This was mine. Purchased in 1983 at Hankins lumber yard a few blocks from my house which also had a hardware store.
I remember I walked down there as it was only 5 blocks away which I often did. Two houses later I am no where near enough to anything to walk. Hankins is still there but now a 10 minute drive away and the next place to go is half way across the county to HD or Lowes that are both over 14 miles away.

That little Skil Screwdriver It's long gone but I did use it for many years. Very limited in what it could do with it's small size and battery it did not develop wrist-breaking torque and the RPM as I remember was slow (<200 RPM ) by today's standard. But it could drive a screw and especially handy when working in locations where being able to use a larger corded drill with a screw bit would be difficult. I liked the small size as you could stuff it in a pocket when working on a ladder and being small it weighed next to nothing.

It had an internal ni-cad battery and when that died it was over. I think it cost less than $40 IIRC.

Back in 2016 I was straightening up my files and manuals in the shop and came across the manual for it so I grabbed a couple photos before I tossed the manual in the trash.

I don't remember what my next cordless tool was but I don't think I bought any until many years later, probably around 2003. I just didn't have a need for cordless tools. Now they are my preferred choice.

So what was your first cordless tool?

Mine was a makita right angle 7.2v back around 1991 I worked on cars 12v systems so at the time, for getting in tight places and taking apart car interiors it was the only and best tool available.  It is long gone as well.

Mine was a makita right angle 7.2v back around 1991 I worked on cars 12v systems so at the time, for getting in tight places and taking apart car interiors it was the only and best tool available.  It is long gone as well.

Mine was a very similar situation, a couple of years later, in a bodyshop. It was not the right angle unit though, just the regular one with the stick battery in the handle. It was slow, gutless and had a keyed chuck. At that time, I much preferred to use a 1/4" drive air-ratchet or a "butterfly" style impact. I wish I would have been able to get ahold of a modern impact driver with the 1/4" hex and bit assortment like we have now.

This was mine, maybe a slightly different model, somewhere in the 1990s. It's still working today with new replacement batteries.

An awful lot of appliances and pieces of equipment are no longer engineered to be repaired.

I suspect that many are engineered so that they cannot be repaired. 

I bought a cordless drill sometime around 1978, probably a Black & Decker, or a Skill perhaps, don’t remember. I bought mostly for doing car fixing things, I lived in a one room efficiency apartment at the time, so it seemed better than dealing with an extension cord. It didn’t work all that well, very low RPM, not much torque, and the battery life was pretty short.
It put me off on considering any cordless tool as being worthwhile for a long time. Times have changed, nowadays
I’d rather be cordless. My little 12v recip. saw can do just about anything my big corded Milwaukee can do, without all its weight and size. Though it will go through the charge in the battery pretty quick if you are pushing it.

Makita 7.2v drill. Used it in the body shop where I worked. Somewhere around 1979.

My first was one of the 9.6V Milwaukee drills. And, according to this listing, https://www.ebay.com/itm/124269740992?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28 , you can have one too. The chuck key had a mounting location up in the body of the tool. Needless to say, mine was retired when the batteries gave out. Not a lot of power, but not entirely gutless.  I think I stlll have it around somewhere.

I bought a $30 Ryobi ONE+ cordless drill with a battery and charger in 2007 as a Father's day special.  I found it so much more convenient than a corded drill or doing things by hadn, that I bought myself another one, and one for my dad and 3 brothers in law.

Unfortunately, they kept the price similar but then just value engineered it to be worse in later years.  Instead of having the 2 bits held in well on the side, they added poor magnets.  Instead of a regular charger, they have a slow trickle charger with a brick and thin gauge wire.

It took a beating getting dropped off ladders, etc. and still worked.  It is much is much heavier than more recent offerings, which was really only noticeable after getting used to a newer drill.    The ONE+ line has good variety and they do keep the batteries compatible, but at this point all my cordless is 20V Dewalt or 18V Festool.

Mine was a Craftsman cordless screwdriver. Must have been close to 40 years ago. I remember going to my SIL's house for Christmas Eve and brought it with to help assembly the kids toys. I couldn't believe to comments and harassment I got from my two BIL's after I pulled it out. Heck to be an early adapter!

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How long was it before they had one? :-)

Mine was a Makita cordless drill in the 1983-1984 range.  Mine was one that had a permanent battery - not a removable one.

Peter

Festo 12v drill/driver, about 1995.

The good old 7.2v Makita, so tough you could drop it from a roof and it would laugh at you!

Was pretty expensive as I recall though, as most tools were back then.

A Snap-On 9 volt drill. Wow didn’t last long. Weak and the battery wouldn’t last long.