JerryNY

I figured now that I have a few posts under my belt I should put something here. I'm Jerry and live in lower Westchester, NY. I'm kinda halfway between the city and The Tool Nut up in Mahopac. I'm no pro, just a DIYer rehabbing a 100 year old Victorian which has, to put it kindly, been through some interesting repairs and modifications over the years. What I don't have in experience I make up for in perseverance and uncanny ability to find new tools that help in new projects. It's funny how that works lol. I'm not sure if this is coming off as somone standing up in front of some kind of tool-addiction Tools Anonymous meeting. Come to think of it if you drop the "i" TiA it might be more descriptive.

Yeah, happy 4th of July my fellow 'Muricans!

Yeah the 4.0 batteries are a crazy good value. The only reason not to use a 4.0 on a Ryobi tool is if you want it to be lighter or as small as possible. I have and loved my Ryobi drill for years. The value proposition of many of Ryobi tools is impressive. That and the range of tools on their battery platform is key to their broad success. Also being so inexpensive helps on the job site for many pros I would guess. A) you have less to worry about because you paid less and what is likely to get stolen first the Ryobi or that bright red Milwaukee Fuel or the buff yellowjacket DeWalt XR? That being said the higher grade, as well as more expensive, tools will hold up better under heavy loads for longer. I smoked a beloved old Ryobi drill doing a few too many large hole saw cuts in my 100 year old house's crazy tough exterior cladding. It wasn't the drill's fault, it wasn't built for that, but you do have to use the tools you have on hand to do the jobs you need to do so buy what will get the job done for you.

Some nice tool candy people have. I can't believe I'm considering posting photos of my tools now. I feel dirty....

It's more a matter of convenience. Just buy it take it home and unfold. It's looks like a good staring point to modify to suit your needs.

Yeah 1500 in lbs of torque is enough to break off screw heads. The new fuels are super nice and the 4th power mode for self tapping screws will be nice but it's all evolutionary at this point.

What's even more odd than the Makita-like color is the BL Motor logos. The font and layout of the BL badges looks almost like they were lifted right off a brushless Makita Drill/driver.

Wow, looks almost like what we in the U.S. know as DeWalt drill and driver models in what looks like a Makita turquoise color. I guess Godzilla ain't the only weird mutant hybrid to come out of Japan

Yeah I got the M18 fuel hammer drill and impact kit with two 4.0aH batteries around Christmas time, MSRP $399, for like $380 plus a free Hackzall M12 with case charger and 2x2.0 batteries. I figured the Hackzall, non-fuel was a meh but I got a charger and two batteries so I could buy more m12 stuff which made it a good deal but I love that little Hackzall. It's great one handed in tight spaces where you'd otherwise grab a hand hacksaw and use it 10x's etc. I always try to just hold off buying things waiting for a sale or some kind of deal. Even when I bought the Milwaukee rolling chest I used one $20 off $200 coupon on the bottom and then went back and got the top with another $20 coupon. $40 is $40. Just keep some kind of shopping strategy and discipline, every little bit helps.

LED's can be a little finicky. They get binned for different characteristics but some just aren't happy at running at certain lower voltages than others even from the same batches.

Don't forget the warranty though. A half a decade of assurance that if it goes belly up they'll fix it is nice to know especially when buying a higher end quality power tool you're likely to keep a while.

That's a good deal. I was shocked when HD a couple months ago had a deal on a Ryobi 40v weed wacker with charger and battery included for $99. I couldn't even buy the battery for that. I think the battery alone was like $129. I always find the whole tool platfom/ battery marketing strategy funny.

While they're way overpriced IMHO you are paying partly for service, almost like a service contract in some ways, for instant replacement of broken job critical tools. That being said it would still be cheaper to but two, three or more complete sets from lesser brands and have spares galore on hand but then you'd also have to store and categorize all those spares.

What's that thing with the orange and blue label in the front center storage bin? It looks oddly out of place not being yellow. You couldn't get something from DeWalt instead? . Nice collection of tools, batteries and chargers.

Yeah I wouldn't even pick that thing up when armed with a hole saw without the side handle Also that's a great tip about using the screw mode's clutch, not a bad habit to get into using especially when up on a ladder.

Yeah, I think most are decent but I'd rather have Knipex pliers, especially their plier wrench, for example when it comes to general purpose pliers but Milwaukee seems to be a good mid-priced solution in many cases. My personal Milwaukee favs are the 6-1 electrical needle nose pliers which are fantastic IMHO, the Fastback 2 utility knife, their demo screwdrivers and their racheting screwdriver. I think in general you can't go wrong with them. I doubt Milwaukee would put out a piece of junk but there might be better out there in some cases.

So one month to go...

Oh they moved DeWalt. I thought Dan and Eric just decided to get rid of them. Just kidding but I always thought it was odd they had their own isolated section. Makes more sense to have them in with the rest of the tools.

I love the m18 vac. It's probably the strongest cordless shop vac out there but you pay for it with battery life. I've never put it to a stopwatch but a 4.0 battery probably gets around 15 min run time. It doesn't sound like much but it's got such good suction that you'll be done using it more quickly than any other cordless vac which is the whole point of high performance tools IMHO. It's kinda like the race to idle modern SoC's, chips, in your cellphone or tablet use, when they run flat out they might actually use more power and battery than older chips but they do things so much more quickly they end up saving power because they get back to idle quick. I just am in the habit of using the vac and throwing the battery int he charger when I'm done. It would be cool if the 9.0 battery fits in there, it looks like there is room but I've not seen any conformation, and you'd probably get 45 min of runtime In reality I wouldn't use the m18 vac to clean up more than one messy site at a time so if you want to clean 2000 ft^2 of dirt and sawdust no cordless will do you. Also it is LOUD so keep that in mind if you're sensitive to that.

Btw if anyone who hasn't seen one in person wonders what they look and feel like in person they seem remarkably similar to Diablo's red 220 grit sandpaper, no joke.

Yeah, HD had that green tag on the site that said "Special Buy" so they could have been a test marketing thing. They sold out pretty quick around here for such a big ticket item so maybe now they will improve them and streamline production to make them more inexpensive to build. They seem so much better built and chock full of features compared to the competition that Milwaukee just wants to dip their toes in the market pool. BTW they prominently feature "Batch A" on the side labels which I doubt they'd bother with if they intended to be one and done, so don't lose hope. I do wonder if they might raise the price a tad though. In any event I'm glad I hauled the top and bottom home despite the fact it took two trips and I had to unload them and set them up by myself

Weird, I was over on HD.com and was thinking of posting a review for the tool chest and I can't seem to find it on the site anymore. Is it just me or did they pull it from the site? I wonder why if they did? Maybe they sold out of the first batch?

Actually I wasn't paying attention. That sku was for the tool/ battery kit. Wow maybe I should have picked one up

I asked if they had an open terminal and an orange shirt pointed me to one by the pro desk. Different stores have different policies toward this so ymmv.

I got on the in-store HD comp today and saw the m18 fuel impact bare tools were on clearance for $58.03. I have one already and love it and I know they are coming out with the new improved one but that's a great deal if you want a great impact for a song.