Milwaukee Tools

You can’t just post this and not say where!!

 

Was waiting for this to happen on this forum. TW was getting all the love n I'm rarely on that site anymore for the time being, hope this one takes off like TW. Thanks for starting it over here. Always looking for those good deals to add to my collection.

 

You can get this same deal with the new handheld leaf blower. Really solid deal considering the leaf blower tool alone is 179.

 

I've been having my eyes set on that leaf blower for a while now. I did see that current sale.

I also got the right angle grinder on my wishlist. Any hacks for that?

 

Yup, definitely drinks the juice. Great for decks, stoops and walkways/smaller driveways. Love ours

 

I go both ways but usually run em until they’re blinking. Have had a few go completely dead on me but just use another one to jump it back to life. Toss it on the charger; good as new. Keep the jumper cables in the top drawer of my toolbox.

My batteries from 2018 are still performing really well. I also date all my batteries with a labeler

 

Gonna enable email notification for this thread

I usually just charge my batteries after I'm done with whatever project I had and keep them always at full charge. One thing I do though is keep my batteries inside the house instead of my hot 150° garage.

 

I run mine dead before recharging - you'll get longer life out of them.
If it's got a part charge, I will leave those to the side and use them for tasks in the shop or for running the blower when I'm cleaning or burning and that will get the battery all the way down.

 

If you have yard/garden tools, this deal is really good:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwauk...-HD-12-0-Ah-Battery-Pack-48-11-1813/329792262

The new Forge batteries have amazing run time and power for a more compact battery profile. You buy the 12.0 and get an 8.0 for free. The 8.0 Forge is about the size of the older regular XC 6.0 but has a lot more juice. I also have a couple of Forge XC 6.0's that are smaller than the older 5.0's but run as long (or longer) than the older 8.0's did.

 

I mean if the battery hasn't run all the way down - it still has a bar or two left on it.
I keep the impact and drill motor on my work bench with a battery in them at all times. But if I am out working on something that I need to use the chainsaw or hackzall or weed eater and don't use the full charge, I will leave that battery sitting on the bench in a spot where I know it's not fully charged. Then those partly-used batteries are the next ones to get used on the drill or the impact (or anything else that I'm doing around the shop) until the battery is fully used up before charging.

 

I did not know this. Gonna start doing that now.

One tool I have that sucks up battery real fast is my M18 orbital sander. I imagine that leaf blower is probably the same or worse.

 

Oh boy.. a Milwaukee tools thread. I'm trying to resist... but here we go!

I have enough batteries that I don't typically worry about running out of charge and not having a replacement on hand. So I run the batteries all then way down. When the m18 batteries reach "full discharge" they have a nominal 3.2 volts IIRC, so the 18650's aren't depleted. Many 18650 enthusiasts insist that 3.7v is the minimum voltage that should be used for maximum battery life, but Milwaukee sells a crap ton of 18650/21700 cell batteries. I still have my original m18 1.5AH red lithium batteries that came with my first drill/driver kit 12 years ago. They were charged/discharged 2-3 times a day for a couple of years straight. They still work. Not as well as new batteries, and they won't discharge the same amperage as they did new, but I can toss them in a Rover light or small impact and run them down without issue.

The M12 batteries don't have a battery meter so I have to toss them in a tool with a battery meter to determine their charge. I still run them down to nothing.

I can usually tell when a battery is about done as the RedLink that communicates between the tool and battery will start pulling/dropping amperage as the voltage drops near the very end of available power. It's nothing like running a NiCd battery, but for a minute or so on the vacuum or a couple of holes with the drill, you can hear and feel the power decrease. That's when I usually swap them out.

 

I'm slowly moving in the Milwaukee direction.. I started with Ryobi cuz they were cheap and accessible, but have found they lack a lot of power. Last straw for me, I needed an impact to swap wheels over, got a Ryobi "impact"... well I ended up breaking them by hand and pulling them with the impact, a drill could'a done the same... which started my rabbit hole research. Started with that massive impact M12 from Milwaukee and I've charged that monster like 2 times since I got it back in 2019. I picked up 2 more tools off a member here a stubby impact and that right angle wrench M12 and they've been hella useful, I've used the S out of these. I recently picked up a hacksaw, hand held cut off wheel and a soldering gun, thing is better than my plug in one.

Currently shopping hammer drills and I was kinda leaning to Dewalt since they got a 3 tool package with a free tool or going the Milwaukee route with only 2 tools and a free tool. May stick with Milwaukee.

 

The engineer who designed the dust catch for this needs to be strung up by his balls, totally worthless in my book. Only gripe i have with Milwaukee.Hell my packout is taller than me.

 

I should have introduced myself earlier: Hi, my username is Blenton. I'm a Milwaukee tool Addict.

["Hello, Blenton", says the gaggle of grown men huddled around their computer screens...]

For those that want to spend way too much money on tools, here's how I purchase most of my Milwaukee tools..

Every quarter, Milwaukee has new deals that are available at most major retailers. My retailers of choice are: Home Depot, Acme Tools, ToolNut, CPO Milwaukee, Ohio Power Tool, Northern Tool, and a few other places, typically in that order. Home Depot is in first simply because they have locally available tools if I'm in a pinch and can't shop for a deal. Acme Tools is second, but they offer great deals with typically great customer service and shipping speed. Toolnut takes longer to ship and are further away from me, so I have to wait longer. The other places have good deals from time to time, but aren't always competitive with HD and Acme. I highly recommend Acme. I spend way too much money there, and not just on Milwaukee gear...

Most online retailers offer free shipping on minimum purchase prices - usually ~$200. With Milwaukee tools, that's not hard to reach. But it applies to most every item that isn't oversized or overweight. My 12" Milwaukee slider just showed up from Acme. I ordered it Tuesday or Wednesday as they had a Flash Sale on Milwaukee and I got it for a $100 off the already $100 price break, with free shipping. Home Depot is $50 minimum, or free in store pickup for online purchases.

Now, to the meat and potatoes of it...

1) HOME DEPOT SPECIAL BUY OF THE DAY. Oops, I've said too much, but everyday, HD Online marks down a select group of items such as flooring, heat pumps, ceiling fans, toilets, yard equipment, lawn furniture, and TOOLS... Not all tools are on sale, but they often offer deep discounts on select items. For example, I've purchase: an M18 surge driver (the BEST impact on the market, period. Seriously, throw away your traditional hammer and anvil impacts and get yourself a surge. You'll thank me...) with a free 5.0 battery for $139; M18 table saw kit with 12.0 HD battery (not forge) and rapid charge for $450; m18 10" sliding miter saw with 12.0 battery, charge, and ADDITIONAL 12.0 battery for $450 or $500 (it was a while ago, so forgive my uncertain memory); and a plethora of other Milwaukee gear. They typically cycle some sort of Milwaukee tool about once a week, but not always the same group of tools. Sometimes it's plumbing tools, sometime it's lighting, sometimes woodworking, etc...

2) BUY MORE SAVE MORE Milwaukee offers tiered savings on select tools that include $50-150 in savings when you spend $199, $299, and $450ish in tools. Bigger tools like miter saws are basically $100 off. These are often offered my most major retailers, but sometimes with a few tools changed up from retailer to retailer. You can usually make several different orders and receive the discount several times.

3) FREE BATTERY or FREE TOOL I haven't purchase a battery at list price from any retailer except maybe once in the last decade. There are typically Free Tool or Free Battery offers running somewhere at all times; sometimes they are m12, sometimes they are m18. The inflator posted above my @T-Rex266 is a prime example. You pay $200 for two batteries and get a free $180 tool. They often run this with two 5Ah for $199 or two 6Ah for $299. The tools available with the two 6AH batteries are usually bigger, pricier tools like their midrange circlular saw, or large m18 rocket light (rocket lights are awesome, BTW. I use my M12 rockets ALL the time. The M18's put out more light and last longer but take up more room in the back of the truck). Again, most retailers offer these types of deals.

3a) Occasionally around Black Friday, they will offer two 5AH batteries, a charger, and a free tool or 5AH battery for the same $199. The tool selection is wider. AH/$ ratio is very high for three 5AH batteries for $200. The only deal I've seen with a battery AH/$ ratio is the current 12AH Forge with free 8AH ($12.50/Ah vs $13.33/AH for the triple 5AH batteries). That's the only time I will buy batteries without a free tool, but I'm still not buying batteries at retail

4) BLACK FRIDAY DEALS If you can wait for November to buy new tools, Black Friday deals are honestly the best deals of the year, save a select few Special Buys of the Day or random super special deals on overstocked inventory. But you can count on most Black Friday deals to be the best price you will get. Not ALL Black Friday Milwaukee deals are the best, but if you shop around a bit, you will see they they are typically better than average. I buy most of my tools around now. Home Depot has a slew of them, but other retails join in the fun before Black Friday. Until the last few years, BF deals were the BEST on BF, but that's changed and now there only a select few items that are actually priced better on Black Friday than in November, so no real need to way until the day after turkey day to purchase your tools for fear of missing out on a better deal. That may change in the future, but it's been that way for the last several years. As a side note, HD runs most of their BF Milwaukee deals through January. My local Milwaukee rep (yep, he's on speed dial) confirmed most of their heated gear, for example, will be on sale through the end of the year.

5) FLASH SALES Much like HD's special buy of the day, online retailers such as Acme tools run 24/48/72 hour Flash sales on specific brands. Milwaukee is typically 10 or 15% off a large group of tools, or tiered price breaks like the Buy More Save More. Often, new or high value tools are excluded, but not always. The 12" sliding miter saw I mentioned above is typically excluded from those sales, so I've been waiting to purchase one. The latest flash sale at Acme included the tool, so I jumped on it.

6) DEAL OF THE DAY/WEEK Again, like HD's special buy of the day, retailers like ToolNut offer deals of the day. They are usually Deals of the Week, but they are often good to great deals, but only on specific items, unlike the Flash Sales that usually include an entire brand/line/group of tools.

7) PACKAGE DEALS HD usually offers the larges variety of these, but retailers will often bundle slower moving stock with other tools in order to move them. They are usually a kit of some sort (drill, driver, battery, charger case) bundled with another tool (multi-tool, light, extra battery, etc). They are less predictable than other sales as for availability, and you don't usually get to choose your freebie, but they are good way to get a lot of tools with some savings.

Now, go and spend your monies. Scour the inter webs for the best Milwaukee deals! I'm happy to proffer my opinion on the tools I like, the tools I think are overpriced, and the tools I think are junk.

 

I started converting from the DeWalt platform to Milwaukee Fuel about 2 years ago and pretty much married to it now. I'm happy with the platform.

 

Same. Though I haven’t lost more than one Milwaukee battery. I have been largely impressed by that fact alone. I can’t say the same for the drill I burned up the other day or the vacuum that works intermittently

 

The leaf blower tube will fit an empty beer can and shoot it 30ft in the air. Just fyi.