I am a carpenter and im selling all my power tools because of the different voltages. I am wondering would it be worth me taking my hand tools over or are they cheap enough to buy when I am there? If I do take them over, can not ship them as would take weeks to arrive and I would need them to start work, am I ok taking them in my suitcase?
Does anyone know of any good tool shops in Edmonton to purchase power tools, etc. Are there any websites?
Thanks in advance for advice
John

When my Dad worked on building sites (he was a chippy in the UK years ago), they had 110v for safety - if that is still true today your tools would be fine over here? Not sure about the cycles (hertz?)) though!

Perhaps someone else will throw more light on the subject

In order of probable increase in quality
Canadian Tire www.canadiantire.ca
Princess Auto (always a bit of a lottery) www.princessauto.com
Busy Bee busybeetools.ca

Guess it depends what you are after.

Sell or ship depends on the tools. Some 240V stuff can be converted, some cant.

I would bring hand tools, especially if they are good quality. Its REALLY easy to get a rush of blood to the head and figure "Oh, Ill buy new this and new that once I get there". but it soon adds up to substantial money, and you get what you pay for, cheep tools wont last. FWIW though a retired contractor / carpenter friend of our family used nothing but Canadian Tire "mastercraft" tools, and swears blind by them. I just swear at them

Hi John

My hubby's taking his handtools as he has built up rather a large collection and they are worth a lot of money and some things can't be replaced, like old planes. Why won't your power tools work over there? Dave's are all 110v for site use and he is taking all of his as they will work there.

He is going to put the hand tools in the suitcases and buy a toolbox once we arrive.

HTH
Mel

hi all or most of my power tools are cordless. i work on site full time and i use to get fed up using a generator and leads. most of my tools are dewalt and i have enough batteries to last me well over a day and just charge them up at night or at the site office in the day. i know that cordless tools are more expensive like my cordless chop saw which costed me £750

Why not bring the cordless over and just buy a 110v Charger, the batteries are the same.

Hmmmm - now I'm wondering if the connection from tool to battery pack is the same both sides of the pond - if it is; then maybe you could just get new chargers for the battery packs here?? De-Walt is a big name here.

Snap - was typing when you posted

Great minds....and then there's us

Ye Gods! How big is the battery?

Bear in mind that we are imperial over here. Stuff geared for metric may be of little use.

Also, listen to what iain said. Mastercraft & Wolfcraft = crap.

Crap, but cheap crap (almost disposable cheap), with a very generous warranty interpretation if/when it dies. (I'm on my third circular saw now...no charge)

I guess thats OK for the part timer, but when the job needs doing NOW, you dont want to be in the line up at CT replacing your circular saw I suppose.

I've had good luck with Mastercraft myself, and know people who swear by them, but its my suspicion they've been cheapened them up since the "Mastercraft Maximum" more expensive grade came along a few years ago.

A lot of the feaures of my Mastercraft drill for example seem to be only on the "maximum" now, while the regular Mastercraft looks a lot like the old Job-Mate cheapo brand used to.

Nasty.

And in general tools are cheaper here (US)

A DeWalt 18v Cordless set, Drill driver/Recip Saw/Jigsaw/Trim Saw/Lamp plus 3 batteries and 2 chargers will set you back about $US 700, not sure how that equates in Canada though.

$500CDN at "Crappy" for the Dewalt 18V drill, 18V reciprocating saw, 18V circular saw and flashlight
http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...=1160676184715

$395 for the mastercraft set with 18V Drill (with one-hour charger, case and two batteries) flashlight, orbital jigsaw, reciprocating saw and circular saw

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...=1160676184729

I'd be scared to look at how much they cost in the UK.

I'd think that if your tools are cordless the batteries will be exactly the same as those for dewalt tools here in Canada. So if you have 18v batteries in theory all you will need to do is to get hold of an 18v charger here and you are sorted.