Illini

I have to say that I have been pretty impressed with the Makita 18v tools that I have purchased. Their tools have held up well and offer all the performance I need. I originally bought into the platform when I was moving from ni-cad to lithium. I knew that brushless was the way I wanted to go and the LXDT01 was the only brushless Impact I could get my hands on at the time. I had actually planned on going with Dewalt for my 18v/20v tools, but I have found some good deals on Makita as of late and/or they have some brushless items that the rest of the big 4 don't offer, so I have found myself with more and more Makita.

I'm with madman and NER, the Franklin / Costco is an excellent choice.

I just got this bad boy in today. The kit had the brushless grinder,4.0 battery and charger for only $179. Thanks to Chris K for the heads up on the great deal.

That thing looks awesome! I really love all the 18v x2 tools Makita has been coming out with lately. Thanks for sharing.

I'm pretty sure that John (NER) is correct in that it comes with only 1 battery. I can tell you for sure when UPS delivered mine today.

Darn you, Chris! I was not intending on buying this grinder, but it was too good to pass up, so I ordered it last night. Thanks for posting this deal.

Wher did you pick those up for only $25, Madman? Pleas don't tell me the Bosch roadshow events at HD because I will kick myself for not going.

How was the Ontario, CA event, Madman? Any cool swag? I wanted to go to one of the events by me in Illinois, but I don't need another platform and didn't want to be tempted by any potential deals.

I know, it really was an awesome deal. It makes me wonder if Home Depot knows something about an upcoming 7 1/4 from Makita that we don't know about.

They had the Makita priced at $199.00 by me for a bit as well. HD then put a bunch of the saws on the clearance rack for $176.06. I kept my eye open to see what the next drop would be and I snagged the last one. The funny thing is that I couldn't find it initially and I had to ask an employee if they had any. He said he thought there was one saw left, but if it had dropped to $0.01, he couldn't sell it to me. luckily for me it was still priced at $58.03

Although I have only been buying brushless tools recently, I came across this Makita circular saw at Home Depot on clearance for 58 bucks and just couldn't pass it up.

KWC, is that some sort of rolling tough case on the left side of the first picture? Or is that a carrying case for a specific tool?

I'm with Sparky and Chris on trying to get brushless tools going forward. That being said, Home Depot by me just put the Makita x2 circular saw on clearance and I am having a hard time resisting the urge to get it.

Many years ago, my Mom worked for Hilti in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She liked her job and I did too as they would hold these family days where they showed off a bunch of their stuff. I still reme.ber how cool the concrete anchor demos were.

Thanks for posting this, Madman. I may try and hit the Mount Prospect, IL event on Monday.

Given the amount of electricity you use on average, how long do you anticipate it will tale for you to break even?

Thanks for the information, NER & Chris!

NER, I almost forgot...does the Makita have an LED on the jigsaw?

Thanks for the information regarding what was included with the jigsaw, NER. Interesting to hear that a battery indicator was not included. I thought Makita was putting them on all the new stuff. I guess I'll have to be on the lookout for their new batteries with built in gauges. On a side note, I checked out the MHS website you mentioned and the jigsaw was $20 cheaper than KMS, so thank you very much.

Do you have any idea if the $200.01 threshold is based upon the original Canadian price or if it is on the converted US price? I ask because I have been eyeing a brushless jigsaw crom Makita that is $229 via KMS, which would only be $189 US. If it is based on the Canadian price, I might just have to order more stuff to make it worth my while.

I'm glad Makita finally jumped on the battery indicator bandwagon. I just hope it doesn't take them forever to release these in the US.

I'm with Regopit on this one. If you are exposed to and/or ingest too much of anything, it isn't good for you. Heck, even drinking too much water can cause water poisoning.

Thanks for sharing this, Samuel. there are several good deals that I'm going to have a tough time resisting.

Nice review, NER. Even though I don't really have much of a need for a drywall screwdriver, I have still been eyeing this along with the dewalt model that was just announced/released. Now I want one more than ever.

thanks for doing all of the hard work to get this review up, Dwain. So as to keep you from crying, I went and checked it out on your site and you guys did tremendous job, just as you usually do.