ToolBane

There is a stop in only one direction so it’s easy to set back at 0 degrees. Once you untighten then yes, it bevels freely in one direction and requires hitting a release to bevel in the other.

I have a Ryobi cordless shop vac but have never had this problem. I definitely think your line of thinking is correct though. If the switch is doing what it’s supposed to it’s hard to think what else besides the control board could be the culprit.

You’ve probably checked as far as you can without taking them apart to confirm things definitively. It’s not like people making fakes keep company logs on how they go about making them or quality control checks or whatnot. That’s part of what makes them fake. The reason all your tools measure 12V is most likely because they are in fact operating on a 12V format of three lithium cells in series that would achieve a 12V Max charge. Also your pics give the impression of small batteries consistent with the 12V batteries a lot of real manufacturers offer which all use 3 lithium cells of size 18650. Whoever the fakers are probably got ahold of actual production files and reverse engineered them before labeling them with that completely fallacious 24-volt marketing claim. You could report it to the seller, but you’re correct that they likely already are well aware. After which the fakers just change their “product” to be more convincing fakes. What’s really funny to me is for all that effort making fakes that quite possibly work okay (but to be safe you probably should NOT continue to use) they could get a real job with a real company making better products. But oh well.

I’ve never seen or touched this tool but one thing I’m wondering is if the 1.5Ah battery is just too small and easily over-driven by the tool. If it’s old and/or in bad condition those things could also make it easier for protection circuitry to trip. I think you are correct in assuming the charger could not possibly charge the battery enough to make any difference, does it even need to be put on the charger to reset or perhaps it might just be resetting after a certain amount of time?

This thing just looks better and better to me the more I look at it. Dewalt has had their power station concept out a few years and Milwaukee has one coming. Guess this is Makita’s (newest) answer. Instead of charging a giant battery that turns around to charge more batteries, (which adds a layer of inefficiency to your power system,) just have your Hugh Jass battery power your high-draw tools directly, attachable to a backpack if you need to get around with it. Much more efficient, and the current capacity and output will be tremendous for both LXT X2 and XGT tools. This is going WAY past the capacity of the 12Ah batteries Milwaukee and Dewalt have, here. It doesn’t quite wipe out my desire to see Makita make LXT batteries in the 8-9Ah range...at least not unless they’re also making this capable of powering standard 18V LXT tools as well...but what it does address makes it extremely appealing regardless. Impossible not to mention, but it would also make for an extremely compelling means to power a cordless table saw, IF Makita has any inkling of releasing one (which I really hope they do). Having that kind of power on tap would blow away all the other offerings currently available. The more I think on it, the more I’m tempted to look at picking this up for my X2 miter saw. Oh yeah.

They look like fakes

So a backpack that can power either XGT or LXT X2 tools. Looks like a great option for OPE applications. And yowzers that is a pretty huge capacity.

Got a few recent additions over the last month. The compact Makita impact for general light auto while the Ryobi mid-torque is mostly for setting up camps at outdoor events. Gotta say, as overjoyed as I am that Ryobi finally released a brushless impact, the compact Makita is impressive in that it hits almost as hard. That Makita is basically the size of an impact driver. The circular saw honestly I only got out of principle as I hardly ever have a need for just basic rough circular saw type tasks, but it was on sale for $150. Makita NEVER puts this model on sale, so I decided to go ahead and grab it. Blade-left, compact, I at least see being able to find occasional utility for it. It being on sale, gotta wonder if Makita is close to announcing a replacement. But honestly I’m most excited about the CXT driver. It still isn’t available in the US technically, but a vendor in the UK was willing to send to me via Amazon. It will easily become my most frequently used CXT tool.

10-1/4”?!? WOW

Yeah and now I’m finally realizing which pics are actually yours vs the infomercial...your blade is ridiculously worn down and should be replaced. Looks like you kinda had every worst thing possible happening at the same time with your cuts. I bet you were even doing cross cuts (meaning perpendicular to the grain). Wow...yeah I can definitely see how you were getting such extreme tear out. Yowzers! I hope it didn’t ruin you project!

No problem and welcome to the forums. You know, I think I must have been pretty tired or distracted last night and didn’t even realize I did NOT at all read your full post that well, and missed what your actual issue even was. So, more direct to your actual issue, a framing blade will definitely NOT cut as cleanly as a finishing blade of higher tooth count. Also how dirty the blade is can play a role. For your purpose I would also bother to spend at least a small premium on a good blade. Diablo is a pretty popular brand for that. You also want to make sure the direction the teeth are going is INTO the good side of the wood that you intend to keep visible. For circular saws that means the side you intend to leave less visible should be facing you as you cut. That keeps the tear-out on the side where cosmetic finish isn’t as important.

High output batteries (and just larger batteries in general) absolutely do help power output the more a tool’s power demands happen to be...but that doesn’t mean they are a necessity for moderate-draw power tools such as this. It has to do with batteries having an internal resistance, and the larger the battery, the lower that internal resistance tends to be. The lower the internal resistance is, the closer the battery approximates a perfect voltage source (behaving more closely to the simplified physics you might learn in highschool). Now you can definitely get away with a moderate-size battery for most use on a compact saw such as this, but a slight edge in power might be something you end up taking a liking to. At the same time, a lot of these power tools that may predate Milwaukee’s “High Demand” batteries may not actually be able to handle the additional current capacity for long, as they were engineered, tested, and optimized on smaller batteries. This has probably contributed to premature failing in a number of moderately-aged tools from various manufacturers offering larger batteries in recent years. So pay attention as you go. Stay aware of excess heat accumulation and such, and if it seems like the tool is being driven beyond its happy space, pull back on it a bit.

The more time goes on the more I believe this simply isn’t a product Makita is likely to release. Every product they make even if it may initially seem out of left field (coffee maker) is ultimately something trades people are going to use pretty routinely. The recent upright vacuum cleaner is geared for use in hotels for example. A glue gun while having a lot of utility to home owners in the right situations is ultimately more akin to arts and crafts than it is to a dedicated trades person, of any industry. Now maybe they take a different attitude with their CXT line. In their own minds they may think of many of their current CXT tools as trades-worthy but to me they’re definitely more DIY, arts and crafts type products. Not a knock against them I own a few of them after all and like them quite a bit.

Looks stout. Impressive numbers if they prove true.

Your more specific description inclined me to check my XDT12 (model just previous to yours, almost certainly uses the same switch) to see if I notice anything similar. There IS a small degree of plastic-on-plastic rubbing when trying to slide with sideways pressure. Checked against my other Makita impacts and drills and it seems there’s varying degrees of it. It could easily have something to do with accumulated particulates or gunk in the mechanism, because it seems more pronounced on the tools I’ve subjected to the most “abuse”. I’m not personally bothered by it though, just as you say it only become apparent when you expressly try to pressure it from sideways which is entirely avoidable. Makita’s switches are pretty decently specced in the grand scheme.

I’ll be interested in hearing how these treat you. I’m happy enough with my current platforms but do have to say I like what Metachi is doing.

Wow...that’s pretty mediocre. I mean, maybe...just maybe...the torque load is too low (because taking lug nuts off a compact car should in theory be pretty trivial for this impact) that it’s tripping a sensor prematurely? Maybe it’s actually a setting that needs to be adjusted? Trying to be fair here, because if that’s three straight defective Milwaukees you’ve got that can’t even take lug nuts off that are torqued less than a tenth of the impact driver’s marketed specs that just plain atrocious.

That router looks extremely compelling. That multivolt line just gets more and more impressive.

Interesting changes. I’ve heard of some brands selling slightly different versions of the same tool depending on whether it goes to a business vs sold to general public. Also I can’t help but wonder if this is related to recent moves by TTI that have made Milwaukee products overlap more with Ridgid and Ryobi.

The concept of bendable tabs to remove the things is innovative in the way of being inexpensive, but that was always a turnoff to me and probably the main reason I didn’t pull the trigger on a couple m12 tools I had my eye on for a couple years. I imagine they “break in” over time? Which also concerned me for the reason you just mentioned...that they could also break after a while. The shells of these things are usually glass fiber reinforced plastic so the long-term resiliency should actually be pretty good but I would still imagine breaking them to happen every so often.

First thing I would suggest is sorting out all the tools you are likely to “need” as you go, and weed out the brands that either don’t perform well with them or just lack them outright. The “fringe” or most unique tools...if there are any...are the ones you want to pay closest attention to in my opinion. Pretty much everyone makes a decent enough drill and impact driver these days because that’s the first thing people buy, companies make sure theirs are not complete lemons compared to the rest of the market, so those aren’t what really differentiates the brands. They are also tools that companies will use to get people into their platform with on good promotions etc. Just about all of them are going to regularly offer $100 deals with a drill or impact, a battery, and charger. These kits are great ways to get into a platform, but they are NOT good indicators of what your long term investment is going to cost. So check the prices of the ranges of tools you’re considering for each brand to narrow down how pricey a platform you are willing to pay for. The costs of circular saws, routers, and especially bigger tools like miter saws and vacuum cleaners will be better indicators of what you may be looking at. A lot of attention gets lavished on the “Big 3” of Dewalt, Makita, and Milwaukee, and they are very good companies any of which will more than likely satisfy all your needs. But they’re pretty premium priced as they are oriented for professional daily use, and for most people doing home stuff (DIY as we like to say) you don’t probably need to spend that much. There are a lot of intermediate brands like Ridgid (Home Depot exclusive), Kobalt (Lowe’s exclusive), Hitachi/Hikoki, etc that for most people are also more than capable, and even complete “budget” brands like Ryobi and Craftsman are still likely to be able to handle most of what you want to accomplish. I happen to run Makita (spendy professional) and Ryobi (budget DIY, Home Depot exclusive). For my purposes which leans more toward carpentry as opposed to “rough” work like framing, Makita is a little more geared for precision relative to Dewalt and Milwaukee, and they have had some tools that there’s little to no competition for from anyone else. Then I have Ryobi as a backup platform, as they have a huge variety of products that almost no one else has. Ridgid is a unique brand as they offer a lifetime service agreement. You have to jump through hoops to ensure that you get it, and their lineup of tools is one of the narrowest on the market, but if you mostly just need “the basics” and having a long-term warranty strikes as appealing to you, they are a near-professional caliber company worth looking into. At the same time, both Kobalt and Hikoki/Hitachi/MetaboHPT are similarly capable tool ranges in the same price category that deserve serious consideration.

Sounds like a short in the battery or something. Sure hope it didn’t catch fire! By now I’m sure whatever cells were involved have discharged but keep it somewhere it can’t burn your house or anything else down and contact Dewalt on how they would like you to handle its disposal (and/or replacement, because I’m sure they would feel inclined to take good care of you after an incident like this).

Actually looks a lot more compact overall and they made a purposeful decision to make it easy to grip one-handed. The bulk proximate to the battery may also reflect conscious effort to balance the tool. And they certainly have AVT in big letters on there...they definitely want to make sure we know they took vibration control seriously on this model. You don’t happen to have a link to the catalog, by chance?

Craftsman to me makes sense against Ridgid and Kobalt. It would compete as well against Ryobi on account of the fact that Ryobi lately has been inching up into prosumer territory, but I don’t personally think they should be a bottom-of-the-barrel DIY company. They’ve already shoved Black and Decker into that niche and it hasn’t really gone well for them. Porter Cable just seems lost in the mix. Maybe it could be licensed as an exclusive line for a home improvement chain in a similar manner as Ridgid is for Home Depot, but along the way I agree with the sentiment that a unified battery platform shared with Craftsman makes a lot of sense. Have more product overlap to reduce development costs, and also have some versatility for consumers to have slightly varied tiers of tools without having to fully buy into entire additional platforms. Ultimately I don’t think it matters exactly where they decide to divvy up all their different brands across the market, they just need some concrete plan to commit to and stick with it.

A 1/2” router may incline me to get on board A tablesaw would be REALLY attractive to a lot of people I would think as well