M12 gen 2!

[AnonymousJoe]

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so impressed with some tools before so I thought Id just start a general thread if people want to share their experiences. I’ve been using and hanging 18v tools on my tool belt daily for so long that these little m12’s seem like such a relief and still capable of doing most anything I need! Very lightweight and the impact especially. I put a small impact holster on my tool belt and I can hardly notice them on me.

i asked a question on another thread about what torque setting relates to the #2 torque setting on my m18 fuel drill, so I’ll just answer it here. 

  the torque setting on the m12 drill is more like 5-6. I’ll use 6 because it has a quicker ramp up speed on the trigger. 1-5 has a real slow ramp up speed( same ramp up for all settings), 6-10? is a little quicker, and so on. I don’t think the e clutch is that accurate. Maybe on the first initial use but if u keep pressing the trigger it’ll keep turning the screw more and more before it clutches out. However If u know this u can use it or avoid it as needed. Twice today I had to catch it because it kept going, I don’t think the clutch activated it just kept going. I also drilled a bunch of holes with a 3/4” ship auger in high speed and it did great. There were 2 instances where it was close to a knot so it was too tough for it. I was more curious just to see if it could do it, not planning on using it for that purpose but I was real impressed and it’s nice to know that this little drill has some guts to it! There are 18v drills that can’t do that. Had too much fun with the drill today I didn’t use my impact really at all which is rare, so maybe I’ll post after more use with that.

ill also add that I was drilling with the 4.0 which is noticeably stronger than the 2.0.  And I wasnt sure about this until I found a video someone posted, but it shows the 6.0 to drill stronger too vs the 4.0.

[XTsallaD]

Have been tinkering with the torque settings as well. I’m having a learning curve with small fasteners and low settings. I’ve used it on metal fastening and it feels like it’s pretty consistent there but hard to know for sure. I know what you mean about the clutch feeling like it can let the drill keep driving. I like the e-clutch on my Bosch dds183 much more and the bosch is about the same weight. I think for critical small fasteners I’ll be relying more on my bosch12v drill though. It has a really sensitive mechanical slip clutch. Overall I love the gen2 tool and like the features and power with the tiny size. Even though I think the handle is less comfortable than the gen1. 

On using the larger batteries, I feel like I might as well be using an 18v. Especially since my dds183 18v is the same size except for the battery and basically the same weight.

I’m having really good experiences with the impact also. My Makita 18v is actually smaller in the head and handle but again for it’s power and overall size and weight of the gen2 impact is pretty useful. It’s really powerful and fast. The controls are nice. It seems to have sort of an e-clutch on less than full trigger pull driving and on the lowest setting along with the self tapping setting. The self drilling setting seems to stop impacting after a second. Or pulsate the impacts. Something like that. I can’t exactly recall. 

 

Here are is another thread where I posted some size comparison images on the second page:

 

[BMack37]

I finally saw the gen II stuff in-store...they are a lot nicer feeling than the gen I. They're closer to the size of the brushed drill but with the bigger motor being soo far back it feels more balanced. It's still ugly but luckily you don't have to look at it when you're using it

[Craigh9916]

Yes I’ve just bought the Gen 2 impact and I’m so impressed with it , the speed settings work really well and the self drilling mode is good for small screws into timber as it backs off the power when it seats the screw works great !
I’ve got the 6 Ah batteries in the kit and the impact is just a really nice balance with them.
The thing I’m most impressed with is the power and speed for a 12v I think it shames most 18v impacts


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[Tug]

Love my gen 1 combo set, beautiful machines. Doubt I'll upgrade due to budget, but good to see innovative ideas bearing fruit. 

[Jasesun]

Decided last month to start my cordless tool collection. I'm a home DIYer who has tackled some medium sized projects. Wasn't looking on spending too much money. Went back and forth on some different brands and decided the m12 line could probably handle most of what I ask it for and its the biggest 12 volt line out. So far very happy with the Fuel version of tools I got especially the Gen 2 stuff. 

 

 

As far as the batteries the way I understand it is youll get a little more power when going from the compact to the XC. The compact has 3 batteries wired in series to get 12v. The XC has 6 batteries, 2 -3packs, wired in parallel. The extra set of batteries allows more current to get to the tool when it needs it. The 4ah is "noticeably stronger" than the 2.0ah compact because it has more batteries. The 4.0ah XC to the 6.0ah XC has the same number of cells just each cell is capable of a larger amp hour, so in that case I doubt you'll see much of a power increase, but of course it will last longer. 

[Framer joe]

I have most gen 1 m12 and gen 2 impact, love the size and balance ,if I could use 12v all day I would....great system 

[BK13]

On 3/2/2018 at 1:21 AM, Tug said:

Love my gen 1 combo set, beautiful machines. Doubt I'll upgrade due to budget, but good to see innovative ideas bearing fruit. 

I might get the drill. I doubt I can justify another 12v impact driver. 

 

Nah, I can justify anything...

[Tug]

5 hours ago, BK13 said:

I might get the drill. I doubt I can justify another 12v impact driver. 

 

Nah, I can justify anything...

 

Ya ain't taking it with ya, enjoy it while you can. 

[AnonymousJoe]

So here’s a quick update. I exchanged the kit at hd for a new one for a couple of reasons with the drill. The chuck had too much wobble it just irritated me. The mode selector collar was pretty loose and would change settings when inserting or removing bits from the chuck. And lastly it made a weird clicking sound when u let off the trigger. So the new drill is great, sort of. The chuck is dead accurate. The mode selector collar is really stiff with real distinct clicks so there’s no issue with accidentally changing settings. BUT!... the clicking is even worse. Right out of the box if u go from full throttle to quarter throttle on the trigger it starts clicking loudly and u can see the mode selector collar start moving/shaking. It’s pretty bad. Now I kept messing with the drill and I found that with a load on the drill, even with ur fingers on the chuck, it doesn’t do it. No load and it’s really bad. I usually don’t care and/or bothered by noises but seeing the collar move with the clicking makes me wonder if it’s fine or not. Again with a load on it it doesn’t do it so I’m going to use it for a few days and see what happens. If It’s not noticeable during regular use then I don’t care, but I do see it as a QC problem.

[AnonymousJoe]

Well I could not get the drill to replicate that yesterday or today no matter what I tried. I guess that’s a good thing tho. I kept running it the other day to where it got real hot and I put it out in my cold truck over night so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. Either way it’s healed and/or the gremlins got out so all is good. I got video on my phone when it was acting up but it won’t let me post it here. I’ll have to figure out how to do that

[AnonymousJoe]

not my video but apparently someone else had the same problem. Found this on youtube

[BMack37]

That's really odd, and oddly enough none of the reviewers for the tool have had this issue. It doesn't sound like the clutch either.

[AnonymousJoe]

I found one other video reviewer who mentions he had the same problem, he didn’t show it tho, just says milwaukee sent him another to test and that’s what he used.  I wonder how some of these guys get these tools sent to them for testing. Every video is the same stuff in a different garage except one guy who pets his cat and drills in a frozen tree stump in his front yard lol I’d like to see someone actually use these at work and post a video of that. If I were milwaukee I’d say “ here’s the tool, send us back an x-minute long video of u using the tool at work and we will edit and post the video.”  Tool reviewers can still do their independent reviews but at least there would be some video out there besides 15 different guys drilling a 3/4” spade bits into a board in their garage. 

 

As as far as the clicking goes... I wonder if it’s the brake. I noticed this and if u watch in the video u can hear the drill brake real hard kinda like dewalt drills do. My drill did this too but now that the issue is gone it brakes smoothly-er like any milwaukee drill does.

[HiltiWpg]

It’s a Milwaukee thing.

My M12 Fuel Impact made clacking sounds when you released the trigger from max speed.
The tool would also kick to the right.

If you drink the Kool-Aid you overlook these these things, but that can’t be good for the tool!


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[aabee]

1 hour ago, HiltiWpg said:

It’s a Milwaukee thing.

My M12 Fuel Impact made clacking sounds when you released the trigger from max speed.
The tool would also kick to the right.

If you drink the Kool-Aid you overlook these these things, but that can’t be good for the tool!


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It's definitely not just a Milwaukee thing; DeWalt's first brushless 20v Max brushless drill (the DCD790) had the loudest brake of any drill I've ever used.

[ToolBane]

4 hours ago, aabee said:

It's definitely not just a Milwaukee thing; DeWalt's first brushless 20v Max brushless drill (the DCD790) had the loudest brake of any drill I've ever used.

Meh fine the important thing is it’s not a Makita thing

[XTsallaD]

On 3/16/2018 at 9:08 PM, AnonymousJoe said:

I found one other video reviewer who mentions he had the same problem, he didn’t show it tho, just says milwaukee sent him another to test and that’s what he used.  I wonder how some of these guys get these tools sent to them for testing. Every video is the same stuff in a different garage except one guy who pets his cat and drills in a frozen tree stump in his front yard lol I’d like to see someone actually use these at work and post a video of that. If I were milwaukee I’d say “ here’s the tool, send us back an x-minute long video of u using the tool at work and we will edit and post the video.”  Tool reviewers can still do their independent reviews but at least there would be some video out there besides 15 different guys drilling a 3/4” spade bits into a board in their garage. 

 

As as far as the clicking goes... I wonder if it’s the brake. I noticed this and if u watch in the video u can hear the drill brake real hard kinda like dewalt drills do. My drill did this too but now that the issue is gone it brakes smoothly-er like any milwaukee drill does.

Mine just started doing this yesterday. Or maybe I noticed it for the first time but I’ve been comparing it to my other drills a lot and using it a lot lately. I think I would have noticed it if it had been doing it before. I tinkered with it for a while getting it to repeat. I’m suspicious that it might be the brake kicking in. It sounds the same as the first fraction of a second when the brake activates if you let off of the trigger quickly when running lower rpm.  I just noticed this thread today and tried to get it to do it again but am not able. 

[sss]

Its just poor brushless motor and brake control. It happens on m18 drills also. 

Luckily it happens only when theres no load. Try to put some super heavy bit on the m18 drill, like a mixer. Spin that thing on speed 2 and release the trigger. The brake will be so loud you'd think the gearbox is a toast.