Milwaukee is Seeing Stars (on their schematics)

I called a customer today about an order on ToolPartsDirect.com on an obsolete part (yeah, I was helping out our support team... but don't worry, I still did a bunch of IT stuff, too). Milwaukee listed the part, the field, as obsolete with no direct replacement. After speaking with the customer for a few moments, I realized the heavy-duty drill he was fixing was still in production, even under the same model number, 2404-1. So I took it upon myself to call Milwaukee to find out what was going on, after all, the field is a very major component to any electric power tool.

After bouncing around through a couple departments, I had my answer. Milwaukee breaks down their schematics by serial number ranges. As you get to each new generation, you can actually retrofit the tools by using the the next newest schematic. All you need to do is replace every item on the newer version's schematic that has a star next to it. In this case, the upgrade would end up costing more than buying the new tool, obviously this is not always the case.

The mystery of the star in the parts list had bounced through my head once or twice before, but I had never really taken the time to find out what it was all about. Now that I know, I figure I'll spread the wealth. A simple little character on the schematic which lets the end user know what is different between the tool you have and the next newer version. It's one more of those little touches that make Milwaukee a company that I feel goes a just little bit farther than many of their competitors when it comes to customer service.

Brian keeps bugging me about posting

Warning: Matt is in a weird mood, therefore this is a weird blog entry.

So I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about Brian. Brian Mark (programmer, web designer, search engine optimizer, NASCAR enthusiast, cobra trainer, inventor of bacon and unwelcome part-time bathroom attendant) is speaking at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City. Brian is actually a pretty smart guy, especially when it comes to building websites that make it easier to optimize for search engines. If you are looking to get your website up in the listings in search engines and really make it start paying for itself, I do recommend the SES conference (if you can afford it). I've been to one (Brian's spoken at four now) and it did really help me understand how important the little things can be when putting information online.

If you are going to be at the SES conference, look for Brian's name on the session lists. If not just remember never to press the following button, even if it is cheaper than natural gas:

The Milwaukee Theorem: V28 - 28 = V Series . V Series + 18 = V18.

Milwaukee V18 Power
Nope, that's not a manufacturing error, that's what the new V18 series battery is going to look like. This 3.0 amp-hour, lithium-ion battery will slide right on to your existing Milwaukee 18 volt tools, like one of the Hatchet sawzalls or a SDS rotary hammer.

The new products they are introducing as Milwaukee V18 tools are a 1/2" hammer-drill, a 1/2" driver-drill, a 6-1/2" circular saw, a 6-7/8" metal cutting saw, a 1/2" impact wrench, an impact driver, a Sawzall recip saw, a rotary hammer, a job-site radio and, or course, a work light. At this point, I do not know if any of these will be redesigned beyond adding a V18 logo... but chances are they'll add a bell or whistle here or there (the Clip-Lok belt clip for the flashlight). They are expected to ship out mid-summer of this year. I hope they'll be smart enough to offer a battery & charger pack, since you will not be able to charge lithium ion batteries on your existing Milwaukee charger.

Milwaukee has said that the V18 batteries are 25% lighter than their current 18 volt ni-cad tools while packing in 40% more power. The charger will charge both the lithium ion V18 and previous Milwaukee nickel cadmium batteries. The charge time for their 3.0 Ah Li-ion battery is 60 minutes while the Ni-cd batteries will charge in 30 minutes.

So what does this mean for the V28 line?

According to Milwaukee, not too much. The V28 line will focus on bringing "corded tool power" to cordless tools. This year we will see a V28 version of their popular job site radio, a 1" SDS+ rotary hammer, a right-angle drill that can cut 2-9/16" holes in 2x material and a metal cutting saw that can cut 2" black pipe in a single pass. They also partnered up with Monster Garage to make a V28 powered 1962 Chevy Belair (I still think I'm going with a Prius, I don't have the organizational skills to charge 384 V28 batteries between trips).