ncfh

New girl checking in... Just wanted to add my recent experiences with red lithium and Milwaukee. I have several of the M18 tools, the big hammer drill, grinder, large & compact impacts, etc, etc. All pre- red lithium. I just bought two new red lithium M18 XC batteries to add to my collection a few days ago, and well, they don't work right. When I put them in my drill and pull the trigger I get a weak "pluh," the chuck turns a couple times and then it stops. But every third or fourth trigger pull, WHAM! Business as usual. I would suspect the drill, but the older XC lithium batteries work fine, not a single hiccup, ever. So, out for warranty replacement they go. aww... :'( When they DO work, I can really feel an improvement in power. No idea on battery life as they are just too frustrating to use for very long. So scientific, I know... Anyway, I went with Milwaukee this time around because I kept blowing the Makitas apart and got tired of the rubber over-molding falling off. Got soured on DeWalt a couple years ago with the pistol style drills, had them rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt, and just had enough. The fact that they don't stand up on their own eventually got to me a little too. For a brief moment I was really tempted by the Hlti drill, but the breadth of the Milwaukee line, their legendary customer service and "no questions" 5 year warranty sealed the deal for me. I am a welder/fabricator by trade and I don't think I could live without my cordless grinder and impacts now. lol. The drill itself has been excellent aswell, I have a nice S&D drill set, and am able to drill large holes in steel just fine, day in, day out. The thing has so much torque, it feels almost like the old corded magnum drills, the "wrist breakers" as they are known. I actually broke the side handle off the new drill when a bit bound up in a piece of plate. Rather than use a radial clamp like most side handles, this new drill has two metal "ears" cast into the drill body that the handle clamps over, and well, I snapped the one ear clean off. Crap. Other than that I really can't fault the Milwaukee M18 line, great all around performers, and a warranty I can count on when I need it. Thou they are REALLY heavy, lots of metal. Don't get me wrong, that's just what I want and need for working with metal, but now I am looking at compact drill/driver kits to keep in my general purpose tool bag for light duty (ha) stuff. I am really liking the little Bosch 12v set for $125 on Amazon, it's very compact and well reviewed. But now I get this email from Festool today about their new CXS drill/driver... But at $500+ it better be f'ing amazing. Serious tool bling. I'll probably end up ordering the Bosch kit this week, it's just too good to pass up, and just what I want in a compact driver/impact set. Don't know why I'm not looking harder at the M12 line, I should. But between all the Milwaukee stuff, the Hilti stuff, and the Facom stuff, I've got WAY too much "red" already. Might as well spice things up wit zee little Germans.