A Milwaukee Deal

Sometimes, I see a deal that makes me say "Wow." Today is one of those days. We normally sell this Milwaukee 18V 1/2" hammer drill kit for $269, but due to a special purchase it comes with a reciprocating saw and we're selling it for less. Not just less, but a lot less.

I'm going to have to call this a great deal for someone wanting either a drill or a sawzall and get back to work, though. It seems I always have too much of that work stuff left, as I'm sure most of you can relate to.

Drill Selectors

We've been working on a drill selector for some time now. As AJAX programming becomes more mainstream, we went ahead and developed this using that technology. The result has received positive reviews so far.

For cordless drills, you can try the cordless drill selector.

For electric, you can try the electric drill selector.

Any feedback is welcome, as well as suggestions for what selector you'd like to see built next. The technology was built flexible enough to handle just about anything we want to throw at it - I just need to figure out where to go next.

Makita 18V Lithium-Ion Drills - White vs. Blue

Today, we added the Makita BDF452HW 18V Lithium-Ion Drill to our website. The first thing you'll notice is that it's white. We nicknamed it "Shamu" when we first saw it. But what makes it different from the standard blue Makita BDF451 18V LXT Lithium-Ion drill?

Pricepoint

So the first thing that'll grab you is the price difference. Sure, $100 less is a big deal, but there's got to be a cause, right? I mean, $100 for blue dye in the plastic they use seems a bit high. But wait, looking at the specifications reveals the answer.

Batteries

The Watt Hours of the batteries differ considerably. On the BDF451, they use 3 AH batteries at 18V, which gives 54 Watt hours (AH * V). The BDF452HW has 1.5 AH batteries at 18V, which gives 27 Watt hours. So the runtime on the BDF451 is going to be twice that of the BDF452HW with the included batteries. What's being done here is that Makita, in trying to get to that $200ish pricepoint, has made smaller batteries for a "Value" line.

Charger

The charger included with the white model is a 15 minute charger which doesn't have a fan includes a fan, although it wasn't listed anywhere in the specs for the charger. The blue model includes the 45 minute optimum controller with temperature control via a fan to circulate air through the battery itself. This helps create a more even charge by having the cells in a more consistent state during charging.

Update: Makita will apparently be moving all of their tools to this charger, which will be 22 minutes on a 3AH battery and 15 on the 1.5AH.

Transmission

Also noted is that the BDF451HW uses a 2 speed transmission and the BDF452 uses a 3 speed. The difference in gearing makes for a 450 vs 560 rating for torque as well. Not that most people will notice the difference in torque, but that shows which markets each one is intended for.

Markets

The white model is intended for use in the high-end homeowner market, the DIY guys and low-end contractor market. The blue model is the flagship, with all the bells and whistles, designed for the professional that is using the cordless tools on a regular basis. They're both Makita quality, but they're just expanding their horizons a bit. The side handle, belt hook, and a few other minor differences make the BDF452 the choice for contractors, and most DIY and homeowner types won't even notice those are missing.

Good Call

I think Makita made a good call here going after the lower price market. This should make it a much easier choice between current 18V Ni-Cad and Li-Ion drills and moving up to Li-Ion. Kudos to Makita for being first to come out with a full featured Li-Ion cordless drill at Ni-Cad pricing.

Li-Ion Tool Sales History - Canada

With Li-Ion tools being out in North America for over a year now I think its time to take a look back and see how it went. What has been selling well, and what has not.

Disclaimer

First a disclaimer, this article by no means is reflecting on the actual quality of any of the products, just the sale history in my geographical area (West Coast Canada, Vancouver Area). I fully realize that other geographical areas may have completely different sales track records, which I would find very interesting to look at also. In fact, I would love to hear some of Brian's comments on how things are going in his part of the world.

History

First a little history. As we all know, Milwaukee Power Tools was the the first to introduce Lithium Ion Technology in North America with their V28 line, and they did so with a big splash. However, they had a very hard time keeping production up with the demand of the product because they couldn't make the batteries fast enough. What happened then is America gobbled up all the available product for about the first 8 months, which meant Milwaukee Canada simply had no units available for the northern distributors.

Product Arrival

By the time we finally got Milwaukee Li-Ion Products, Makita LXT showed up that same week, which was early January 2006. We made a very impressive display for both, having them side by side. On one side we had the larger, more powerful, more expensive 28v Milwaukee tools, and on the other side we had the more ergonomic, lighter, compact and less expensive 18v Makita tools.

Outcome

What happened? Makita 18v Li-Ion so far has completely out sold the Milwaukee 28v tools to the point where our stores will no longer be stocking the 28v series on a regular basis. It seemed the paying customer preferred less expensive lightweight ergonomic tools over the impressive brute power of the bigger tools.

More Choices

When the Bosch 10.8v pocket drivers arrived they to had very good response. The first 50 we got lasted barely a month. Dewalt 36v arrived shortly afterward, and has had very moderate positive response so far.

Current Trends

Right now, it looks like the consumer is leaning towards lighter, compact tools over the big heavy power houses. Milwaukee and Hitachi 18v Li-Ion has also just arrived into stock, but haven't been around here long enough to analyze the demand for them. I would like to know how other areas are responding to the Li-Ion tools. If anyone has information on the subject I would like to hear about it.

Article submitted by Chris of KMS Tools.

Buying Advice - Cordless Drills for Women

At Seach Engine Strategies Chicago in 2004, we had someone stop Matt and myself as we were leaving the ballroom after lunch because she noticed the Makita logo on the sleeve of our shirts. It was Shari Thurow (pictured to the right), well known author, successful busnesswoman and speaker at those conferences. She just had to tell us how much she loved her Makita drill - not because of the power, not because of the longevity, not because of any of the reasons we normally hear. She loved it because of the weight and the fit. It seems Makita makes a drill that fits smaller hands better, and this got me thinking.

Addressing Ergonomics
Makita has long been a leader in addressing ergonomics in making tools. I knew I couldn't pick out the best tools for women, but now that the number of employees here has grown substantially and we have quite a few female employees, I've been able to have them address what's comfortable to them and what isn't. In compiling this data, I now have enough information to put together a cordless drill buying guide specifically for women based upon the unique ergonomic needs of our female employees.

Our Panel of Judges
Our panel of judges consisted of our purchasing agent, our Human Resources director and our customer support team leader. Three ladies in very different jobs and age groups, so this seemed like a nice mixture of opinions to compile for this exercise. I didn't feel it necessary to drag all of our female employees out for this, especially when the first 3 opinions were nearly identical.

Tools to Avoid
The general feeling was that 18V and higher tools, especially the Ni-Cad models, were too heavy. Most of these also didn't fit smaller hands well, specifically the trigger. The handles were a bit too deep, making fully outstretched index fingers fall short of pulling the trigger easily. Weights range here, but some are as much as 6 lbs. in an 18V, making for a heavy drill.

Battery Removal
As a general rule, buttons on either side of the battery are tougher to use. Some brands. such as DeWALT and Panasonic, have the spacing far enough apart that our panel couldn't easily remove the batteries. Others, like the Makita BDF451, have a single button to make it much easier to remove. The Porter Cable 9824 was a single button on the side, which made for fairly easy removal.

The Hitachi DS14DVF3 wasn't overly tough like some of the drills tested were, but the 2 buttons were still more difficult than the Makita and Porter Cable. We also noticed that the higher Amp Hour rated Hitachi batteries were difficult to remove. In fact, when I went back to the call center they had just finished removing the battery from a Hitachi Impact, and it took two people. That's not exactly practical.

Variable Speed
If you're wanting something easier to start a screw / hole with, then the smoothness of the variable speed trigger is important. The Hitachi had a sudden jolt of power when it started up, as did the Milwaukee models we tried. Makita and Porter Cable seemed to have the smoothest triggers. It may not be a huge issue for you, but the less you are able to put your weight behind it the more important the slow startup speed becomes.

Decent Choices
There were two that were considered by our panel to be decent choices - mostly as a backup if one of the two ideal choices below weren't available. The first was the Porter Cable 9824. The balance wasn't too bad, but the weight was a little too much towards the top of the drill. The other decent choice was the Makita 6337DWDLE, which was 4.6 lbs. with battery. The weight seemed to be a bit more towards the front, making it top-front heavy. Again, the grip was a lot better fit than most of the drills we carry. With a little better balance, the 4.6 lbs. wouldn't have been an issue at all.

Best Choices
Two drills emerged as the best choices for women looking for a cordless drill. The first is the Hitachi DS14DVF3, which is a 14.4V Ni-Cad model. This was the best overall feel, is 3/4" shorter from the chuck to the back of the drill than the next model they liked, and has a reasonable amount of power for most jobs around the house. Best of all, it weighs in at just 4 lbs. with battery. The only real concern is that the battery is only 1.4 Ah, so runtime will be less than many of the heavier models.

The second is the Makita BDF451, which is an 18V Lithium-Ion drill. It weighs 4.6 lbs. like the 14.4V model mentioned above in the "Decent" section, but the balance is much better. It is ideal for jobs where power is essential. The Hitachi has 300 in. lbs. of torque, but this model has 560 in. lbs. without a lot more weight. With 3.0 Ah batteries that last twice that of Ni-Cad and Ni-MH models, the runtime will also be a consideration point - it should be nearly 4 times that of the Hitachi on the conservative side.

This model also includes some nice features in the dual LED lights just above the trigger, easy battery removal, very smooth trigger, 3 speed transmission and a removable side handle for added stability when putting your weight behind it. The belt clip was also a nice touch, even if it probably doesn't get used all that often.

Price Considerations
Price is always a consideration when buying tools. Clearly the best value is the Hitachi, which is priced around $100 with 2 batteries, charger and a flashlight. The Makita is over 3 times as much, making it only an option when the power or runtime are essential. If you have need of more cordless tools to go along with this one, the Makita LXT400 kit has a more attractive price when considered on a cost per tool basis, and each has similar ergonomics and weight to the BDF451.

We'll Take Requests
Got a specific tool that you'd like to get our judges to review? Leave a comment and I'll have them take a look at it. If they warrant individual reviews (such as completely different tools), I'll post them that way. If you're asking about a specific drill, I'll add that to this article. Either way, we will address any requests to assist you in selecting a power tool.

Dual Drill - Two Heads Make One Bad Idea

Brad, one of our Customer Service Reps (if you've called us, you may have talked to him), asked me if I had seen the infomercial with the gimmicky drill yet with the flip around head. I hadn't at the time, but now I can say that I have. They called it the "Dual Drill", and I've got to say - it's revolutionary. Well, if you consider a very bad idea revolutionary.

Drilling Power
Let's start out with some basics of drills. They spin, and to have power in doing so will need a solid connection between the motor and the chuck. Anything that can flip and use a different chuck with minimal effort doesn't have a solid connection between the two. That means you'll have limited power at best. It may not show up when drilling small holes like they show on the infomercial (appeared to be 1/8" or less), but if you're trying to use a wood spade or a holesaw, you're going to want a different drill.

Drilling Speed
According to their site, this drill is "0-550rpm". What's my Makita 18V cordless drill run? 0-450 on the low setting, and 0-1400 on the high speed setting. Making holes on the slow speed is pretty annoying. The high speed is much better for drilling. The newer models are 0-1700 rpm. I also noticed they don't have a clutch for the screwdriving chuck of the dual drill. That's not even a true drill/driver. It's just what they called it, a dual drill. So why do they show it driving screws? They probably figured nobody would notice.

Chuck Quality
A quality chuck alone runs around $30 each. If you have 2 of those, there's no way they can make a decent drill with the cost that's left. Adding in a charger and a battery doesn't leave much, then a case and the included bits? There is no way that the chucks are of a reasonable quality, let alone the rest of the tool.

Crafty Camera Angles
They show a "Contractor" drop one of these out of the 4th story window. It falls, the battery comes off, but it still works once they put it back on. Well, as it's falling we see it turn on its side. Let's just say that it was carefully dropped at a specific angle to do the least damage. They also don't show it actually hit the ground, so who knows if they cut away and have a different drill or not. They also drop it onto material that will reduce impact. They're not dropping it onto anything as hard as concrete or even packed dirt. It was dropped onto a loosely packed rubble pile. At the angle it was dropped, I'd venture a guess that any drill could handle that fall into a pile of soft materials.

Google Shows Deceit
Not that most "Only on TV" products don't have that problem, but I wanted to point out that this one is no exception. Some are even as bad as this customer comment on HSN's site about the infomercial itself:

Customer Reviews

What a deal! (Dana, GA)		01/27/2006
My husband is a tool junky. He saw the info on this and had to have it. We ordered off the infomercial and 3 weeks later had heard nothing and they hadn't taken the money from the charge card. He was very upset. I decided to look on HSN. Found it and ordered it. He had the drill in hand within a week. 2 weeks later we got the charge from the infomercial order. Needless to say . . . HSN is great!

There were some others that came up on the first page of results for this product as well. Sites like www.infomercialscams.com had several complaints already listed, which isn't good for a newer product.

Other Clues
There are some other clues that this company doesn't intend to be around long. If you go to the official site, which is listed as dualdrill.com but redirects to tvgoods.com/carts/dualdrill/index.php?t=tv&m=tv&c=na&k=www.dualdrill.com, you'll quickly see that clicking on the "Customer Care" link shows their other "quality" products, and a different phone number for each. However, the Dual Drill has 2 phone numbers depending on when you placed your order. Nice. The page for the Dual Drill also doesn't look like the rest of their website, which is a sign that it isn't a reputable company.

The Dual-Drill® is the perfect gift, but the manufacturer has only allotted us a limited amount. This is an amazing offer you need to jump on right away!

Nothing says I'll be around tomorrow like the terms "Limited amount" and "jump on right away"... especially on the "Official" website.

As part of this introductory offer we're adding something nobody else does. Order the Dual-Drill® now and we'll give you free replacement batteries for life * - just pay the shipping!

Let's face it - every battery quits working eventually. Offering free replacement batteries for life, with the "Life" having the * next to it, sort of implies that there is a weird condition here. If it were free with the *, that'd be a different story. They do have a note saying "* When your Dual-Drill® battery wears out, simply send it back to us and we'll send you a new battery, and all you pay is shipping and handling." They don't say how much that shipping and handling is, nor do they say what "life" implies. If that's the life of the battery, then it's worthless. If that's the life of the company, it may be worth even less than that.

One Final Clue
For those of you not familiar with "Search Engine Optimization" (I'd assume most of you here aren't), the use of hidden text is something you'd do for a short term gain if you don't care about keeping the ranking for a long time. They included hidden text of "Home of the Dual-Drill, also known as dualdrill, duel drill, dueldrill, and dual drill." on the homepage of the product (scroll to the bottom of the page and press CTRL+A to see it). Hidden text is a spamming technique and is generally considered a very bad idea if you're running a legitimate company that intends to be around for a while. Most search engines will find that and penalize the site, although not usually for a short while - which is where the short term gain comes in as well as the long term loss.

Bad Idea and a Shady Looking Company
Not only do I find this to be a bad idea if you really want a drill and not just a glorified screwdriver, this also seems like a very shady company for the reasons I've listed above. If you don't want to get taken to the cleaners, I'd avoid these people and buy a quality drill from a leading manufacturer of cordless drills. Adding a quick-change set will allow you to switch the bits out easy enough that you wouldn't see much of a benefit from this drill from an ease perspective, but you'll also have a lot more power and a much faster drill from a company that has been around this industry for quite some time. If this "Dual Heads" were really a good idea, one of the current manufacturers would have purchased that patent.

Do Your Own Research
Don't take my word for it. These were just my observations on this product. Do some searches on Google. Watch the crafty angles of the commercial. Do some research, check out the reviews, and remember that good tools will be available from an industrial supplier.

Features of a Drill / Driver

Drills can do more than just spin. At least they can if they're a hammer drill or a drill / driver. But what is it that makes a drill a drill / driver?

Screwdriving
In case you hadn't alraedy figured it out, the driver part refers to driving screws. This doesn't just mean that you can put a phillips bit into the chuck and use it. This means it is truly designed for driving screws. But what is it that makes it designed for driving screws?

Adjustable Clutch Mechanism
The feature that makes a drill / driver really suitable for driving screws is the adjustable clutch. By setting the clutch to a lower setting, it'll stop when the screw just starts to get snug. By adjusting it the other way, it'll get much tighter. The idea is that you can drive a screw and not have to worry about stripping out the material by over-tightening. That's such a timesaver if you get it set right. Just start low and adjust it until it gets to the right setting.

Still works like a standard drill
As the fact that it is a drill / driver implies, it also works as a drill. There is a mode that turns off the clutch completely so it functions as a drill. The dual modes make the tool much more useful than just having a drilling mode.

More useful, so look for the driver mode
Even more useful is the drill / driver / hammerdrill, but many people won't ever need the hammerdrill capabilities. I'd personally recommend at least looking for a drill / driver, as I know that my in-laws, my father and I personally use our cordless models for driving screws quite often. Making holes is only so useful. Screwdriving expands the uses for a drill many times over and means it'll get a lot more use. Being able to use it more makes it a better value.

Features of a Hammer Drill

Drills are pretty common. Most people have at least used one, and probably a majority of households have at least one drill. One question that I've been asked a few times when I mention that I have a Makita 18V hammer drill (an older model pictured to the right) is "What's the difference between that and a regular cordless drill?"

Multiple Modes
Well, the first difference is that there are multiple modes. A standard drill has just one mode : spin. A few add a clutch for driving screws, but most just turn in circles and don't bother stopping. Hammer drills usually have 3 modes. The first is driving, which engages the clutch for driving screws. Secondly, there is drilling. Lastly, we have hammer drilling. But that still doesn't tell us what hammer drilling means.

Blows Per Minute
Yes, this could sound very bad if you're not thinking about cordless power tools. Ok, it still could sound bad. But it isn't meant that way. Essentially, there is more than just spinning going on with hammer drilling. It also has some impact going on, similar to a jackhammer. The chuck (bit holding device for those geeks who can't tell one end of the drill from the other) has the added motion of towards and away from the material. This isn't useful in all cases, but a few special instances it sure is.

Concrete Drilling
When drilling concrete, the hammering motion is a huge help. It not only allows for some chipping to occur (that makes for much faster drilling), but it also helps to clean out some of the debris from the hole as you drill. This leads to more efficient drilling, longer bit life, and a happier user.

Makes Holes in Wood, Too
By switching off the hammer motion, the hammer drill will act just like a normal drill for drilling normal materials like wood, plastic and steel. By having the option, you can use the same drill for more applications. In my book, that's a good thing. I like it when I can do more without buying additional tools. I guess that's why I like Swiss Army knives.