dwain

Hmm very interesting. I wonder if BPM plays no part at all? I guess Joules/hit would be far more important.

Cheers Tug. Yeah it's a tidy little unit for sure. What sort of size / joules do you start to see a lot of busted chisel tips at?

Yep, they're super nice guns.

These are really, really nice guns. Oh, and the Hitachi nailers are good too ...

Correct! You're up.

So what's your answer Jronman?

oh! hehe

we are sometimes able to put tools into professional hands, but not that much. Plus the time it takes to organise and do that makes them much less viable at our size...

Still haven't seen the correct answer.

I would say the most popular tool brands for trades people around the world are probably the following (no order): milwaukee, dewalt, makita, bosch, hitachi, metabo, ridgid/aeg, ryobi, hilti, porter cable (US). Of these, which do NOT make a dedicated 18v sander of some type. I am EXCLUDING multi-tools and polishers from this question.

that's a fantastic photo. was that REALLY you Hugh??

Ask a tradie how to best use the tool, and what features are most important. Ask an independent reviewer how the different brands stack up against each other, and what the latest and greatest is. Ask God which ones are most likely to last in the long run.

Add FEIN to that list, and I think it's right. Makita used to make a 3 speed, but don't anymore.

Without having done a full comparison that includes it, I think it probably is best-in-class. BUT i haven't used the DTD170, only the DTD148, so who knows. One thing is for sure, their previous IP56 model WAS best in class for several years.

we'll probably end up doing a little Instagram comparison with the Makita at some point soon

Not bad! Doesn't feel quite as nice as the Makita, but I still like it a lot. Chucked in a few bloopers too. Mike has set fire to his shed twice, so I do like to rib him about it

I thought it was rough cut to 2x in days past, then finished to 1-1/2....

I think it would be better if the lumber were more accurately described, but hopefully there the industry is at least consistent in it's inaccuracy M12, like all other '12V' lines is actually 10.8V. 3 cells at 3.6V each. Or '12V Max'

The tools themselves have different motors and different efficiency. so you will always get a different results. If you had two identical tools, that were wired for different brand batteries, THEN you might get the same amount of runtime. If companies REALLY wanted to inform consumers about their batteries, not only would they tell us the accurate Wh of the battery but also the rated output current of the cells. BUT that's unfortunately not the world we live in ...

niiiice.

4? Impact, drill, hawg and super-hawg?

OK, it's been too long. First person who wants to, just ask a new question

i really want Makita to get us a pre-release of that SDS-Max unit!! Are they also releasing an update to the SDS-Plus 18x2 model?

Isn't that EXACTLY why transmission mains are so high voltage, to keep cable size more practical? I agree it's unlikely Dewalt have dropped the cable sizes from the standard size you see in most power tools, but its possible. Just saying we are debating about super technical engineering design without any data ....