ToolBane

Solid deal for what you get. Only thing to me is, it’s Makita’s most basic brushless impact driver. IF you do anything where you need to be gentle, you’re relying entirely on your control over the trigger, while all of Makita’s higher impacts have speeds to help limit how hard it goes for you. Then again, the price you have there is a decent deal on a pair of batteries with an impact thrown in almost for free.

Milwaukee’s integration into TTI has been a slow progression. They were definitely allowed to be their own thing for a while, but the last few years in particular they have been more and more integrated into the shared development model. Which I’m hazarding to guess is how their new nailers are being so well received...they’ve basically just been allowed to take Ryobi’s surprisingly good nailers and throw in premium parts. Similar with their palm router...Ryobi has had that for quite a few years and Milwaukee just got to build theirs off of it instead of doing a complete new design. These developments also seem to be bringing Ryobi more upscale, which I’m not going to complain about.

I often feel TTI uses Ryobi as the platform to test out new/novel products, and if something “takes” then they’ll evaluate whether to do the same with their more expensive platforms. The rumor mill seems to be that this little fan is a temporary thing only, but I tell staff in my area about it (they have yet to see them themselves) and they think it’s just not officially released until Ryobi days or something else later this month officially begins. So some people have basically been getting ahold of them in advance. The customer response I think suggests Ryobi really hit it out of the park coming out with this product. Ryobi won’t discontinue it out of nowhere. It’s the introductory price of $20 that probably won’t last. They also have little LED area lamps for $50 a pair. The staff at my local HD found them but not the fans, but I couldn’t resist getting those anyway.

Makita’s 3-6Ah batteries use two sets of five cells in series while the 2Ah batteries only use one set. Two sets running in parallel will have less difficulty producing the instantaneous current demands of the tool, so larger batteries do as a general rule help tools perform better.

Dewalt’s had a brushless blade-left for quite some time and it’s pretty well-respected: https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20-Volt-MAX-Cordless-Brushless-6-1-2-in-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-DCS565B/314001465 But if that is insufficient for you, their Flexvolt is quite possibly the strongest cordless circular saw on the market: https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-FLEXVOLT-60-Volt-MAX-Cordless-Brushless-7-1-4-in-Wormdrive-Style-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-DCS577B/303623661 It’s not an actual worm-drive, but per some online reviews it outperforms some saws that actually are.

Random glitch. Hope it doesn’t become a regular thing. Sucks how disposable some electronics are designed to be.

The only ones I might consider using would be branded ones that put their company name and a warranty behind their product. Waitley is one of them, there’s another one that starts with a “V” I believe. Vanon maybe? The thing is, I’ve seen them get independently tested, and even if they are likely relatively a LOT safer than random no-name batteries that pretend to be real in the context of hopefully much reduced fire risk while charging, they typically run well short of their advertised rating when it comes to charge capacity. I did some light math to guesstimate about what this would mean in practice, and it just doesn’t feel worthwhile to me. The Waitley 5Ah has a charge capacity closer to that of Makita’s 3Ah, for example. The 9Ah most likely runs closer to 7.5Ah. Suddenly that doesn’t add up to much more run time than Makita’s 6Ah batteries. The instantaneous current output tends not to be as good either. Meaning medium to high-draw tools will suffer a noticeable decrease in performance. Finally if personal stories are to be trusted they don’t seem to have much longevity either, frequently going bad after a year or two. Makita batteries go on sale or get included in combo prices frequently enough that simply sticking with them seems better in every regard. Safer, more reliable, not really more expensive when longevity is factored in... Still wish Makita would release 8-9Ah batteries of their own for LXT batteries.

Wonder where they managed to get split in half like that. They get into the impact hammer housing or something?

If you think the angle has a strong effect then definitely there’s a loose connection somewhere where the weight of the conductor, board, or whatever helps it preferentially disconnect as the tool vibrates during use. Trying to visualize what’s being pulled where while you have it pulled apart and are thinking how everything is being shaken at the angle of operation might help you isolate where it is.

I don’t think we’ll have the same sense of things going obsolete on us with current tools. It will be a different dynamic. I didn’t buy into earlier generations of battery tools, they simply were not up to corded power and had lousy runtimes. I had the option to sit there and continue suffering with corded so that’s what I did. I wanted cordless but I wasn’t going to deal with those early generations. I don’t worry that future tools will make my current ones look inadequate with regard to performance the way current ones embarrass the old NiCad stuff. It will be about somewhat longer runtimes and/or the same power in more compact tools, and eventually even runtimes on some of the high-power draw tools will finally become an afterthought. Most of them we’ve saturated the need for more power over these last couple years in my opinion. I think where things are going will increasingly move toward tools that are smarter and safer. More anti-kickback protection, load-sensing technology, settings optimized for use on different materials...stuff like that. They won’t make currently new tools look inadequate in terms of power so much as make things feel easier, more predictable, and safer. That’s all just me guessing but a number of companies are adding smarter features to their impact drivers for example to better handle wood vs metal applications and I think there’s plenty of potential to do similar across the entire span of available power tools. If solid state batteries really do become reality, and they’re talking about one of the technologies being sodium-based which would be super easy and cheap, we could be looking forward to batteries that are drastically cheaper while having almost none of the drawbacks we currently associate with lithium. Much better temperature flexibility, safer charging, seemingly unlimited charge cycles, hardly any worry about storage charge state and so on. Depending on the operating voltages of the cells in these emerging technologies we could see our current platforms being replaced again. If this is how it all goes, years from now I won’t feel too bad if I have to resume a slow turnover of current tools to newer ones.

I’ve never personally opened up an impacting mechanism before but the suggestion a major mechanical component being stuck indicates it may simply be way overdue for a cleaning and regreasing. After only 3 years use I’d have to wonder what kinds of substances you might be exposing it to in your line of work? Makes me wonder if there’s something specific in your work environment that could be getting into it and gumming it up unusually badly.

It’s a little weird to me any time I see so much pushback against any new line of...basically anything. Which sure seems to have come up a lot with this Flex tool line announcement. These things tend to bring out people’s inner fanboys I think. I’m actually very interested in what they decide to bring to the table. Competition in the tool industry to my eye seems to be getting pretty fierce as these companies seem to be increasingly capable of developing entire new lines of competitive cordless tools in very little time. Admittedly though it’s pretty unlikely I would have any personal interest in picking them up simply because I’ve exhausted most of my personal need for more tools. I’m at the end of a large tool-buying campaign replacing almost all my corded tools for cordless and then some. I feel I stepped in at a great time because lithium batteries and brushless motors have brought the market to a new plateau. So performance improvements from here forward are going to be more piecemeal until the next big paradigm shift (like solid state batteries or whatever). I’m a DIY guy and am respectful of my tools to boot, I’m unlikely to prematurely destroy any of my new tools any more than I did the corded ones they’ve replaced. That said it’s hard not to pay attention, see where it goes, and hey maybe they’ll actually release something that I can’t say no to.

I would also mostly steer clear of no-name battery clones. The only ones I could conceivably consider would be the ones who actually put an established name (and warranty) on their batteries such as Waitley. Thing is, inflated battery ratings are so ubiquitous these days for some reason that even then I feel the alleged benefit is minimal. Trying to remember where I saw it but the 9.0Ah Waitley tested out closer to 7.5Ah in real-world use. Makes it a lot harder for me to justify for the tools I want the extra power for. To be fair even the authentic batteries often struggle to meet their marketed Ah ratings. That said, no-name clones perform quite a bit worse and then on top of that add serious safety risks like igniting during charging...when it comes to lithium batteries I wouldn’t touch any of them. Ever. Jronman is right that Makita has a blade-right 6.5”: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-6-1-2-in-LXT-Lithium-Ion-Sub-Compact-Brushless-Cordless-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-XSH04ZB/305309072 Not sure how the power compares although the RPM is the same and Makita only uses a few brushless motors...it wouldn’t surprise me if the power was comparable. It is newer though and doesn’t go on sale as much. I’ve heard a little more complaint about it feeling plasticky.

Check that all vents have reasonable access to airflow. Some warmth is typical charging batteries but I don’t know how much when it comes to Milwaukee’s stuff.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-LXT-Lithium-Ion-High-Capacity-Battery-Pack-5-0-Ah-with-LED-Charge-Level-Indicator-2-Pack-BL1850B-2/206609332

DC18RC is still the current standard rapid charger. Yes it will charge any current Makita batteries. In my mind their 5Ah batteries are the sweet spot for their mid-to-high-draw tools. I don’t know which model you bought but in recent months they’ve put their blade-left brushless compact on sale for $150 down from $200. I think that’s the best deal if you want to stick to compact single battery.

One thing that can play strongly to their favor is the simple fact that the same Ah battery has 20% more power than most everyone else’s. It hasn’t helped get Kobalt over the hump into mainstream yet but let’s say Flex tools establishes a decided performance advantage over the “Big Three” that’s too hard for tradespeople (and YouTube) to ignore and that could really propel them forward. But they are most certainly trying to establish themselves in a very crowded field where I think a lot of people aren’t wanting yet another option. Just look at how the current market squeezes a company as venerable as Bosch out to the fringes. Or Hitachi/Metabo having brought forward all these awesome exclusive tools no one else has that in my opinion boost their line to be extremely favorable...yet they are still generally left out of the equation in big tool discussions. And it may not sound kind but Flex’s biggest hurdle may prove to be exclusivity with Lowes. For the sake of competition on the market I definitely want to see Lowes be more competitive (and ACE for that matter), but HD has built such a huge lead when it comes to having secured the tool market. A lot of new Craftsman tools are actually pretty respectable and you’d think sticking that name on a bunch of “Diet Dewalt” tools that perform as well or better than similarly-priced Ryobis should be a home run and yet...it hasn’t been. People just don’t think Lowes when they think of tools.

It’s kinda silly because they are actually really good and have been for many years. The low price just makes it that much nicer. It’s a little comedic that only now finally a few higher-end companies are catching up, and many are still languishing.

I don’t claim to have much to say I haven’t tried a lot of brands and don’t nail very often in the first place, but learning Ryobi has been making remarkably capable nailers for quite a number of years was a pleasant surprise given that my main platform Makita (among many others) has sucked so bad at them for ages. Haven’t specifically looked into it but I’m figuring consistent with a lot of their recent increasing platform crossover Ryobi’s “air strike” design has to be what Milwaukee based their new nailers on for them to be so competitive. I first got mine to reinstall the trim around my kitchen cabinets that had to come out when I replaced my microwave and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth and easy they make it. Very effective, nails go in precisely with no fuss. Might have to use a lot more nails for rough projects coming down the pipeline.

I’ve not posted a lot of tools I’ve bought recently, this is more of a wow why didn’t I get this years ago thing, but the new plunge base attached to my cordless router below that itself attaches to my circle-cutting jog was an absolute joy to use today. Even adding multiple passes I’m much happier doing this now instead of fussing with a corded 1/2” router that would have competently handled it in one or two.

I’m going to give myself extra license to play uncommissioned salesman on this occasion, on account of some sales that just happen to be going on right now that you might find useful. Home Depot happens to have these sales every so often, where you get a pretty powerful dual-battery circular saw plus four total batteries and a dual-battery charger for a knockout price: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-X2-LXT-Lithium-Ion-36-Volt-Brushless-Cordless-Rear-Handle-7-1-4-in-Circular-Saw-w-BONUS-5-0Ah-Battery-2-Pack-XSR01PTBL1850B2/303210533 (blade left rear handle) https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-X2-LXT-36-Volt-Brushless-Cordless-7-1-4-in-Circular-Saw-Kit-5-0Ah-with-Bonus-18V-LXT-Battery-Pack-5-0Ah-XSH06PTBL1850B2/313490057 (blade right) Since you’re talking about building your home, these are some pretty powerful circular saws on a combo deal that in my opinion is pretty compelling. They are on the heavy-duty side which also means heavy in general...not sure if you would find that to be an impediment at all relative to a compact single-battery unit...which Makita sells but not in these swinging awesome package deals. You may still prefer to get an impact driver in a combo package that adds another battery, but either of the above combos gives you a pretty burly charger and extra batteries, after which purchasing a lone impact driver that’s a little more refined than the bare minimum isn’t as much extra cash: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-LXT-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-1-4-in-Cordless-Quick-Shift-Mode-3-Speed-Impact-Driver-Tool-Only-XDT14Z/300268141 It doesn’t appear Makita happens to have the “usual” combo sale I mentioned above going on at the moment. It comes and goes, as do similar combo packages that include a compact brushless drill. Not sure what timeline you are operating on with your upcoming home build.

By “kit” I do mean with a battery and charger. Just about every tool company sells them on frequent sales of $100, while coincidentally also selling “bare tools” for $100 all by themselves. So of course you’re going to get a kit, right? It’s how they rope you into their platform.

Makita like most companies has combo kits with a driver, battery, and charger that are often on sale for about $100. The drivers typically are decently powered but don’t have much in the way of features. Most directly important for some would be lack of speed settings. If you have much work that requires fine control, you will want one that has them but they will cost a bit more. If you mostly do rough work it won’t matter so much.

Hitachi/Metabo have made such a product for their tools. After that Dewalt has one for their 12” miter saw. Haven’t heard of Makita or anyone else doing it yet though.

I recently saw it suggests elsewhere something along the lines of some potential for Sawstop to lobby OSHA to require their blade retraction design on all tablesaws sold in the US, and Makita doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. Sounds like a stretch to be perfectly honest, I was under the impression their patent was close to expiring. The other major thing coming is Dewalt’s parent on rack and pinion fences is close to expiring as well, which is why the feature is suddenly appearing on assorted née tablesaws in the market. If we’re lucky, Makita may be among the ones jumping on board.