khariV

I haven't found the 7 1/4" Fuel to be underpowered at all. Quite to the contrary, I've gone through quite a bit of PT lumber without any problems at all. The framing blade that comes with it is also surprisingly good. Compared to some framing blades that have torn and massacred plywood, I've gotten very smooth cuts from the stock blade when I've forgotten or just been too lazy to swap it out.

I apologize for not following up on this sooner. I got distracted looking for a job, watching the kids this summer and traveling to take care of my dad and fix up his house. Anyway, I finally had a chance to revisit my woes with the Klein voltage testers while ripping out the drywall in my kids bathroom. I even made a couple of quick videos to show the problems that I am having. The first video describes the general behavior of 3 different voltage testers. In a nutshell, the Southwire is the only one that can reliably beep ONLY when there is power in the line. The Klein NCVT-2 beeps continuously on a powered off circuit. The Klein NCVT-3 beeps a bit whenever you touch something -wire, drywall, wood, hand. On a side note, both of the Kleins beep more when touched to a live circuit, but the low level beeping leads me to believe that they think that there is in fact power in the line when the breaker is cut off. The second video focuses on the NCVT-3. Now, to preface this, because I believe in Klein, I actually went out and bought another NCVT-3 after all the problems I had this summer. I just unboxed it prior to shooting the first video. In this second video, you can see that not only does the NCVT-3 beep randomly, it shuts itself off pretty much whenever it feels like it. To me this is incredibly dangerous as you think that you've got it turned on and detecting, only to have it shut itself off because it bumped something. I can easily see thinking that circuit was dead only to find out the hard way that it was in fact live and your detector had just shut down. I'll forward this on to the Klein rep that posted above. Like I said, I believe in the company and I'm slowly switching all of my electrical gear over so I'd love to get this resolved and have two functioning tools again.

These drivers are insulated for high voltage use. I don't know if they are also anti-esd rated as well. Don't get me wrong, I use plain old screwdrivers to work on computers and network gear, but I would think that an ESD rated set would be more useful if you're looking for specialty tools for that kind of work. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been getting more into Channellock recently because they are still made in America and their tools are well made without costing a fortune. I've picked up a couple of pairs of pliers and I have been impressed with their quality. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I always check the clearance shelves whenever I visit. What annoys me though it's when they've got items in "clearance" that are marked down from $14.95 to $14.73 or some nonsense like that. I've gotten some great deals (Milwaukee M12 Fuel impact driver with 2 batteries for $110), but more often than not, it's an exercise in disappointment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Now that's one heck of a deal. A reconditioned 2797-22 kit usually goes for $299. I've had so-so luck with reconditioned tools, but you've got CPO backing up the sale and they're great with warranties. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe that $129 is the normal, bare-tool price for the 2653-20.

I thought the website looked familiar, then I found this on the About Us page. As far as I can tell, it's just a reskinned CPO - not that this is bad, I've had nothing but good experiences dealing with CPO as a company. I pulled the trigger on the 2520-21XC last week from CPO.

I like my Milwaukee screwdrivers. They're good for everyday beaters. One thing I really don't like though is the fact that Milwaukee screwdrivers only have a + or - on the handle. There's nothing to indicate tip size, length or anything else. I'm slowly switching over to Klein drivers for just this reason. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, the speaker will work with any 12v battery. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

$99 south of the border... Ok yeah that feels strange to say that even though it's true! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First off, don't get me wrong, I'm all for every possible tool to have a cordless M18 or M12 Fuel version. However, in all honesty, how often do you ever use a biscuit joiner away from mains power (jobsite woodworking?) or where having a cord is really a serious inconvenience? Biscuit joining is something you do in a fully equipped wood working shop and it isn't really something that moves a lot during use, unlike say a sander or a circular saw. Milwaukee isn't the strongest woodworking powertool company in the first place, but I have to believe that they'd need to see a market for a tool before they put the time and money into bringing it to market.

Yesterday, I dropped by my local depot to check out the multimeters. They had a 2216 marked down from $149 to $97, so I passed. After checking out the terminal for clearance prices/stock (big thanks btw to whomever it was that suggested I look at the job application terminal), I found that another store across town had the clamp meters for $30. I drove over today and I managed to snag one of the clamp meters for $30.03. All of the 2216-20's were marked at $74.98 both in-store and online and nothing I could do would convince the sales people to give it to me for $30. Oh well, I got one of the two. Apparently, the sales guy told me that they were probably dropping Milwaukee as a supplier of electrical tools, so take that for what it's worth. He also said that once they go to $.01, they can't sell them anymore... yeah, sure, OK. FYI: anyone looking to score one of the clamp meters, you may have to ask them to look in the stock in the shelves above the electrical section. They found a box of 10 or so of them up there. None of them were clearance stickered and the in-store inventory only said that they had 2 in stock.

I've checked every store for 100 miles around and the 780 isn't listed at any discount, never mind 179. That's an awesome deal you got.

So once you manage to get to a computer, what do you do to find the clearance deals? Not that I've had a lot of time to poke around, but to save time, is there a specific site to launch or link to click to do the search? I've looked on just hd.com from one of them and didn't see anything special.

I love it. I haven't let my daughter try out my airstrike just yet, but she's all about the inspection camera and my M12s. Need to get your son a nice pair of hearing protectors, btw. Then he can get all kitted up and ready to help when things get loud. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd love to hop on this, it's a heck of a deal, but I honestly have no idea when I'd ever really need a rotary hammer. I think I've put a grand total of 15 holes into brick since I bought this house in 98, and my M18 hammer drill did just fine.

I keep my batteries at 100% until they hit 50% and then charge them back up to full. I've heard that technically you do get better life keeping them at 50%, but also that it's much worse to run them down to 0%. Hell, apparently the best thing to do is to store them at 50%, run them down to 40% and then charge them back to 50%, but honestly that's just too much work and I hate not having a charged battery.

I'm suspicious about any number of things with this company. The banner pic on their website shows a rotary hammer, an OMT and a cordless nail gun, none of which apparently exist in their catalog. Not only that, but the impact wrench is there 3 times as is the recip saw. They also list drywall screws as an accessory. For a company "founded" 23 years ago not to have a single review or mention anywhere on the interwebs also really seems a bit dodgy to me. Something is not quite right here.

A few years back, I lived in New Mexico. I worked IT in a hospital in Albuquerque and would often get called into fix a server problem at odd hours. Well one night, I got called in and spent the better part of six hours on a Saturday night working in the ER; I got finished around 3 AM. I lived probably 20 miles north of town, so I had a lot of highway driving ahead of me. So there I am, 3 am on a Sunday morning and I was driving my 94 Cobra - the only parts of which that were still stock were the body panels. So I obviously decide that I need to get home a bit faster than was strictly legal, or really even advisable. Well, I blew past a state trooper sitting at an exit ramp and it's entirely possible that I was doing around 135 or so. Let's just say that he was really far behind me before the lights came on, so I pulled over to wait for him. I think he was surprised that I had stopped because had I decided just to gun it and pick a random exit in the middle of the desert, he never would have found me. So anyway, it turns out, he's a car guy! Woot! He gets out and looks over the car and asks me what I've done to it and where in the hell I was going in such a hurry. After explaining that I had just spent my Saturday night working in the ER (I didn't bother to mention that I wasn't a doctor), he said "Well, I'm not going to arrest you tonight, but you do know that I have to give you a ticket, right?" I said sure and got off with 15 over the limit and a warning not to do it again, which was a hell of lot better than 90 days in jail and a revoked license for reckless driving.

Haha - so there actually is a hot dog test video on the site. It's just not very well organized so it's kinda hard to find. The setup of the system seems to make it such that the hot dog test is irrelevant. The clear plastic shroud has a horizontal component that completely encases the spinning blade and lays essentially flat on top of the board being cut such that you really wouldn't even be able to get your hot dog near the blade without first touching the shroud. Of course, touching the shroud triggers the brake as well. What I'd like to know is why haven't any of the big saw makers made a dust/protection shroud that encases the blade? You would think that would eliminate not only the possibility of getting pulled into the blade but also would massively cut down on dust too.

What I want to know is why none of the big guys have licensed the Whirlwind tech. whirlwindtool.com Now THIS is a new technology that's completely different from the "touch the blade, make it stop" patents that Sawstop might hold. I'd love to get a hold of one of these whirlwind boxes to add to just about any table saw. If this thing really works, it kicks both SawStop and Bosch's ass - no consumables, works on any saw, services multiple machines with a single box.

7 here Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I like this idea a lot. Do you think thieves look for UV markings? Maybe a combination of engraving in one spot and UV in another so that they think they've got it all when they grind off the engraving.

That was awesome