homefixated.com: What do you get when you cross an evil robotic giant squid with the power of Ryobi’s 18-Volt ONE+ platform? You get a tool that cuts chains, bolts, locks, fencing and metal rod up to 3/8″ diameter (1/4” for hardened steel) with the press of a button. All while making you feel like you’re wielding some sort of video game energy weapon. The Ryobi 18V bolt cutter makes butter of what could otherwise be a tiring job.
5 comments:
As a wee fellow, I am always glad to learn about a tool that makes it substantially easier to do any given task. For $100, this bolt cutter could save a lot of pain. That said, I still have some questions after reading the review. Sure, it can power through a lot of material, but how much battery life does each action eat up? And also, though the reviewer certainly put it through its paces, it looks like the jaws are already showing signs of wear. I can’t tell from the pictures whether or not that wear is superficial. Finally, how has Ryobi’s cordless product line improved across the board? I haven’t used many of their tools in the past few years, but in the past I was not terribly impressed by their performance. In my experience of Ryobi’s cordless tools, they perform somewhere in the top of the bottom third in their class. In general, it’s good practice to only buy cordless tools (at least for personal/independent use) if you like multiple products in the same line. Otherwise, you have to keep re-investing in batteries, which tend to be the most expensive components of cordless tools.
I really think these bolt cutters are useful in a number of ways. First off I think the fact that we can have a power tool instead of the manual one, in this case is extremely useful. I don’t think there is any reason that anyone should have to extend that amount of energy or risk potentially injuring themselves if something like this is available, I think it simply makes more sense. I also think there is a perceived notion that keeps people out of the shop that they have to have this sort of extreme strength and durability as an individual to be “good” in the shop, which just isn’t true. I hate to think that people are being kept out of the shop for this reason and I think making tools like this allows for that perception to fade away a bit and hopefully presents working in the shop as a feasible opportunity for more people who might have had this concern. I also think the idea of this being “slow” is very stupid because 2 seconds will be a lot faster than manually trying to cut thick metal and the shape of this tools serves a very useful function that can’t be achieved with manual bolt cutters.
This may be the first pair of electric bolt cutters I have ever seen made by a large consumer product based company. This seems like something a lot of people will want. There are two types of people I foresee wanting this new tool. First is your average person who needs to be able to cut something with bolt cutters every so often but is not string enough to do so with standard bolt cutters. The issue I see with selling to this group is that they probably won't need it often and for this reason may not be able to justify spending to money on it. The second group of people I see wanting this tool is more professionals who are using bolt cutters very often and for this reason often have their arms get very tired. To me, this seems like a bigger market and I think that Ryobi should focus on this group of people in order to sell as many electric bolt cutters as possible. That all being said, I think I want one.
So these bolt cutters look really interesting because it seems like it would help many people in the shop who have a difficult time with trying cut things with manual bolt cutters. As the article states “The Ryobi 18V bolt cutter is sold as a bare tool, compatible with all Ryobi 18V ONE+ batteries; we tested it with the 6 Ah Lithium+ HP that The Home Depot sent us. Ryobi says it’s intended to replace 14” manual bolt cutters, but I think that’s a bit of an undersell. It easily cut a few things that I had to really work for with my 24” bolt cutter.” I see is using this mostly for the task of cut chain for rigging applications. I’m not necessarily sure if there another use for this tool when it comes to the theaterical world, but I do think it a relatively cheap purchase that can make many people’s lives easier.
Maybe I am just behind on the trend but a motorized bolt cutter is not something I have ever found myself needing. I do admit that my bolt cutting expertise is limited due to the fact that I do not find myself needing to cut locks and bolts often, but when I did, a hand held bolt cutter always got the job done. With that being said, I understand why Ryobi has this in their line of tools. It says right in the article that this is for more professional use, which I agree, where you may run into some larger bolts or even rebar that this could cut away. There is very much a jaws of life look to this tool but I would not turn it away if someone offered it to me to try.
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