u/ImaginaryTango

I have a number of DeWalt hand tools (drills, drivers, circular saw, reciprocating saw - probably about a half dozen I can't think of off the top of my head). I've decided to go with DeWalt to replace a not-so-good set of cordless yard tools. The first one will be a weed whacker - need it this week.

I'm not sure what "heavy duty" means. Does it mean it's strong enough to cut through heavier stemmed weeds, or does it mean it lasts longer? I can see how the former would mean a higher voltage (60V instead of 20V), and the latter would be a function of amp hours.

I have about half a mile of driveway and I have to deal with weeds along the edges of some sections (but I also take a heavier duty hand cutter for thicker stems/trunks when I go out to do that), plus the area around the house and around a renovated barn. So my first thought is that isn't about the model as much as the amp hours on the battery. I'm not using a weed whacker to cut large areas of weeds or anything like that. It's mainly for dealing with the edges in these areas.

I've seen good comments about the 20V weed whackers, so I'm wondering if one of those would work for me, just with longer lasting batteries and to carry a few with me for replacements along the way. I'm not clear - just what kind of work am I better off getting a 60V model over a 20V model? And are there other features to the multiple models of these that I should be aware of when picking one?

I've been using DeWalt 20V tools for almost a decade now. I had not trusted battery powered tools since the early 90s. Back then they were really weak and you couldn't do much with them. Then, around 2015, when I saw contractors doing work on my house and on other neighbors' houses, they were *all* using DeWalt 20VMax systems. I've now been using that system for about 10 years and most of the tools are still in great shape.

I need to replace the Kobalt battery powered yard tools (weed whacker, lawn mower, chain saw, trimmer, leave blower) with a new line and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with DeWalt. I want to be sure I'm clear about the battery system before I make assumptions. The website has info, but I want to be sure I'm reading it properly and don't misunderstand anything.

It looks to me like there are multiple voltage ratings, 20VMax, 60VMax, and more - and the Flexivolt. It looks like the Flexivolt will work on everything (including my 10 year old 20VMax and 60VMax yard tools like a chainsaw or mower). Otherwise, I have to match the voltage rating on the battery to the tool. Also, it appears that I can use the new Flexivolt batteries or the newer 20VMax batteries on my old tools without adapters.

Is that right? I'm just so used to every company using newer battery systems as a way to force customers to buy new equipment for the upgrades. It looks like DeWalt is doing the opposite and making their new batteries backwards compatible.

Since about 2016, I've been using Lowe's Kobalt 80VMax battery system for outdoor tools (like leaf blowers, mowers, weed wackers, and so on). That's worked pretty well, but it's time to move on and I'm seriously looking into Craftsman. We have a large lot and corded tools are not an option. I want to stress I am NOT trying to rank one system over another.

I've been looking over the Craftsman site and it looks like, for outdoor tools, it's the V20* system. I do see that includes lawn mowers and chainsaws. I'm focusing on those since they both use a lot of power.

Again, I'm not trying to compare, but with the Kobalt 80VMax, we used 3 batteries. The mower would run for about 20 minutes on a battery and it'd take about 30 minutes to recharge one, so using 3 meant we could keep going as long as we wanted by just rotating batteries. Similar with the chainsaw: I could cut through 9 1/2 railroad ties (used them for landscaping timbers) on one charge, which would take about 20 minutes, so I could use the same rotation system to keep going.

I realize the V20* system has (that I quickly found), 4AH, 5AH, and 6AH batteries. I also realize battery usage time will depend on multiple factors (which is probably why I'm having trouble getting any idea of the numbers for them).

So my questions:

1. On the website, some pages show outdoor tools and some show shop tools, and one showed them all in one image for the V20* system. I just want to confirm that I can use this system for both outdoor tools (mower, chainsaw, leave blower, trimmers, weed wackers...) AND for shop tools (drill, circular saw, sander, reciprocating saw...). Is that right?
2. Is this system compatible with any others? I know Stanley/Black & Decker makes both Craftsman and DeWalt. I have seen a few pages claiming there are adapters. Do adapters work both ways?
3. I'd like to get some idea, with mowers and chainsaws, just how long the batteries will last. For instance, if I have 3 batteries, will they last long enough and charge fast enough that I can rotate through 3 batteries and not have to stop and wait for charging?

I'm fairly new to Brave, so I'm not 100% sure this is a Brave issue, but suspect it is.

I am starting to use Makerworld.com for 3D printing use. I'm signed in to MakerWorld and YouTube, but when I try to view a video on MakerWorld, I get this:

https://preview.redd.it/n6jhfcffl2zg1.png?width=895&format=png&auto=webp&s=f26bcf2feebd0499077fbc10fa8585b663f35ee8

The "Sign in" "link" is not a link - can't click on it. But when I click on "Learn More," I get this:

https://preview.redd.it/ay3t3c8hl2zg1.png?width=893&format=png&auto=webp&s=a41cbd25b2a8466fe82dfefc55eaa10b23ce54e8

After some searching, and finding nothing, it occurred to me that it was probably an issue with cross-site data sharing. Then I thought, "Ah! Brave is doing its job - and there must be a conflict."

So I did a search and found it might be the adblocker and I updated Brave and I'm on Brave 1.89.145 (Official Build) (arm64) and it says this is up to date.

I'll be using this site a lot, so I don't want to have to continually turn settings on and off to be able to watch the videos on MakerWorld. I also don't want to be sharing (especially with YouTube/Google) more than I need to.

What are the minimum changes I can make to make sure I can watch videos on this one site without other issues?

I've tried twice to ask for help and my posts are blocked by Reddit Filters. I don't know why or what I have to change. The FAQs for this subreddit are for unrelated topics to posting for help. I don't see a set of rules for the subreddit on what I can and can't post. (I'm using the "normal" url for this subreddit and don't see a list of what I can and can't post here.)

I've searched and am having trouble understanding just what the minimal I can do to allow a 3rd party site (M a k e r W o r l d . c o m) play Y o u T... videos. I don't know if I'm blocked for mentioning the sites or including links or pics or what.

I get that fixing this has something to do with components and might be the adblocker, but I'm on the latest version.

So I don't know why I'm getting blocked here and I can't find just what the minimum changes I need to make to see videos is.

I have an Ender 3 Pro that I've worked with off and on. When I bought it, I bought the CR-Touch probe with it, but it wouldn't work. It turns out it was a firmware issue that wouldn't work with the CPU Creality had changed to (this was in 2025). It took a while to get that straight, then I spent time trying to tram and level the bed, but could never get it quite right and didn't have but so much time to work on it.

I finally ended up getting a 3rd party touch probe from TH3D a few years ago, but due to health issues, I couldn't finish setting it up. I have it working now and finally am not having bed leveling issues. But a while back, because, even after spending a long time tramming the bed, I'd still have bed leveling issues and I bought a glass print plate for it. Within the past week I finally got it so things worked well as far as leveling.

But I'm having an adhesion issue. For testing and calibration, I use a 5x5 grid of squares (roughly 1" square) and they all look good and have good bed adhesion. But some prints I'm doing now lose adhesion during the 2nd level and sometimes a print is stuck on the glass bed and it's hard to remove it.

I can't find my old magnetic build surfaces, but I'm thinking maybe I should go back to them. I don't know how that will work in terms of adhesion. I do remember that while I had some issues with bed leveling with the magnetic surface I had, when I got things to work, adhesion was good. Also, since leveling was the issue, and the probe from TH3D (and their firmware) seems to handle that, I may not need a glass plate anymore. (I got it because I figured it was about as close to flat as possible.)

I'd like to hear thoughts on this - the magnetic surface vs. a glass surface and any thoughts on why layer 1 would look good and adhere properly, but why, sometimes, when it's printing the next layer, it messes up layer 1. (I have to add this seems a bigger issue with smaller objects than with larger ones. I have found some will work if I use glue on the bed before the print, but some others don't.)