You are reading a single comment by @Sam_w and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
My brother is a plant mechanic and uses Milwaukee gear, the 1 inch wrench is a monster, have yet to find something it can’t handle, including changing tracks on a 30 tonne slew.
Sam_w-
I think most of their auto gear is aimed at getting people away from air powered, not practical in workshops where its non stop, don't have time for faffing with batteries just need to ugga dugga the hours away, but for lighter weight workshops, absolutely, if nothing else my hearing is a lot better for it and I haven't tripped over an air hose in months now.
BrickMan
Recently liquidated all my random battery tools (mostly hand me down's from mates as they've got newer and better stuff), totally fed up with constant finding chargers and batteries and remembering which one's I've already charged, then driving 2-4 hours to a job to find I forget the battery I need as its still on a charger, or the charger was missing.
Nope.
Dumped everything and went Milwaukee. I like the ergonomics of them, I like the abundance of power that most of their M18 brushless tools give (some of the brushed stuff is 'better' than the brushless fuel range, but depends on use) and mostly very controllable. I like the chargers do M12 and M18 on the same unit, I like that they charge in order (so clicking another one on to the other side of the charger doesn't stop the 1st one from finishing its charge). Their batteries are reasonably priced and I only need a few as they charge quick and same batteries now fit everything. The current Gen3 units have really good lighting on the front of them.
I don't like, the drill/driver has an electronic clutch, its essentially useless, on the lowest setting its break away torque is equiv to approx 8 10 12 out of 24 on my old dewalt, so any fine work or setting a torque limit so I don't pulverise small drill bits constantly is an impossibility. An M18 fuel drill driver will run a paddle in muck quite happily, more so than previous bosch blue 20/24v machine.
Also do/don't like the M18 non fuel RO sander, broke after 4 hours use over 2 days. Doesn't random orbit anymore, just spins like a turbine in overspeed until it flings the sand paper disc off at approaching the speed of sound into you/face/your finished work. Until it broke I was super impressed with it though, good control, easy to hold, powerful when you want it, gentle the rest of the time, vacuum's its own dust pretty effectively and could also use it for hours without any discomfort/dead meat hands from the vibration like i've experience with every sander ever, so some kudo's for them working out how to effectively eliminate that!
Their impacts/car wrench tools are fantastic though, replacing air for me on most tasks around the workshop, still need air for the big impacts and die grinders etc though.