Conductor562
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Posts posted by Conductor562
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You may be right about the Sand Cat. I never fooled with it much. All I know for sure is that it's been hanging in my dad's garage for as long as I can remember. He got it from my grandpa before he died and he's been dead almost 25 years. It was somewhat old when he got it so it's got to be 30 years old anyway.
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Well, yes and no. I'm primarily looking for long needle nose and flat nose.
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I was just about ready to order a set and my uncle hooked me up with a Lowe's gift card so I ended up getting the 10 or 12 blade Rockwell starter set. I had to pay like $20 extra but it was still my cheapest option. The Rockwell blades seem to hold up ok, but being my first foray into the multi-tool kingdom I don't have much to compare it to. I think I'll give Fitzall a try next time.
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I was eyeing the Makita model as well, but there's nothing that sets it apart from the Milwaukee to enough of a point to make me go Makita. It does have an LED light while the Milwaukee doesn't, but the Milwaukee has more orbital settings and While they both run about $175 I found the Milwaukee on sale for $150. I looked at the Ridgid version but I wasn't crazy about how it felt in my hand and at 3 amps it seems a little underpowered for a corded saw.
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I have a thing for Channellock pliers. I have 21 different pairs of them. The only pliers I own that aren't Channellock brand are the mini pliers. I know they use to make them as I have a pair of 4" side cutters that best I can tell are model #41. I'd like to have a set of these mini pliers because the sea of blue on my peg board looks a little off with the kobalt set I have mixed in there. Anyone know anything about these? Do they still make them? Doesn't appear that they do. I've watched ebay to no avail. Anyone run across any anywhere?
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B&D used to make some tough tools. My dad still has an orange B&D hammer drill from the late 70's and a Sand Cat that's probably close to that old. Once they started producing shit under the Dewalt name it was game over for the B&D line. Porter Cable is headed that way too.
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I've heard nothing but good things about the M12 radio. I've got the M18. The sound quality is awesome but at certain places in my garage it has some reception issues. It's my understanding the M12 has great reception though.
Eric,
Didn't you guys review the M12?
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Any one used any multi-tool blades from Fitzall Blades? Prices are good.
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The jig saw would surely do AT LEAST 2 sink cutouts with an XC battery and if I remember right Milwaukee claims 3. The battery life really is better than you think. I use the compact batteries because the give the handle a nice, flush, unrestricted feel, and I have 4 of them. A lot of what I use it for is building primitive furniture a decorative stuff using 1X's. I've also used it cutting out air vents, aluminum thresholds, and other similar chores. I've made a few 2X cuts with it but not enough to give a real report. You aren't going to be fling through 2X's with it, but if your looking to fly through 2X's you wouldn't be using a jig saw. It's not for every job, but I don't remember the last time I used my chorded model. If you already owned an electric body grip model it might be a little harder for the M12 to find it's niche in your line-up, but versus a standard top handle, no comparison.
The rotary tool is compatable with all Dremel accessories. Milwaukee doesn't even make rotary tool accessories. I still buy the Dremel stuff so no worries there. I use mine mostly for rust/corrosion removal and as a light duty cut off tool.
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Don't get the wrong idea, my Dad hated Elmer Fike. So much so he once went to a parade Fike was supposed to be at in hopes of having an oppratunity to stomp him into the pavement. The guys like my dad and grandpa were often given false information or no information at all about the effects of the chemicals they worked with. I blame Elmer Fike for my Grandpa's premature death as well as others. This is a classic example of the EPA being useful, even essential, but the coal industry is an entirely different situation.
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This Los Angeles Times article from 1988 confirms a lot of what I'm talking about.
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-12-18/news/mn-852_1_environmental-protection-agency
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Every meal I've ever ate, every stitch of clothing I've ever worn, any basically everything I've ever owned was bought with paychecks wrote by some company the EPA hates, same goes for my mom and dad and their moms and their dads. Maybe in the end the enviromentalist will win, but it won't be on account of the 2 little insignificant electoral votes in West Virginia.
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"Say you had invested in another battery platform, say the M18 and you had the matching M18 jigsaw, would it be worth it to you to invest in the M12 jigsaw then?"
That's a hard question to answer. Knowing what I know now about the control and overall awesomeness of the M12 then yes. I'd lay down that $140 all over again. However, if I had an M18 prior to that then I would have probably never saw the need for it. But yes, it's that cool. It has the best control of any saw I've ever used. It has a very low center of gravity and for cut outs and detailed applications there's no comparison.
"If you already had a Fein Multi-tool, Crain jamb saw, and numerous Dremel tools? would it still be worth it for you to invest in 12v tools? Are they that much more convenient and would they be able to earn their keep versus using other possibly corded tools?"
In regards to the multi-tool, probably not. It's convenient for sure, but if I'd already invested $300 in a Fein I'd have a hard time justifying the purchase. As for the rotary tool though, I prefer the cordless. I had a corded Dremel and after I got used to the Milwaukee I gave the Dremel to my neighbor. The M12 battery life is sufficient and I found the cord to be restrictive in a lot of cases.
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"IF you have ever had to deal with any toxic environmental conditions, like having you or your family sickened by pollution, your attitude about the EPA may change."
I have a little more of a direct connection to toxic environmental conditions than I care to remember. I grew up in the chemical valley. An area of West Virginia covering parts of 3 counties which are Putnam, Kanawha, and Jackson. Consequently, there are 13 superfund sites within a 25 minute radius of my home. There are 4 superfund sites in Nitro, WV alone which is 15 minutes from here. This is somewhat misleading because all 4 sites are basically the same place as all the plants were adjoining. Beginning toward the end of WWI Nitro was as much a chemical town as any. At any given time there 4 or 5 operating chemical plants there which during my lifetime were Monsanto, Fike, Artel, and Viscose. up until the early 1990's after a lot of clean-up had taken place, the entire town of Nitro smelled like rotten eggs. Anyone who'd ever as much as got off the interstate for gas could attest to the overwhelming odor that surrounded the town. My Mom grew up in Nitro and a lot of my family still lives there. When ordering her senior class ring the salesman at the local jewelry store advised her not to order pearl because they usually deteriorated fairly quick in the area. She ignored the warning and sure enough it's discolored and pitted to this day. Every car in town over 4 or 5 years old had paint peeling off of it. My Dad, his Dad, my Mom's dad, and pretty much all of my uncle's all worked at Fike or Monsanto. When dad hired in the very early 70's his first operating job was in a unit that produced the primary ingredient in Agent Orange and Agent Blue. Hell, I remember as a kid having Mason jars of Agent Orange in our garage. The real kicker was that all the bi-products were just dumped in the Kanawha river. Everyone around here knows someone who's caught a mutated fish. Just down river from Nitro in Eleanor there was a huge flat of property that cover several hundred acres and was probably the best piece of property in the state that wasn't owned by the school board or the power company. In the early 90's there was a lot of commercial interest in the property. Disney and Nascar both looked at it but a soil test confirmed that entire place was contaminated with Dioxin from the aforementioned dumping.They spent 11 years removing millions of cubic yards of soil and hauling it off to Louisiana for "disposal". Rather than add it as a superfund site they made it an army base. My grandpa died in 1988 at the age of 62. His whole body was ate up with cancer though he had no family history which the doctors attributed to his working environment. We also had several other chemical plants here. At one time Union Carbide alone employed 10,000 people in this valley. We had Dupont, FMC, Rhone Poulenc, and several other smaller companies. After Fike shut down dad went to work at Union Carbide and though it's now owned by Dow, he's still there to this day. From the original 2 dozen or so plants with thousands of employees we now have 4 very small plants with maybe 1000 total employees. The EPA did a fantastic job of cleaning up the mess the years of neglect created and it was totally necessary and I'll in no way dispute that. 25 minutes in the other direction we have Pt. Pleasant, WV. There is a superfund site the which is technically WV Ordinance but everyone around here knows it simply as TNT. During WWII they made TNT there for the war. They constructed a shit ton of little concrete igloos back in the woods to hide them from any air attack. After the war several companies leased them for storage and the area became popular as a local hangout for teenagers. This may sound familiar as it was the TNT site that gave birth to the Mothman legend in 1966. As information, the movie has not one damn thing to do with the real story. I could keep going but the point is I know all about polluted environments. The production of chemicals didn't pollute the environment, the negligence of the chemical companies did. The use of coal doesn't pollute the environment, the negligence of the people who burnt it does. We have no smog or air pollution problems because coal as been used more and more efficiently and the couple of areas we do have them has nothing to do with coal. China doesn't give a rats ass about the environment and at the end of the day their polluting the same environment we are. This doesn't make the shady tricks they've pulled on the coal industry ok. For those of us here it's all we've got left. After it's gone what's next? We can debate coal and the EPA from now until the end of time and neither one of us will ever change our mind, but the fact doesn't change that we need industry. You can't support a country the size of ours with Tech jobs. Obama is so well liked in WV that a prison inmate in Texas got 40% of the primary vote and actually won 9 counties. Our state senators (both Democrats) have stated publicly they will not vote for Obama. The point is that my view is the norm in this area. We've been beaten down in the name of the environment long enough. We're one of the poorest states in the nation based on per capita income. We don't need goverment regulations and liberal agendas, we need the jobs their trying to kill.
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I didn't even mention my M12 multi-tool and rotary tools. They're both plenty sufficient in terms of power. I can trim 3 or 4 door jambs on a single charge for tile work which is what I bought it for. It want a corded model for any lengthy chore, but it nice for its intended purpose. You can pop a battery in and be done almost as quick as you can unroll and plug in a corded model.
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I've got several Milwaukee M12 tools and some of them have become indespensable. The inspection camera is awesome and runs for hours on a charge. My M12 jig saw is on of the favorite tools I own. It's small, lite, and the control you get from the handle design is amazing. It's perfect for a lot of jobs I require a jig saw for. I use the M12 compact driver as much as any tool I own. It's awesome for assembly work. I do not own a 12V recip saw but we used my buddies Bosch a lot during his plumbing project in tight area where a full size would have been to big. The design of the Milwaukee and Bosch is perfect, but to me the Dewalt and Makita designs take to much away from the compact benefit to justify themselves. I don't mean to suggest that 12V is a sufficient platform for all job, but there are a lot of jobs that is plenty sufficient.
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CPO Milwaukee carries refurbished models but never have more than 2 or 3 in stock. Ohio Power Tool doesn't carry them. Tool Barn, Tool King, or Tools Plus doesn't have them, and Ace Tool has them sometimes (at their typically rediculious prices). None of the 3 HD's in my area carry them. You can usually find the 6021-21 orbital, but rarely a 6020-21. You can find them, but you have to hunt for them. They just don't seem as available as the rest.
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Kowa Seiki? Never heard of them. Where do the come from?
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Now that you mention it, I bumped into that site when I was researching that Lakeside pipe wrench. Meant to go back and browse around but I forgot about it. Guess I'll have to check it out.
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Very good point Wayne. The great reduction in heat generated is a big plus though.
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I tend to buy strictly Milwaukee because that is my favorite brand and they've never let me down. However, I don't even pretend to believe they make the best everything. The Bosch Bulldog Xtreme is superior to the comparable Milwaukee that I have, no question about it. As far as the head to head video reviews go, take them with a grain of salt as Wayne said. I saw a video on YouTube title Dewalt vs. Milwaukee. The Dewalt drilled 3 times the holes the Milwaukee did even though it was equipped with the RedLithium XC. The Milwaukee struggled to stick a 1" spade bit through 2X's and crapped out after just a few holes. The fact is that between the models tested, any real test would have been fairly close. The Dewalt is faster, the Milwaukee has more torque. In my mind with Red Lithium XC's give the Milwaukee the advantage (but I am a little biased). If the Dewalt were to somehow manage to beat out the Milwaukee it wouldn't have been by a 75% landslide as this video wanted you to believe. The performance difference between pro caliber tools is usually fairly marginal. 10% - 15% is a big difference in most statistical categories. If it smells like shit, it's probably shit.
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I've been eyeing this saw for awhile now. Anyone got any first hand experience with it? Likes or dislikes? I found it about $20 cheaper than normal so I'm thinking now might be the time to go for it.
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Ya know, I just realized we all commented on a post that in all likelyhood was made by some dude or dudette with a name that contains at least 3 X's in some far off Chinese province getting paid 25¢ a day by some chino marketing firm that apparently holds contracts with Makita and an undetermined drill press manufacturer to paste things that vaguely resemble advertisements on tool forums using a dial up Internet connection and a dictionary printed during the Truman administration with missing pages. I have to admit that their getting better though as they've finally discovered adjectives. Whatever gets the forum going is a good thing I guess.
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I love all these British phrases like "sick to the back teeth" and such. Amazon UK said the pipe grip "usually DISPATCHES" within 2 days. Man, I need some British neighbors. Where I'm from y'all is a proper noun.
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Channellock mini pliers
in Hand Tools
Posted
Awesome! When I didn't find them listed as a current model on the Channellock website I figured my only shot was eBay. Thanks.