All of my employees and I were sitting in our trucks eating lunch when the OSHA inspectors arrived on the commercial job site, which was a two-story addition to a nursing home. Talk about fear — the other trades and general contractor’s employees about had a coronary! Violations abounded: Opening in the concrete deck for stairs that weren’t yet built and no barrier was present; workers missing hard hats; improper footwear; ladders that needed repairs; and, of course, lots of extension cords with taped-over nicks in their jackets and plugs missing the grounding pin.

That was decades ago: Long before any contractors had cordless tools that could handle the rigors professional contractors face on job sites. My first cordless tool was a Makita drill that I purchased in 1978 with a 7.2-Volt NiCad removable battery and a separate 120-volt charger. The main drawbacks were the battery needed to cool down before recharging and if you did not fully discharge the battery, its memory would reduce the available runtime, rendering it useless eventually. The advantage of the NiCad was it could be recharged up to 1,000 times if treated properly. Its chuck key was relatively small with a tendency to slip, which resulted in painful pinching when fingers got caught between the chuck/key. The useful time was fairly limited, which resulted in my taking it back off of my work truck, and it was relegated to home projects. For the time being, all my tools would remain corded.