw? You’re using a guide to make sure your lines are straight, but the saw has a base plate that extends beyond the saw blade so you need to measure an inch or 2 outside your cut line to secure the guide.

I measure multiple times and never get this right. And then I end up unsure about which mark is for the cut line and which is for the guide, so I start all over. And then the cut is wrong.

The good folks at Worx solved this with the exactrack. The red part of the base plate flips up. I can attach my guide on the exact line I want to cut. The blade cuts the board while the exactrack piece rides along the top of the guide. It’s much more exciting in real life or on the video here.

I’ve never seen this on another saw. It’s pretty amazing. We’ll get to some other clever Worx ideas in a bit.

Getting Married to a Tool Brand

“Love and marriage, love and marriage”. Hold on for a sec, I’m going to stream an episode of married with children.

When we start a relationship with a battery-powered tool maker, we’re in it for the long haul. Each tool comes with a battery and a charger. It’s best to stick with one brand so that we can use the same batteries and charger for all of our tools. 90% of my battery powered tools are Worx, but I have a Dewalt drill and impact hammer and a Greenworks backpack leaf blower which means I have 3 different sets of batteries and 3 different chargers. Manageable but not ideal.

But I’ve got over a dozen battery powered tools. Imagine if I had a dozen different batteries and chargers??

Also, with Worx, I now sometimes buy the bare tool version. It’s cheaper and comes without the battery or charger. I already have lots.

So, when buying a battery powered tool, it pays to think about the brand’s full line-up and choose a brand that you’ll be happy with in the long run.

The Saw was Cool, How About the Drill?

The Worx drill was one of my first Worx battery powered tool purchases. To say my wife and I do a lot of projects is a huge understatement. We’ve done hardwood flooring, we’ve (mostly my wife) made custom cabinets, we’ve built that custom outdoor dining table and some benches, and some decks, and some…it goes on and on. And once you build them, you maintain them. I was replacing deck boards yesterday.

So yeah, we spend a lot of time with our tools.

But I know…everyone has a cordless drill. It’s usually the first tool we buy. It’s a necessity, and to be honest, we already had a fantastic Dewalt cordless drill when I bought the Worx. But let me show you why.

This is brilliant.

See the little red button right above the black trigger? You pull that towards you, and you can rotate the bit. You have your drill bit installed to drill pilot holes and you have your screwdriver bit to drive the screw. No more hunting for the drill bit and pulling on the collar to pop out one and replace with the other.

Also pretty cool if, like me, you use whatever screws are available and some are phillips head and others torx. Put both bits in the drill and rotate between the 2.

But Wait, There’s More

The drill was a gift for my wife. We won’t go down that road today.

But while shopping, I also bought a little something for myself. I’m not the most dextrous (there’s a big word) person in the world. I have trouble with buttons in odd places, and forget about tying the strings behind the neck in the johnny I have to wear at the doctor’s.

So it’s sometimes a challenge for me to hold a small screw while drilling. You too? Fear not, Worx has you covered.

This one needs 2 pics.

It’s small and has a 4 volt rechargeable internal battery. The little gizmo on the front holds the screw. Brilliant!

Others have tried to accomplish this with magnetic bits. That never works. I always bump the drill and the screw drops to the floor.

And it has a cartridge inside the barrel with all the different heads you may need – standard, phillips, torx…the barrel rotates, so no need to pull it out. A quick turn changes from torx to phillips.

Shake It

On this one, Worx hasn’t got anything up on other brands, but I have to give honorable mention to the tool itself.

Years ago, my wife and I were installing hardwood flooring. I mentioned to a neighbor that I was having trouble cutting the base of the door moldings to accommodate the (higher) new flooring.

Alan came by with an oscillating tool. He took a piece of flooring, flipped it over so he wouldn’t scuff the top, and placed the oscillating tool blade on top and neatly severed the bottom of the molding at the exact right height.

I was amazed. I’d never seen this tool before. I immediately bought one for myself and several relatives. Here it is.

Once you have one, you can’t imagine how you lived without. It can cut in places you couldn’t get to with any other tool. It has a flat blade so it makes an even depth cut unlike any rounded blade.

And it also has a sanding pad attachment and a scraper.

It will change your life.

Inventory

I’ll review my inventory. All of these (unless noted otherwise) share the same battery and charger. The ones that don’t are corded.

• Circular saw
• Drill
• Oscillating Tool
• Polisher/Buffer
• Cordless vacuum
• Lawn Mower (has king-sized batteries, but Yup)
• Cordless Sander (larger sanding pad than the oscillating tool)
• 18 gauge brad nailer and staple gun (battery powered, no need to fire up the compressor)
• Shrub trimmer
• Weed wacker (comes with unlimited replacement spools – just call or replacement)
• Chainsaw (and yes, it can take down a 6-inch diameter tree with ease)
• Powerwasher (not really much better than the hose. This is the turkey of the bunch)
• Leaf Blower/Mulcher/Vacuum (corded but simply vaccuum and mulch leaves – how cool!)
  • Attachment to blow mulched leaves into a trash bin instead of shoulder bag
• Screwdriver (the one above that has the internal battery)
• Standalone leaf mulcher (corded)
• Work Table (not powered, but really cool)

Work Table

This is awesome.

The clamps detach so you can have a flat work surface, but they are a great pair of extra hands to hold a heavy board in place while you cut or sand. The plastic plugs can also be removed, but help hold workpieces in place. It’s light but sturdy and folds up small. I use it as a stand for my mitre saw when it’s not used for a million other purposes.

One More

Here’s a bonus. Thanks to neighbor Alan.

May 17. I got this for myself as a birthday present. Yay me!

Ever try to wrestle a long heavy board while trying to run it through the table saw, or while trying to make a nice straight cut with a mitre saw? I have enough to worry about with the spinning blade, I don’t need to be supporting a heavy board.

This tool adjusts to different heights and has a roller on top. Set it up behind the table saw and run a long heavy board straight through with ease. Set it up aside the mitre saw to hold the board at the correct height to ensure a square cut.

It’s not from Worx, but as I think about life-changing tools, this one makes the list.

Turkeys

While the Worx team has knocked it out of the park with most of their items, I still am attracted to various time-savers that look good but never really pan out. I had high hopes for this universal socket. Not made by Worx!!!

How cool, put this in the toolbox and never worry about standard v. metric or working on several different sizes at once. Brilliant.

Great idea but not so great execution. Used once.

Wrap Up

Do it yourself can be fun and with Youtube, we can handle almost anything. My wife and I enjoy DIY though we will admit that we’ve gone a little overboard.

Having the right tools is key. I keep an eye on what Alan is doing nextdoor because he has some pretty clever tools.

Let us know if you’ve discovered a must-have tool.