DustyBear

In regards to Milwaukee, carpenters didn't have a piece of the pie, sure we use sawzalls and impact wrenches but they were more focused on electricians, plumbers, hvac & automotive. But even automotive had a smaller slice. Then we (carpenters) yelled out "what about us"? And Milwaukee heard and has been rolling out year after year, slowly but steadily. I'm confident that this framer will work very well, especially if it's anything like their 15g finish nailer.

If anyone is serious about sticking with air pneumatic nail guns this is the company that builds serious nailers. Bostitch is just one of the many companies Stanley has destroyed. https://www.maxusacorp.com/about-us-history/

You use rack and pinion every time you get in your car or truck, Dewalt didn't invent this, but it is one of the best types of fence systems. So why is it that you think Milwaukee should be spanked for offering their customers the best system that's to be offered? Why is it that your not spanking Bosch or Makita who refuse to upgrade, still using glide rails?

I don't have a long history with Dewalt batteries and what your experiencing must be very frustrating. I can say that I have a 4ah and a 5ah (18650) and the 4ah seems to give me a longer run time then the 5ah, being used on the same tools. Are your batteries being used in extreme conditions? I believe from time to time all the tool company's receive a bad batch of batteries and no customer should have to beg under warranty. I own a bunch of Milwaukee batteries; (3) 2ah, (8) 5ah, (6) 9ah and (6) 12ah all 18v and only (1) 9ah went bad at 2 yrs 6 months, but I didn't bring it to my Milwaukee service center till 2 yrs 10 months, however the gentleman behind the counter did test it and did hand me a new one, no pro rating and no questions asked (I did have my receipt). Having said that I recently looked up the reviews on Milwaukee's site and the 9ah's are getting terrible reviews, guys complaining about run time or charging problems, but the ones complaining are from recent purchases, like in the last 10 months, must be a bad batch, it happens.

When transitioning from my air nailers (PC), I bought a Craftsman C3 18g for punch lists and believe it or not it was reliable, also having the same ramp up as the Dewalts. When I gave away my C3 tools to a friend, I bought the latest Dewalt 16g (4 yrs ago) and it works very well. I like the nose pad or nose cushion on the 16g, I prefer it to all other non-marring tips. Having said that I also bought the Dewalt 18g which also works very well, but it has the poly cone type tip which I do not like, because if you try and toe nail the tool will slide away from where your trying to shoot and unfortunately the Dewalt 15g has the same cone tip, so I will not make that mistake again. So I looked into the Milwaukee's and bought the 16g & 15g, which are basically the same tool less the nail gauge. These are powerful nail guns and fast with zero ramp up. Here in the north east, we have a lot of older homes build with plaster wall and I can use the 15g to shoot through both the trim and plaster without a hiccup, just like my old air nailers, which is exactly what I wanted. I believe the Milwaukee Gen 2 18g nailer comes with different tips, if that's the case I'll buy that and sell my Dewalt 18g, but hold on to the 16g.

"I don't care how ProTool it rates,the design and ergonomics are terrible in Milwaukee!"@Disingenuoustalk.com! Team yellow, Red, Blue & Green bla, bla, bla. It's a circular saw, last time I checked they didn't reinvent the wheel. Got news for you, if your cross cutting 4x8 sheet goods all day, they both suck, because of the bubble butt battery location digging into your forearm while your reaching across, but you'll never see a review showing a guy cross cutting a sheet of plywood/osb! I've used both Milwaukee and Dewalt sidewinders and they are both powerful enough to be cutting framing material and are up to par for the diy'er, handyman and yes the home improvement carpenter building an addition on a house or building a deck, however if your on a site building town houses all day and have a stationary cut bench/location set up, then go electric.

That is the question and an important one, batteries are a big investment. My personal opinion is it's not so much the cells in the battery but the electronics controlling, regulating and communicating both the battery and tool. When the electronics faultier kiss the battery goodbye, the lithium won't charge or discharge correctly. I've only had 1 battery do this, a Milwaukee 9.0 at 2 yrs 10 months of a 3 yr warranty and Milwaukee replaced it at no cost. I owned batteries from Bosch, Dewalt, Milwaukee and Craftsman. If you read all these sites that talk about actual Lithium, they all seem to say that the lithium degrades even if sitting on a shelf and the longevity is no more then 2-3 yrs. Well the first platform I bought into was Craftsman C3, buying only a driver drill and 1/4" impact, then a sawzall, 4" grinder, impact wrench, vacuum and radio, with a bunch of 2.0&4.0 batteries. I beat the crap out of those tools and not 1 gave up, then I gave them all to a friend. It's now 6 years later and those batteries are still going strong. These "experts" also say that heat is the worst thing for these batts, however I have a friend who lives and works in Florida, working exclusively on sea docks, walls and boat houses, mostly PT material. He runs Dewalt 20v tools and has alot of those newer XR 6.0ah-20v batts (21700 cells) and doesn't seem to be having issues. Anyone who's been to FL, knows there's no shade and gets quite hot. 2 points; (#1) The company also uses Milwaukee 18v as well, so their building all of these board walks and structures out of PT and only using the 18v platforms. (#2) The flexvolt 6, 9 & 12ah and the newer XR 6 & 8ah batteries all use the same larger 21700 cells (food for thought). Now both Dewalt & Bosch are recognizing (perhaps witnessing Milwaukee) that the 18v platform has not reached it's limits yet and are designing and/or upgrading their existing 18v tools to work with these larger 21700 cells which hold and deliver alot more energy, which is a good thing for their loyal customers.