[Milwaukee 46in Tool Chest]

It looks like they are starting to come back in stock. My area has a lot more stock then they have had in the past.

 

Actually, the funny thing is that the only local HD store that doesn't have any is the one across the street from Milwaukee's headquarters.

 

[Gen. 2 Fuel Kit Weights?]

Nice score! What luck? I'm eyeing those too. Weird question: Apart from the extra batteries, would you have preferred the combo kit over the split kit? Or no?

 

I have the 2 tool kit and I don't think the case is all that big and bulky. If you use both tools together a lot it makes sense to have one case. If you frequently only use 1 of them, or in this case where you get more batteries free, it makes sense to have individual cases.

[Self Tapping Mode]

Hrmm, I wonder if you got a bad unit or Milwaukee's implementation of the self tapping mode isn't good. The idea is you get a short period of max rpm and the computer or confuser as AvE calls it is supposed to kick the power and torque down to stop the possible breaking of fasteners.

 

That's what it does, but it seems way too sensitive, at least on mine. I have seen videos where is looks like it works great, but mine speeds up to cut through and then almost instantly it starts impacting and slows to a snails pace and then stops about halfway through. If I use mode 2 or 3 it doesn't impact at all until the screw is all of the way in. It seems like the torque drops too much when it slows down. It seems to me like this would be an ideal use case for this mode and it failed miserably.

[Self Tapping Mode]

So I got my Gen2 Fuel kit yesterday and I had a Garage Door to install last night (100+ Self Tapping 7/16" screws and about a Dozen or so 7/16" x 2" wood lags). I don't know if it's My Impact or the mode in general, but the Self Tapping screw mode is completely useless. I tried it a few times on both bare metal and pre-drilled holes and every time it would start impacting right away and would only put the screw in half way before stopping entirely. Modes 2 and 3 worked amazing, but on mode 3 I did feel like there was a risk of stripping things out. Overall I am really happy with the performance, but I expected a lot more out of the Self Tapping mode. 

 

On previous Door installs, using a Ridgid impact, I would use a full battery and the impact would be so hot at the end that you could hardly touch it. The Gen2 Fuel impact ran the screws in much faster, never got warm and at the end of the job I still had 3 bars left on a 3.0 battery (I didn't have time to charge the 5.0).

[Milwaukee = Great customer service]

I had a similar experience with Milwaukee Customer Service. 

 

I also purchased the complete tool chest. When I removed all of the marketing stickers, the one on top of the worktop took paint off with it. I reached out to Milwuakee via email and they got back to right away. I live in the Milwaukee area so they setup a pickup for a replacement drawer that wasn't damaged. Along with the new drawer, they had a set of Shockwave bits and a Fastback knife waiting for pickup. Great customer service.

I spoke too soon. The new drawer seems to have a damaged rail and won't go into the drawer slides. Now I need to see what else we can do. At least they are close by and I don't have to deal with mailing stuff out.

[Milwaukee = Great customer service]

I had a similar experience with Milwaukee Customer Service. 

 

I also purchased the complete tool chest. When I removed all of the marketing stickers, the one on top of the worktop took paint off with it. I reached out to Milwuakee via email and they got back to right away. I live in the Milwaukee area so they setup a pickup for a replacement drawer that wasn't damaged. Along with the new drawer, they had a set of Shockwave bits and a Fastback knife waiting for pickup. Great customer service.