best power tools

[cavalieri85]

Milwaukee or Bosch what's your prefrence. Or whatever brand you think is best. Just tell me why . I'm dissapointed with my milwaukee set was gonna try to find a swap for Bosch set or maybe sell it or pawn it for the cash to buy a new set

[rufus819]

DeWalt.

[Gleng]

Very sad, Milwaukee is no longer what it was.It was a great power tool. But Milwaukee is now having them made in CHINA, You would be best to buy an older Used milwaukee than a new one. I have milwaukee tools 20 years old. Still work good. i recently bought a new Milwaukee right angle grinder ,it burned out in months. saw it was made in china.I replaced it with a Hilti Good tool,but expensive. Shame on Milwaukee. They claim the tools from China are the same, Yeah ok, And R-22 won't go up in price any more.

[jpsmith1cm]

I'm very happy with the milwaukee M12 tools.

I have the impact and just bought a 3/8 chuck drill.

They work quite well, in my opinion and fit nicely in my Veto bag.

[Gib's Son]

I have Milwaukee and Makita. No problems with either.

[Gleng]

Maybe Milwaukee has some new better tools.Don't know about the M12 line. i was not happy with the grinder I bought.Will check out the M12 line.Like I said, i have some older milwaukee tools over 20 years old. Time will tell on your M12 tools. Hope they hold up.

[matty204]

I find my 18v makita drill, impact satisfy all my work needs, are light and have a great battery life aswell as charge very quickly which is nice on a job. I also carry around a corded Dewalt drill/hammer drill just incase I get into some heavy drilling some days.

[nratom45-70]

I've had no problems with all my Hitachi tools

[jpsmith1cm]

My M12 impact is about 18 months old.

It is a daily driver and isn't babied at all.


Can't beat the price/performance point, either, IMO.

[rufus819]

the makita impact is pretty good, a lot of techs in my company use it and when I have i feel like its the best one out there, reasonably priced too. I might pick one up too.

[ar_hvac_man]

Been using Makita for 8 yrs with zero issues. Dropped off ladders and roofs and still good to go.

One of my helpers uses Milwaukee. Feels like a decent tool in my hand. Dewalt feels like a toy or black and decker in my hand.

[ga-hvac-tech]

Milwaukee has a new drill out, called the 'fuel'. They advertise the new motor is brushless and battery life is lots longer due to more efficient motor. From the little I have read, it appears the motor may be a variation of an ECM design... anyone know anything about this?

[rufus819]

Been using Makita for 8 yrs with zero issues. Dropped off ladders and roofs and still good to go.

One of my helpers uses Milwaukee. Feels like a decent tool in my hand. Dewalt feels like a toy or black and decker in my hand.

depends on where you get your dewalt from, their stuff from home depot is a little more toyish, if you get it from a real hardware store you really can't go wrong with dewalt. When my drill dies I want to splurge and get hilti.

[superd77]

Milwaukee is my choice. The M12 line is awesome! A charged battery lasts for a couple weeks and the drill itself has a battery life display. Makita don't have that.

[ar_hvac_man]

When my drill slows down I know the battery is low :grin2:

[rufus819]

if you don't mind having all sorts of brands for tools and having to charge a bunch of differant batteries, i look at it this way as a perfect combo.

Milwaukee Sawzall or the Dewalt XRP sawzall(battery life is pretty weak on that though), Hilti or Dewalt 20v drill, Makita impact driver, you really can't go wrong with that combination.

[mark beiser]

I've been using the Makita 18v stuff for a number of years now and have had no issues whatsoever with them.
I did drop a Makita impact driver off a 20' ladder onto concrete about 4 years ago, and it landed bit first.
It still worked fine, but it made a horrible noise, so it got retired to scrap duty at the shop. It still works.

[socotech]

I love the 18v Makita. Lithium batteries last a long time on a charge and only take about 10 minutes to fully charge. Also get good run time with my recip saw.

[cavalieri85]

My complaint with milwaukee m18 is the batteries. I keep burning through batteries and my warranty claims are shut down because the set was made 5 years ago but bought it 2 years ago. Nonetheless at 120 a piece I coulr have but a complete new set by now. Seems like good tools but batts are atrocious

[Moonrunner]

You can't go wrong with Bosch.. They still have solid QC with their tools. Probably gonna go with them in 18V.

[pageyjim]

When I bought my 12 Bosch they outperformed the Milwalkee. Milwalkee seems to have improved that line and has a much broader product line if that interests you. I am very happy with my Bosch 12 volt. 18 volt Makita is the best imo. You may want to check out new brushless models. They will be smaller yet and give better battery life and performance.

[drew2128]

Very sad, Milwaukee is no longer what it was.It was a great power tool. But Milwaukee is now having them made in CHINA, You would be best to buy an older Used milwaukee than a new one. I have milwaukee tools 20 years old. Still work good. i recently bought a new Milwaukee right angle grinder ,it burned out in months. saw it was made in china.I replaced it with a Hilti Good tool,but expensive. Shame on Milwaukee. They claim the tools from China are the same, Yeah ok, And R-22 won't go up in price any more.

Same thing with me. I have a Milwaukee sawzall that's 20 years old and it still runs like it did 20 years ago :grin2:

[Jblack89]

I use Bosch i haven't had a problem

[cavalieri85]

I just found a great process on a majors set. It comes with grinder,impactor,sawzall,hammer drill, radio, light, circular saw and for under 600 bucks

[cavalieri85]

Sorry typo price on a makita set

[AirTechMech]

Makita then DeWalt in that order. I have always used DeWalt in the past but I was never very happy with battery performance. Since I switched to Makita about two years ago I now learned what I was missing.

[XcelTech]

Makita and a clip on bag of chucks for self taps
Dewalt XRP hammer drill for drilling
Milwakee saw saw
Dewalt band saw <---one of my favorites
Milwakee snake camera
Rotozip for cutting certain sized holes in ducts or wood (and some drywall)
Dremal for those tough to reach items


http://www.gotog.us/images/cop_car_bash_211.jpg
Sledge hammer for Monday morning!

[socotech]

Makita and a clip on bag of chucks for self taps
Dewalt XRP hammer drill for drilling
Milwakee saw saw
Dewalt band saw <---one of my favorites
Milwakee snake camera
Rotozip for cutting certain sized holes in ducts or wood (and some drywall)
Dremal for those tough to reach items


http://www.gotog.us/images/cop_car_bash_211.jpg
Sledge hammer for Monday morning!
I have wondered if a rotozip would cut duct. Does it work good? Battery powered or 120v?

[Tmech12]

I had a 18v Milwaukee li-ion and it was junk imo. I had a older makita impact 14.4 ni-mh battery and that thing still works great. However i have the 20v dewalt li-ion now and i love it, been beat to hell on some installation jobs and still going strong

[a4372302]

Milwaukee has a new drill out, called the 'fuel'. They advertise the new motor is brushless and battery life is lots longer due to more efficient motor. From the little I have read, it appears the motor may be a variation of an ECM design... anyone know anything about this?

im a milwaukee fan. im going to have to try this one out.

[Bmvbrfd]

I had a Milwaukee drill impact set and have no complaints. But Ridgid all the way now. Great tools at a great price and if you register them you get a lifetime warranty on them. Heck I had 4 2-3 year old 18 volt lithium batteries that I didn't register and they still swapped them out for new ones at Home Depot. If there is a tool rental at the Home depot they should have the battery swap program there. Sometimes you have to talk to a manager because not many employees know about the battery swap deal


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ACFIXR]

M 12 for me too.....I have the impact,mini sawzall,right angle drill and the pro pex expander. I'm looking to buy the mini band saw next.

I have a Milwaukee hole shooter drill that I bought in 1986 and it is still in use. All my heavy duty tools are Milwaukee. I am retiring my dewault stuff as soon as the last battery quits.

[Nytefog]

M12 for light duty (panel removal and maintenace) and M18 for heavy duty installation/Repair (sawzall/hackzall and circular saw use). I have the M12 Impact driver and a Hammer drill driver. The hammer drill is quite powerful for a 12 volt. It is pretty impressive compared to other 12v i've had like Bosch which is currently retired to the basement.

[ACFIXR]

I have wondered if a rotozip would cut duct. Does it work good? Battery powered or 120v?

I took my 120v roto zip and installed a 1/4" chuck in it and bought some 10,000 rpm+ blades. I used it to cut some duct in a wall to install some 16 gage sleeved fire dampers. It was damn dangerous due to the fact that my roto zip had a slide switch on it and the damn thing stayed on when I lost my grip on it. I would never use it again unless I absolutely have to cut some metal in an impossible location.I'm lucky I didnt lose a finger.

339081

[Rustytool]

I bought my makita 18v combo and fell in love with it. I used and abused the impact for roughly a year and it held up very well. It was was dropped off 6 foot latters , left on condensors in the rain and snow, and took a couple 10-15 foot falls and still worked awesome. The batteries charge very fast too. The drill on the other hand was only used for spotters so i cant really comment. The case/ bag is also super convenient. After both batteries died recently I went to the dewalt 20v max combo. I couldn't justify spending $140 on batteries when i bought the makita combo new for $200. The impact is much more powerful and the batteries seem to hold a better charge after sitting in the truck over the weekend in the cold. The dewalt does have more of a plastic/cheaper feel to it all the way around tho( both drills and charger). Ive only had the dewalt about a month now (and it is growing on me) but If I had to do it again I would have gotten another makita combo...

[clifpaul]

I'm very happy with the milwaukee M12 tools.

I have the impact and just bought a 3/8 chuck drill.

They work quite well, in my opinion and fit nicely in my Veto bag.

X2 though I only have the impact.