Electric power tools, along with those that get their power from compressed air or a gasoline engine, are available for a wide variety of tasks, including tasks associated with the yard and garden, the home workshop, pet care, automotive care, home repair, cleaning tasks, and more. Compared with manual tools, they can increase productivity and efficiency, while helping to prevent injury.
In the garden and yard, electric power tools have many uses. You can use an electric lawn mower to mow your grass, and an electric landscape edger or string trimmer to edge it, blowing the cut grass off paths with an electric blower. In the fall, an electric mulching mower can take care of the leaves. Tree and shrub care can be accomplished with an electric hedge trimmer, an electric chain saw, and/or an electric lopper, and in the garden an electric tiller/cultivator can prepare the soil. In the winter, keep the driveway clear with an electric snow thrower, and was it in the summer with an electric power washer.
For home improvement, electric power tools can make certain jobs much easier. An electric power painter can make short work of a large painting process, and an electric wallpaper steamer or paint stripper can make the preparation before refinishing go much faster than doing either task by hand. Home repair can also be accomplished more easily with these power tools. Working on plumbing, for example, can be expedited using an electric pipe threader or an electric drain auger, when needed.
For the home workshop, electric power tools of many kinds are available. These include fasteners such as electric hammer drills, screw guns, power nailers, and power staplers. Electric sanders–whether detail sanders, belt sanders, random-orbit sanders, belt sanders, or disk sanders—make sanding faster and more controlled, while models with dust bags or vacuum attachments help keep sawdust or metal filings out of the air. Besides these, there are also electric drills, ratchets, wrenches, and saws.
For the home crafter, several electric power tools can prove handy. Hot glue guns are useful for joining materials, while electric scissors are useful for separating them. Rotary tools, depending on the bit, can be used for carving and polishing by jewelers, for sanding and polishing by woodworkers, or used for less-often practiced arts, like glass etching.
By Mary Elizabeth