Moving on to somewhat modern power tools.

[dorkburger]

Our shop seems to be 99% Milwaukee and I have a small collection in the work van. My little M12 impact driver is my most used battery tool and it's survived a good number of falls and occasionally being used to tap things into place. The last impact driver did develop an issue where in the slightest bit of moisture it would stop working.

[Big Block]

I have Milwaukee as well. Not sure if they're worth the big price for a weekend warrior but I have good luck with them. I worked with a friend a few years ago using the little impacters almost continuously on a few projects and we tried them all and found that Ridgid lasted better than anything in that application. We melted down a few Dewalts and Makitas, sent them in for warranty and melted them down again.
It starts innocently enough, you buy one tool usually and pretty soon you have a bunch of the same battery brand and you've a few thousand invested.

[Nessism]

Slickdeals.net is my go-to place to root out the best deals...on everything. Power tool sales are fairly common. And it's not as if Milwaukee is drastically more expensive than others. You just need to root out deals. For example, I bought a "last years model" angle grinder for way cheaper than the current model.

If Milwaukee has any major fault, to me, it's because they change models so often. It's hard to tell the difference between some of the different models they sell.

[trent]

I have been a Makita hold out for years, out of about 18 tech's at my company we have 2 Makita, 1 Dewalt and the rest all Milwaukee.

I'm slowly moving over to Milwaukee as they are certainly better in my opinion, after using the latest Milwaukee 2904-020 Impact Drill it blows away my Makita in all types of drilling, wood, steel and concrete.

I will not give up my Makita Track saw though.

I've been using the Milwaukee Packout System for about 2 years now and love it.

Anyone check out Project Farm on Youtube, he tests lots of cordless tools and is very thorough,

Bought a little makita cordless drill at garage sale long long time ago for five bucks, came with one battery and charger.

Had it for at least fifteen years, until using it running deck screws it quit working?

That was several years ago, I didn't throw it away it's in my tool hall of fame...lol very impressive little drill, it done so much for me...five bucks!!!

[Burque73]

I got my Christmas present early this year. A DeWalt packaged hammer drill and small impact driver.
Brushless and LiPo and OMG what a potent thing they are!

I tried the impact out on nasty bolts holding in the blades of my makita power planer. Irksome and awkward with a socket wrench they came of without protest with the baby impact.

I have even taken to searching my ancient B&D corded drills and other tools tag them for the yard sale ice floe.

I do very little work about the house and none that my old tools couldn't handle. But the cord damn it and the chuck key missing and all that.............
I seriously wonder how many lives have been saved due to prevented slip falls due to the advent of cordless tools.

I watch a lot of youtube it has replaced TV esque programming one particularly relaxing chan is Rainman Rays Repairs. His Milwaukee and ridgid impacts and ratchets made me check out reviews. Certainly if a professional can use them effectively then an occasional user would have few performance issues.

Owned by B&D Dewalt is. I recall years ago that brand being looked down on. Now every tradesman I see has yellow and black power tools.

i started working in the trades at 19 with a very basic tool collection consisting of a basically a hammer, nail set, chisel and putty knife. My primary task was to fill nail holes and sand stair treads and handrails. I worked for $5/ hr and thought I had it good. No more dead end jobs at restaurants or grocery stores. After a few months my hand tool collection grew and I started buying power tools. The first tool on my list was a drill. I bought a very basic corded 3/8" Dewalt drill. This was probably the spring of 1993. A couple of guys had cordless Makita drills, no keyless chuck and batteries that lasted long enough to drill a few holes. i stuck with corded drills for several years before buying anything cordless.

Many years later, on a job now working as a sub contractor for that same stair building company, another tradesman was hanging cabinets with an impact driver. This was maybe 2006. I'm sure those impacts had been around for a while, but I tended to stick with what I knew. Anyway, I couldn't believe when I saw how easy it was to sink a 3" screw without pre-drilling the hole. What a game changer!

Now nearly every tool can be made cordless. My most recent purchase was this right angle drill. Not as much torque as the milwaukee version I used to use, which would drill through a tree, but for a few holes this cordless one does the trick. Yellow because all my other tools are yellow and replacing one tool with an off brand means only one battery, and another charger to keep track of. I have a eight or ten yellow batteries and that's one main reason I stick with that brand, not just being a cheapskate LOL.

[salty_monk]

With Milwaukee it's worth paying extra for the "Fuel" models. Especially in 12v. That makes a huge difference. The batteries can also make a big difference too...

[Burque73]

I think I have a new favorite tool.



Trouble is, now I need to find another gift for my wife.

[earlfor]

I think I have a new favorite tool.



Trouble is, now I need to find another gift for my wife.

the patching compound was probably a bad idea for her anyhow. eh

[bonanzadave]

After using Porter Cable for a few years at work I put all my makitas in a box marked "free" and left it on the sidewalk at the auto store. Went to Lowes and bought the 5 tool set and a 1/2" impact.

[rphillips]

Dang dave, wish I'd been coming down that sidewalk. My 20 + yr. old Makita 9.9V stuff still works great for my around the house jobs... No doubt for daily heavy use the newer more modern would surely be a must... Just as the EV's, cordless just evolving to better things

[Eli69]

I'm invested in dewalt cuz that's what I have batteries for. But my punk kid has a Milwaukee framing nail gun that is awesome. Kinda heavy but sinks nails better than my paslode impulse by a mile.

[wyly]

I gave my Milwakee collection to my son-in-law. I switched to Makita over a decade ago with no complaints other than a auto-feed floor screw gun that would jambs.

[Burque73]

Took a step back from power tools and picked up a 48" manual tile cutter. This thing works amazingly well. Still have to use a grinder or wet saw for odd cuts though.

[Cipher]

Took a step back from power tools and picked up a 48" manual tile cutter. This thing works amazingly well. Still have to use a grinder or wet saw for odd cuts though.

ripped out all the carpet and had hardwood and tile put in years ago. The pros who did the tile scoffed at a power tool grinder as a cutter. ridiculously slow and dirty is what they said.

They used a rig like yours and its shocking the mosaics they could do with mosaics through a pair of knipex.

but then the romans were doing this with fairly minimal tools.
No aniline dye and age do a number on things but good golly.



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