i used the pc 6″for 10 years befor the gears split up into a ziliion pieces.( sounds like eric’s did the same thing) i loved it. only reason i did not get another is the pc 7″ is now almost as light as the saw boss, an less money to. what about cordless if it s not used much?
paul
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I'm less than enamored of cordless tools. I'll use a cordless drill, I have a couple and am planning to replace the weakest of the two, but I always try to keep a corded model handy to take up the slack. Being an electrician over the years I have gotten pretty good at "borrowing" power from anything within 100 or 200' of where I'm working. I'll ask but don't hesitate to tap any panels or disconnects I can get to.
Sometimes I am too far away from power lines and have to rely on batteries. Inevitably the tools stop before the work ends. I'm planning to install an inverter on my truck to give me corded tool power on remote sites without having to tote around a generator.
The reason I'm going 6" is that it draws less current than what is provided by the inverter while still giving me a tool that will handle everything I'm likely to run into.
Maybe you can answer a question. I've had an inverter sitting under my truck seat, intending to install it to power my assortment of cordless battery chargers, but someone told me (or did I read it somewhere?) that chargers and inverters do not mix, though I don't remember why.
Any thoughts? Having a charger powered from the 12vdc truck battery would cut down on some of the extension cords at the site.
Thanks.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Depends on both the type of inverter you have and the type of charger your running. Inverters come in two flavors, modified sine wave and sine wave. There are some that split the difference but the differences still hold.
The sine wave models, usually quite a bit more expensive, run frequency sensitive loads and delicate electronics. The modified sine wave versions don't always work well with electronics and frequency dependant loads. Some chargers for the batteries of cordless tools do not take well to some modified sine wave inverters.
All this is pretty vague because it is hard to generalize. There are great differences between the compatibility of various inverters and loads. I can say that the best sine wave inverters will run just about anything. These expensive units provide power quality that rivals that provided by major utilities, very good and clean.
The question is how crude can the wave provided by the inverter, and thus how cheap the inverter can be, to effectively run what you want to run. This depends on how sensitive the device is. Delicate electronics, like some computers, can be very touchy. Other devices, like many power tools, are fairly insensitive.
How sensitive your chargers are and how good the wave form provided by your inverter is anyones guess. Check with the manufacturers. The waveform provided might, if your lucky, be printed on a specification plate on the inverter. I would call the tech support line of the manufacturer of each charger to see if they will work well on the wave form, modified sine wave or close to a true sine wave, provided by you particular inverter.
If they are unsure, not all that unlikely, you might ask what any warning signs might be if they are incompatible. Things like running hot would be expected. Careful experimentation might yield results if no real answers are offered.
Thanks for the detailed response. I'll contact DeWalt and Makita, though getting knowledgable customer service wrt compatibility might be a challenge.
Thanks again.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
it is frustrating to run out of power. i usually carry the case to the job so i have the spare battery. had pc not made the lighter 7" saw i would have gotten another 6" in a minute. 9 amps i think? should serve you well. will you add a deep cycle battery to run the inverter? paul.
Adding a battery, particularly a deep cycle, would make sense to take up surge loads. Or if I was going to run the inverter without the engine running. I plan to keep the engine going while using power. The alternator is a 95A model so the battery only needs to take up the slack.
At some later date I may add a spare battery, or two, and a battery isolator to make sure I have one to start the truck. Where all of this goes in a Ranger is anyones guess. I'm thinking two normal batteries, the inverter and a small isolator under the hood. Any additional batteries will need to go in the bed. Necessitating a battery case of some sort I suppose. All of this is just a bit more complicated than I had envisioned.