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.

Need some Milwaukee 18V batteries?

Milwaukee just gave us an insane deal. They have a triple bay charger with 2 18V batteries for under $100 right now. That's a great deal for 2 batteries, and with the multi-bay charger thrown in you've got yourself a bargain.

On a side note, Matt says it looks like they made the charger much smaller than they used to. The truth is, it's actually just not to scale with the batteries in the picture. That's what happens when we use PhotoShop to create product images of multiple items.

** Added ** This is the older charger that doesn't handle Li-Ion batteries. Rather than being stuck with them, Milwaukee is trying to boost battery sales by giving away the older chargers. Still, it's a great deal if you're using 18V Milwaukee cordless tools.

Convert your Ni-Cad Milwaukee Tools to Lithium-Ion

Milwaukee Tools just started offering a cool upgrade for existing customers with Ni-Cad tools. It's a kit (2 batteries and a charger) that allows you to power the older Ni-Cad tools with their newer Li-Ion batteries. For around 2 bills, that's not bad at all if you've got several tools already that you'd like to give the longer run-times.

What's even better is that they're offering a 5 year warranty on these batteries. with the first two years being exchange replacement.

Why would you want to do this? There are a couple of reasons. The biggest being that the weight of Li-Ion batteries is considerably less than Ni-Cad, which means your tool using experience will be much more pleasant. Li-Ion also have a longer runtime and more charges in their lifetime.

While this isn't a "Throw out your old working batteries" type of an upgrade, if you've got some aged cells and are looking to freshen your personal battery inventory, this appears to be a great way to go. If the other manufacturers offered this, I'd be all over those, too. It's hard for me to pass up new geek toys.

For more information, including current pricing, you can take a look here.

Milwaukee Sawzalls

One item Milwaukee Tools is best known for is the Sawzall. While that's a trademarked term, other manufacturers also make them (going by the name recip saws, which is short for reciprocating saws). But what is really interesting to me is the number of models that Milwaukee makes of this type of tool. But what is the reason for making so many unique SKUs of sawzall? I'll examine the top selling models a little closer today to show what the main differences are.

Saws of interest

The models I'll be looking at today are the 6536-21 13 amp Super Sawzall, 6523-21 360° Rotating Handle Super Sawzall, 6519-22 10 amp Sawzall, 6509-22 10 amp Sawzall, and the 6509-20 10 amp sawzall.

First things first - Amps

The first thing that people usually look at with a Sawzall is the amp rating. Of these, 3 are 10 amp and 2 are 13 amp. But what does that mean? Most people think that the amp rating states how much power the tool has, but that's not necessarily the case. Matt already wrote about this, so I'll just quote his blog entry on the topic.

You know that amp rating that so many consumers use to determine how much {insert manly growl} power a tool has? It really means very little. The rating process is kind of silly. The testing labs get a tool from a manufacturer and are told "We would like to be rated for 12.0 amps". The testing lab then puts heat sensors in certain areas of the tool, and then apply the requested current to the tool... as long as the sensors do not get above a set temperature in a set amount of time, then the lab says "Hey this is a 12.0 amp tool!"

Thanks, Matt. So now that we know that amps aren't that much of a difference, what should we look at now?

Price

Price seems like something that most people would be at least somewhat interested in. Arranging these by price, we get a range from about $109 to $189. That order looks like 6509-20, 6509-22, 6519-22, 6536-21 and 6523-21 is the highest. But that doesn't really tell us what the differences are yet, now does it?

Cases

One thing that can be noticed by looking at the "Standard Equipment" on each of these tools is that the 6536-21, 6523-21, and the 6509-22 all come with a carrying case. The 6519-22 and the 6509-20 do not. In fact, the only difference between the 6509-20 and the 6509-22 is the case. For $10, it seems that many people don't want the case. Choose wisely.

Stroke Length

One of the actual differences is the stroke length. The 6509 models are 3/4" stroke, the 6519 is 1-1/8", and the 6536 and 6523 are 1-1/4" stroke lengths. What that means is the in-and-out motion is 3/4" to 1-1/4" depending on model, which leads to the ability to cut smaller / larger materials easier. For most jobs, the longer stroke length is actually a plus. If you're cutting into a wall and don't want to poke out the other side or cut hidden wires, you may want the shorter stroke. That's just something you'll need to decide.

Orbital Action

If you've used a sawzall much at all, you'll quickly find out if it has orbital action or not. When cutting wood, orbital movement allows for the cutting motion to move a bit front-to-back, which allows the sawdust to fall from the material being cut. This speeds up cutting and adds to the life of the blade. The 6509's and 6519 don't have orbital action, while the 6536 and the 6523 include this feature.

Cord Type

On the 6509 and 6536, Milwaukee uses a fixed cord. Most people prefer the Quik-lok cord available on the 6519 and 6523 models. This makes it possible to replace a cut / frayed cord without opening the tool - even at the jobsite. As with any saw, the cord can easily be cut by accident, so this is a nice feature if you'll be using the saw quite a bit.

Keyless Blade Clamps and Shoes

All of these models have a keyless blade clamp. All of the models except the 6509 also include a keyless shoe adjustment. Since most people don't even know what the shoe is for, that probably doesn't make much of a difference. If you're one of the people that understands it (hint: it allows you to use other segments of the blade), then the keyless is a nice feature to look for.

Rotating Handle

The 6523-21, while it has all of the nice features listed above, also goes one step further. It also includes a rotating handle. This is designed to make the sawzall even more versatile by allowing the handle to rotate and lock at 45° increments. It can even rotate all the way around without going back to the starting position. That's just dandy, but why would you want that? Simple - flexibility. If you're cutting and want to go right-to-left instead of top-to-bottom, rotating the handle makes that much more comfortable. It also helps keep that pesky cord out of the way when cutting in cramped areas.

V28 Cordless

While these are all electric, It'd be silly not to point out that Milwaukee also offers their V28 Cordless Sawzall for those that just can't cope with a cord all the time. I personally prefer the idea of cordless, but it's a much higher pricepoint if you're not going to be using it very often. For a couple hundred dollars less, that 6523-21 looks awfully nice to me.

Is that a V28 Engine under the hood? Milwaukee Li-Ion Chevy Bel-Air

The "Red Line" tour came to our place today. This included the Monster Garage built V28 powered car. Not only is this thing cool to look at, it's also pretty darn quick - getting up to almost 100 mph in the quarter mile. It runs from 384 of Milwaukee's V28 Li-Ion batteries and drew quite a bit of attention (yes, that's almost $50k and 900 lbs of "fuel" for those keeping score at home, not including the 210 V28 chargers). I'm sure that seems like a decent chunk of cash to most of us, but our rep stated that getting this car built cost them $275k, so it's not all that much in comparison.

Now that you know what powers this beast, allow me show you some of the details of this interesting rechargeable automobile.

Stock looking interior

As you can see, the inside is fairly "standard". Nothing overly impressive, other than it looks great for being a 1962 vehicle. Milwaukee had it done in their black and red color scheme with some white highlights, but it still looks pretty stock. It wasn't perfect, but it was also done pretty quickly for the show and wasn't what they were really concerned with. They did, after all, just want to make something that went fast down the 1/4 mile track, and 93 mph in 14.5 seconds isn't too bad for a power tool battery powered car.

Interesting accellerator

If you look really close (clicking on the image to zoom in a bit helps), the gas pedal is actually like those used on boats for trolling motors. I found that a bit amusing that they ended up using one of those, but it is understandable since they're running electric motors with it and not moving a lever to open up the carb letting more fuel and air in. I hadn't ever really thought about what they would use for an accellerator, which is probably why it stood out as much as it did to me. Either way, the feel was a bit different and I thought it was worth noting. The wire coming off of it will be re-run at some point, but for now it's functional.


Stock from the front

From the front, this car looks fairly stock as well. Nothing really screams "electric muscle car" from the outside. Come to think of it, electric muscle car is sort of an odd term. The other phrase I heard to describe this is "High-tech classic". That didn't really make much sense either. An electric car shouldn't be considered a classic if you ask me, regardless how old the body style is. But I would have to agree that it's sweet technology, as would most any classic car enthusiast. I'd still prefer a V8 over a V28, but that wouldn't help with Milwaukee's marketing like this does.

Sweet wheels

The wheels that they chose looked pretty nice as well. I like the Milwaukee logo sweeping across the fender, even if some of the paint had already decided to bubble and start peeling. But hey - it's a classic car body that's been on the road being shown at tool stores around the country, so you can't expect it to be perfect. It's still plenty shiny, and those low-profile tires look nice. I'm just glad I didn't have to mount them on the rims. That would have been a real pain in the back-end. I guess that's why I decided to be a geek and not a tire changer for a career.

Under the hood

Now that you've seen the outside, it's time to take a peek under the hood. Being an electric, it looks quite different. No gas lines, just electrical wires. No oil dipsticks, no air filters, just solenoids and fuses. But since it's a newer technology, it's pretty neat to look at. I think it's cool that a car can run that fast and be almost completely quiet, void of the typical rumble of exhaust pipes. Obviously, if it were a commercial vehicle it would have the wires hidden a bit more, but it's not so it was just made to be functional and semi-pretty to look at. I'll include a few more pictures below from under the hood, just because it's neat.




In this last "motor" picture, notice how fire was hand drawn coming from one of the monsters. Sort of a neat touch.


The Fuel

As you can see from the underside, there is no gas tank. Why would anyone need a gas tank on an electric car? Some of the straps for transportation are still draped over the rear end and sway bar (was that supposed to go there - the bar now looks bent), and you can see that the power cables aren't actually hooked up. At the top of the picture, you can see that the trunk was wood lined, which allowed for easy mounting of the battery receptacles. No, there weren't 384 batteries installed, but looking up it was easy to see where they all went.

Battery mounting system

To the left is the view from under the trunk. For whatever reason, they couldn't get the trunk to open, but from the underside all of the battery positions were visible. I was a little shocked to see rust on the underside of the trunk, but it is a '62 Bel-Air body with 43 year newer battery technology - and it shows in areas. The car is still sweet, but it isn't immaculate like I was expecting. In their defense, they did put it together in 4 days and have it scheduled to go in for a complete refinishing (body / interior) after this week. We're one of the last stops to get to see the Monster Garage's original work.

It was an interesting distration from our usual power tool workplace. Given a few more of these events, my blog won't even have to talk about power tools - just the publicity stunts that the manufacturers are trying. But until we get to that point, I'll be going back to Power Tool blogging for a while... except for an upcoming Milwaukee Chopper post.

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.

Milwaukee Pneumatics Arriving

That's right, Milwaukee Pneumatic Nailers are going to be arriving next week, most likely on Monday. Quantities are going to be a bit limited at first, but they should ship in a reasonable time if we run out of any particular one. They've done some very nice things with them, as Matt has pointed out here.

Our Milwaukee rep told a guy today that he was buying the best gun on the market... until Monday when the Milwaukee's come out. From what I've seen so far, I'd have to say that he was probably pretty accurate. They did their research, and it should be a great product launch.

Here's to those Old Milwaukee's Best... I mean those New Milwaukee air nailers. Cheers!

Air Tool Maintenance - Oil, Filters and Thread Tape

Air tools are pretty simple, right? Plug in an air hose to a compressor on one end, turn the compressor on and hook your air tool up to the other end of the hose. Or is it that simple? Being more of a cordless and electric power tool guy myself, I had to do some asking around to get the answer to that. So now that I have the answers, I'll share those with you.

Air Tool Oil

Most people know that cars need an oil change every 3,000 miles. I'd also say that most people don't change their oil quite that often. But most of us understand that the pistons generate a lot of friction inside of a car motor, and the rings wear out faster without proper lubrication. So what's that have to do with air tools? A lot.

Inside of an air tool, there are pistons and rings as well. The rings aren't metal like they are in a car motor - instead they're rubber o-rings. But the piston itself still needs some lubrication. It is essential that the metal to metal surfaces get something slippery between them so that they don't generate excessive heat and friction, which would cause premature wear.

Oiling an air tool is pretty simple. Before you use it, just add a couple of drops of air tool oil to the tool through the air fitting. For tools that get used once every now and then, just once before using it for the day is good enough. If it is a tool getting heavy use, it would be a good idea to add a few drops a few times through the day.

Filtered Air Fitting

Most air tools don't require a filter, and most don't include one, but it is such a good idea that Coilhose Pneumatics came out with that we're recommending them for everyone. A few manufacturers, such as Milwaukee nailers and Max Tools, are including filters on the tools themselves. For everyone else, adding a filtered air fitting can keep dust and debris out of the piston chamber.

Again, automobiles use air filters to keep dirt and rocks out of the combustion chamber and away from the moving pistons. Air tools have a similar piston setup, so keeping dirt and debris out of the chamber of an air tool is just as important. Air compressors include filters for the incoming air, but some dirt will still make its way through and into the hose. For under $10, these filters are an inexpensive insurance policy for a long too life.

Once you install one, you just need to remove the hose every so often to let the pressure inside the tool release and blow out the filter. They don't need to be replaced every 10,000 nails or so many miles of shingles. The fitting will keep working just fine if you allow it to get blown out every few uses. Of course, most air tools get disconnected fairly often anyway so it shouldn't ever be something you'll need to think about.

Teflon Thread Sealing Tape

Not really maintenance, but still a necessary item is teflon tape. Taping your air fittings seals the threads, which prevents leaks and makes your compressor run less frequently. Less frequent running will lead to longer life, but it also means there is less of a chance that it'll pull more dirt in to blow into your air tool.

The tape seems simple enough, but applying it properly is really an art form. We got a good chuckle at our Milwaukee rep when he first brought in their pneumatics. He hadn't ever applied tape before, so it sure didn't come out looking pretty like the picture to the right. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough, but until then Matt has some photo evidence of his first attempt. To his credit, he did come to us to learn about air tools instead of trying to figure them out himself.

Basically, all you really need to do is get 2 - 3 full clockwise wraps around the threads. Clockwise makes it so that as you screw the fitting in it doesn't come off, the 2 - 3 wraps gets just enough thickness so it'll properly seal without being so thick that it won't fully screw in.

But wait - There's more!

There is a bit more to maintaining an air tool, such as o-rings, cleaning, driver blades and jam clearing. But the basics above are the only ones that really apply equally to every air tool. If you've got questions on a specific tool, leave a comment or send an email and I'll either reply directly or do an entirely new post (giving a link, of course).

Filtered Air Fitting

In our new product feed (you have that RSS feed set up, right?) I noticed something cool today. Ok, so Matt noticed it first, but I'm writing about it before he gets a chance. It's just an air fitting, but it has the unique aspect of having a filter which gets installed at the tool.

FilterPlug with Blow Back Filter

The FilterPlug incorporates the features typically found in an in-line filter directly into the pneumatic plug. The design gives true at-the-tool filtration and reduces the possibility of contamination. That has the effect of reducing wear and extending tool life, which I can certainly say is a good thing. Best of all, this compact unit protects your tools while adding almost no weight or bulk.

Not Always Necessary

This filtered fitting won't always be necessary. For example, most of the Max nailers have internal filtration. Many of the new Milwaukee pneumatics have them built in as well. Then there are disposable air tools from the big box stores, which tend to just get abused anyway. But the air tools I have could certainly use this little addition.

It may not always be necessary, but for under $10 it seems like cheap insurance to make sure the internals of my pneumatic tools don't get damaged.

New V28 Tools Coming Soon!

Our Milwaukee rep was in again today, and he let me know that there are some new V28 tools on the way. Four to be exact.

1) 1" Rotary Hammer
How cool is this? A cordless SDS-Plus rotary hammer! Just what I've never needed. Then again, I've never needed a rotary hammer anyway. If I did, cordless would sure be a nice option. These should be cool for demolition crews like Matt used to work on.

2) Right-Angle Drill
There are a lot of times that I've thought a right-angle would be nice to have. I'm glad they're changing this one over. Milwaukee has always made nice right angle drills, so this could be a huge seller for them.

3) Metal Cutting Saw
I wasn't exactly sure what the difference between a regular circular saw and a metal cutting circular saw was, so I asked. It seems that a metal cutting circular saw has a housing to collect metal shavings and runs at a different RPM. A regular circular saw with a metal blade will send metal shavings at the user, so it's more fun to watch from a safe distance, but much lower on the safety ratings.

4) Jobsite Radio
The Milwaukee radios have always sounded nice with their Rockford Fosgate speakers. By having V28 power, they should be able to bump up the wattage and really have a good sound to them. It may seem ho-hum to most people, but I'm thinking the sound could be almost to the point of good on these, unlike most jobsite radios that are more on the "I can live with it" level. I guess we'll know soon enough. The official statement from their website is "With up to 44 watts of total system power and upgraded amplifier and speakers, this unit will accept 12 to 18 volt Ni-Cd and V18 to V28 Li-Ion Milwaukee battery packs. Under V28 power, the unit will run 50 percent longer." Sweet music to my ears.

More on the way in the not-so-distant future
He also assured us that, among others, the V28 powered jobsite microwave was still going to be coming out in the near future. That'll be the fun one. I'm going to see if we can make him use a cordless microwave to make TV dinners and microwave popcorn for everyone here when they get released. Fun for the whole family!

V28 Jobsite Microwaves?

Yes, I said V28 Microwaves. Our Milwaukee rep is so pumped about the future widening of the Milwaukee cordless line that he's predicting things as wild as jobsite microwaves, outdoor power equipment, table saws, miter saws, bench grinders - you name it, they're looking at making it cordless. I suppose that any company that is crazy enough to make a cordless tool battery powered car that runs 100MPH in the 1/4 mile is bound to come up with some oddball products with their cordless line, and it should be exciting seeing the races as the other manufacturers try to keep up in making everything cordless.

I'm looking for comments on the craziest cordless tool concept.

A cordless jackhammer comes to mind.

Cordless concrete saw? Could be possible.

Cordless drywall lighting system? Sure, why not?

How about a V28 powered electrical generator? (Actually, that was something our rep threw out, so it may not be so crazy.)

V28 powered charger for an 18V battery? Ok, that's just silly.

How about a V28 powered forklift?

What can you imagine?

Milwaukee V28 Price Drops and Free Tools!

Milwaukee has given us the green light on some price drops on the V28 line of tools. Now that stock levels are where they need to be to keep us supplied, we dropped the prices to make them more attractive. I'm not sure if it is coincidence with the recent article in The Journal of Light Construction that Milwaukee placed on their site or not, but the timing seemed a little suspicious.

Ripe for the picking
Couple the price drops with the fact that Milwaukee has an aggressive rebate program right now where you get your choice of another V28 tool (tool only, no extra batteries, charger or case) by mail when you buy any of the individual tools and they're ripe for the picking. I've been sticking with my Makita 18V kit, but this really has me thinking.

Power to spare
I've been wanting to get a cordless impact for a while. Of couse, I already mentioned how much power the Milwaukee model has. But when I can get a porta-band and the impact for the price of a porta-band, it gets more tempting. I know I don't need that much power, but Makita doesn't make one that'll work with my 18V batteries anyway and I can't justify moving up to the LXT Lithium-Ion models when I have so many of the 18V Ni-MH models (and batteries) already.

Lead me not into temptation
There's no need to lead me into temptation. I can find it myself, thanks. So why hast thou forsaken me, Milwaukee? I hear the call of the wild, and it says buy one so I can get one. It's just not fair. Please, Milwaukee, hide these offers from me in the future.

Tool (dis) organizer

Today, we added the Milwaukee Bucketless Tool Organizer (49-17-180) to our website. The name sounds easy enough, but my first thought when looking at the picture was that it was rather disorganized looking for an organizer, but that's what Milwaukee supplied.

50 Pockets?
First off, what would anyone do with 50 pockets? I have a hard time finding my keys with only 4 to choose from, let alone 50. I'm confident that I could lose lots of stuff when I organize into 50. Of course, the most commonly used items should be easy to find, but that's not what I need an organizer for. I need it for those things that I don't use continually but still want to have along.

Two halves of the battle
So I guess I'll start thinking about what I'll drop in here when I order one. Half of the battle will be finding the tools I want in it, the other half will be deciding which ones of those I really use enough to keep them along with me all the time.

Future upgrades
Of course, as soon as I find a 51 pocket model, I'll need to upgrade. Or, if they have a bucket-using / bucket-less model, that'll need an upgrade. That reminds me --- my 3 17" LCD monitors on this machine are getting old. Time for an upgrade.

Milwaukee V28 Impact selling point?

When the V28 line of Milwaukee cordless tools first came out, we had a customer come in and wanted to see if the impact had enough power for the lugnuts on his brand new dually. It's listed as 325 ft-lbs of torque, but what does that mean when you're using it? We had a battery charged up, so we took it to the parking lot to see what it would do.

Removed the lug
It removed the lug nut just fine. No problems at all there. In fact, it didn't even seem to think twice about this simple task. The V28's have more than enough power for pulling off a lug nut.

Installed the lug
It didn't have any problems when installing the lug, either. It tightened it up in no time flat, and it gave a couple of clicks so we knew it was tight. That was the point he should have stopped.

One more time
The customer pulled the trigger once more - just to make sure it was tight enough. Well, that was one time too many. He managed to shear off the stud with that little pull of the trigger.

Bought the tool
He was impressed with that, and bought it immediately. He didn't need any more proof that it had some power. The funny part is that relating that story to people in the store, many immediately say "That's the one I need then".

How much is too much?
That brings up the question - how much is too much? I don't personally need to shear the studs off of the wheels of my father's Jeep to know if something has enough power to put a lug nut on or not. I don't need the most powerful tool on the market. The jobs I do never require the biggest, baddest, meanest tool in existence. I'm usually just driving a screw, setting an anchor, or changing a tire. Even some of the much lower voltage tools can handle those jobs without much effort. But, being Americans, we feel inclined to buy too much instead of what may only do what we need. I'm sure someone will come out with a 350, 400 or even 500 ft-lb impact at some point, but what's the use if it breaks everything you're trying to assemble?

Getting a longer runtime for my cordless blower

There is an upcoming product announcement from one of our manufacturers which Matt has mentioned in his article "It's time to put your favorite tools on Lituium (ion)". No specifics yet, but you can probably guess who and what the announcement will be without all the details or specifics. At first, this seemed sort of like just a geeky thing to do to me. Changing battery technologies is cool and all, but for an IT guy how useful would that really be? Well, I'm having trouble deciding.

High Drain Applications
Obviously, longer runtime is a big deal for high current applications. If you only use a cordless flashlight there's not a real reason to switch, unless you're in Alaska and have those 24 hour nights and no charger. Ok, so you'll have to consider it twice there too with the charging problems with cold weather. But when you've got a geeky tool like the Makita UB181DZ which boasts a whopping 9 minute runtime, Lithium Ion may become a HUGE deal. Even if it only doubles the runtime, I could probably get all the grass clippings off of my driveway without swapping batteries.

Fewer Batteries
Right now, I have 4 batteries for my tools. I typically have to use 2 fully charged batteries for blowing off the driveway, sidewalk and patio. I have one always on my flashlight and one is usually in my drill. Being able to do the same amount of work with fewer batteries is cool on the geek meter, but is it truly practical?

Tough Choice
I'll probably get one for the blower and eventually have fewer batteries when some of my current ones start to die. By then, I should know what makes sense - longer runtime or more batteries. Once I have it figured out, I'll let you know what I decided.

The delimma is this: sometimes it's handy to have more batteries, but other times I'd love the longer runtime. I guess it comes down to how many tools do I want ready to go... and how much of an inconvenience it is to swap the batteries back and forth. That means it is subjective and it comes down to personal preference, so there is no right answer.

Anti-Vibration Technology - Jackhammers

Jackhammers, also called demolition hammers or breaker hammers, are best known for breaking up concrete roads and driveways. I usually think about the scene in Total Recall where Arnold is using one when I see a picture of one. In Hollywood, having the vibration shaking him silly is a good thing. In everyday life, that's not so good. In fact, it can be downright harmful.

Combatting Vibration
Fighting the harmful effects of vibrations from jackhammers is not only a good thing to do, but Europe will even have a standard in place soon for the amount of vibration that tools are allowed to pass to the user. Less is better when it comes to vibration, and the latest AVT (Anti-Vibration Technology) from the manufacturers is really pretty cool.

Each manufacturer has a different strategy at the moment, though. There are a ton of options, so looking at the technologies is interesting to a geek.


I'm going to have to ask about this, but it appears that Milwaukee hasn't embraced Anti-Vibration technology yet. Hey Dave, is that so? (The answer will be here when he gets it to me.)

&
One of the simple ways to dampen vibration is by making the handles shock mounted. Essentially, the handles have a little bit of give, making the vibrations that the tool is giving off stop in the handles and not pass the full force to the operator. Very simple, but not totally effective. There still has to be enough force in the handles to keep the tool going in the right direction, so making them totally independent wouldn't work. But, it does indeed reduce the amount of vibration passed to the user. For an occasional user (such as a rental tool), this will be sufficient.


For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Essentially what's tough to stop is the opposite reaction. Using a counterweight, it is possible to time the movement of the counterweight with the force of the hammer and greatly reduce the vibration. In one very impressive video that Makita uses for product training, they have a competitor tool with half full water bottles taped to the handles and the top. Once power is applied, the bottles have enough vibration getting to them that it looks like a nice frothy head on top of the water. Same test on the Makita HM1810 with AVT shows very little disturbance to the surface of the water. This looks to be a huge improvement for the end user, although I've never actually tried a jackhammer.

Still in the early stages
Anti-Vibration technologies are still in their early stages, so I'm sure new things will be coming out in the near future. But for now, it's a matter of how much getting rid of the vibration is worth to you. But then, if you use it a lot it becomes a question of what's your health and safety worth.

Belt Driven and Direct Drive Miter Saw Scorecard

After my post on direct drive miter saws with electronic speed control, Matt and I decided to take a look at the different miter saws we had on display and make up a "Scorecard" of who had what technology in place on their current lineup of saws. This ended up being a pretty interesting exercise in tool analysis. Unfortunately, we don't have quite a few on display as we prepare to move to a new building, so here's the abbreviated version of what I'll be expanding on later.


The Bosch 3912 and 3924B-24 are both direct drive models. The newer 4410L is belt drive, but adds in the laser. Of course, you've already read my other post to know why lasers are great for geeks but not for carpenters, right?


The DeWALT DW718, DW716, and DW708 were all belt driven. The older DW705 (and DW705S) as well as the DW712 were found to be direct drive.


The Hitachi C10FSH and C12LSH were belt driven. The C15FB and C12LCH were both direct drive.


The Makita LS1013, LS1214, LS1013F, LS1214F, LS1013L, and LS1214L were all angled direct drive. I'll have to explain the benefit of angled in a future post as well. The older LS1030N was a straight direct drive model, as is the LS1040. The models with F add in a flexible light, while the L models have the laser. Both are pretty cool for geeks.


The Milwaukee 6490-6, 6494-6, and 6497-6 were all direct drive models.


We didn't currently have any Porter cable models on display. Again, we're getting ready to move so we're trying to cut down on the number of open box products to relocate.

Final Tally
Direct Drive
Bosch 3912 and 3924B-24.
DeWalt DW705 and DW712.
Hitachi C15FB and C12LCH.
Makita LS1013 (base, F and L), LS1214 (base, F and L), LS1030N, LS1040.
Milwaukee 6490-6, 6494-6 and 6497-6.

Belt Driven
Bosch 4410L.
DeWALT DW718, DW716 and DW708.
Hitachi C10FSH and C12LSH.

I find it interesting that there are several manufacturers that have saws available either way. I have a strong personal preference for direct drive, but the belts aren't too bad to change out.

It gets even more interesting when you look at consumer grade. I may have to wander down to my local [insert big box store name here] here sometime and jot down some additional notes.

Earplugs vs. Earmuffs

I took my 3 year old son to the Monster Jam tonight. He's now a Grave Digger fan for life, I'm sure. Just like he's a Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch fan for life, the latter much to my dismay. I'll support it, though. There are worse people he could be a fan of, maybe.

Anyway, on to the point of my story. I took a pair of American Allsafe earplugs for me, and I bought a pair of our Milwaukee earmuffs for him. I expected the earmuffs to be easier to get him to wear, which was the main reason I got those. I figured that earplugs would be coming out faster than I could put them in. Those were accurate assumptions, too.

First off, let me say that the corded ear plugs are very, very nice when you're removing them often. They're easy enough to drop, but they never fell because of the cords. I appreciated that. Of course, the headphones were similar with not falling, but it was because they weren't dropped.

What really shocked me was the difference in sound. The earplugs were rated at 26 dB reduction, while the earmuffs were rated at 28 dB. That seemed like pretty similar ratings, so I expected there to be very little difference. At the end of the night, I took out my earplugs and tried on the earmuffs as they were moving Grave Digger off the track. I was amazed at how little sound actually made its way in when compared to the earplugs I had been using all night.

What I failed to take into account is that the earplugs are very similar in sound reduction regardless of frequency. Earmuffs, on the other hand, filter higher frequencies even better than their rated dB reduction. Starting at around 4,000 Hz, the reduction is over 40 dB. That's a huge difference when compared to 26.

With that in mind, I'll be using these earmuffs any time I have my air compressor running indoors and I'll skip the earplugs. They're much more comfortable to me as well, but that's just a little extra bonus.

Single linear ball bearings?

My post yesterday on dual linear ball bearings prompted Matt to look at some of the schematics for the other manufacturers. He didn't seem to believe that some of our manufacturers would be so cheap as to only use one linear ball bearing like Makita was implying. We did a little research, and the results were astonishing.

DeWALT DW708

This particular model of DeWALT has single bearing on the lower of the sliding rails. It's not possible to tell if it is a sleeve or a ball bearing, just that it is a bearing. However, it can't be purchased independently. It's part of an assembly (reference #121, although the 12 got clipped) for $370. Ouch.

DeWALT DW718

Admittedly, the DW708 isn't their newest model. The DW718 is probably a fairer test of their current manufacturing practices. What do we see here, then? One bearing, can't tell if it is sleeve or ball bearing, and it is still part of an expensive full assembly.

Hitachi C10FSH

To stop picking on DeWALT, I'm going to show a Hitachi now. Part #106 in the diagram is a bearing. They call it a "Ball Bushing". Just one, but we know for sure this is a ball bearing type.

Milwaukee 6497

Milwaukee has 2 ball bearings. WOOHOO! Wait just one second, though. That's part #6, and they don't go on both rails. They go on one rail. That's not exactly how it should be done. One rail is just sliding through a hole, the other has 2 ball bearings. Interesting.

I'll have to add in the Makita version as soon as I locate a schematic for it. This should be interesting.

EDIT: I finally got a solid answer from Makita on where the second ball is located. I have this entered in another post titled Makita's Mysterious Dual Linear Ball Bearings. It was a bit much to add to this already lengthy article.