Milwaukee Tools

it's a great impact. I used it to bust some nuts over Christmas weekend...

 

Bust some nuts or bust SOME nuts?
Different result, same conclusion....

 

yeah I have ordered crap now and then from all of them, mostly Temu. My one rule that I will never break is using PayPal, might take a couple of weeks to investigate the claim but PayPal has always had my back. Funny thing is I've only ever needed it for eBay 3 times over the years, never for the Chinese websites.

 

Picked up a magic wand……..
Had to go to homies this morning for a new toilet supply line and my mom gave me her card. It’s mainly for my youngest son who is obsessed with trash trucks, recycling and general cleaning. So he will now be tasked with baseboard vacuuming on a daily basis in return for two hots and a cot…..

 

also picked up the hatchet with forge battery. We’ll see if I keep it/them but wanted to get it before the deal expires tomorrow..

 

Not sure why the balk at those batteries. They were like $180 each not that long ago. Regardless of being phased out there are a great battery. I have a bunch of forge batteries and see no difference in performance. I think it’s all marketing.

 

I like all batteries! No discrimination here.. it’s just that returning the battery makes the hatchet much more appealing

 

I meant the (4) 6.0 batteries for $300. $75 a piece is a steal

 

Gotcha.

I like to go by the ah/dollar efficiency. Those 6.0 are $12.5/ah. If you look at the 8.0 forges you’re paying ~14.5/ah. Whether it’s worth the extra $2/ah for the forge technology is beyond me

 

I love to shop like that at the grocery store but sometimes the sale price doesn’t list the cost/oz, and I’m not a good mather

 

I have literally every battery. It’s the cool aid with the new stuff. Once you get into the HO battery I see no difference in performance between HO and forge. If I had to guess they found a way to make em
Cheaper and market it as the latest and greatest. I have so many batteries and chargers I never wait for a battery so I guess that’s all that matters.

 

Yup! But that’s how they sucker you into buying the bigger item. I’m sure while your price goes down for buying in bulk their price also goes way down looking at their wholesale cost. In the end everyone wins!

So the rule of thumb is to buy more!

 

Anyone else watch the Netflix movie Buy Now?

pretty sure the marketing guys at Milwaukee have all our numbers. Can’t wait to be featured on the next movie!

“so, Nick, you bought a chainsaw and a hatchet with only having palm trees on your property? “

“yes, Milwaukee and their undercover rep, t-Rex, suckered me into it..”

 

Purchased. Thanks for the post!!!

 

Where is that deal?

 

I’ve found the Forge batteries to be an improvement over the HO’s in high demand tools such as the table saw, chop saw, skill saw, etc. Forge 6.0 vs HO12.0 on those tools makes a smal difference; forge 6.0 vs HO 6.0 makes a bigger difference, IME. The forge spins up faster and doesn’t bog unless you really abuse it. But at that point it’s usually the anti-kickback circuitry kicking in and not the battery giving up.

Impacts, drivers, and most hand-held tools aren’t going to show a difference; they aren’t designed to take advantage of the higher amp delivery, nor do they typically need it. They can’t draw enough amps.

The drills, however, show a difference between 5.0’s and any of the 21700 cells. I only run 3.0CP’s in my drills unless I need to sling over a 3” hole saw or anticipate extended drilling/boring operations (like boring rough Timbers, for example). Then the HO6.0 makes a difference. The 12.0’s won’t do much on top of that. I haven’t used a forge in the drill for any extended period of time.

Edit - I should add that the Forges (thus far) don’t have issues with cell balancing that the HO’s have all suffered from. I have to pull apart and rebalance a 21700 battery once a month or so. I have one on the workbench right now, in fact. 3 out of my first 6 HO12.0’s suffered from this issue.

 

what is the symptom of the need for balancing

 

Fuel gauge reads 2 or 3 bars, but you get a green charged light when placing it on the charger. Batteries in this condition will throw an error when placed under high demand and cut out as if overheated/overdrawn.

Since the batteries utilize multiple groups of cells wires in series to get 20v, then wired in parallel to increase amp discharge and amp hour capacity but remain at 20v, one of the cell groups isn’t charged or charging correctly. That group of cells remains partly depleted when the other cell groups are fully charged to 4.2v. The bad cell group will also reach cutoff voltage sooner, causing the battery to reach shutdown before the other cells are depleted. I’ll post some pics shortly.

 

I went with this one..
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-FUEL-18V-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-Battery-8-in-HATCHET-Pruning-Saw-Tool-Only-3004-20/321506905?g_store=&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla=&mtc=SHOPPING-RM-RMP-GGL-D25P-Multi-NA-MILWAUKEE-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-MK862609001-23989-NBR-4051-NA-VNT-FY24_AON_Milwaukee_Multi_RM__M4OPE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAolLu9-QvuV4piAZ_R3Ztogjp8A6J&gclid=CjwKCAiApsm7BhBZEiwAvIu2XzvHfJP6gwzP4AE9oc3bsQjTHkbe8hemfhFoW-WGzpWMzv0KWoN2uRoChGgQAvD_BwE

People may go for the kit version that’s $250 but the battery isn’t an add-on. I opted for the $280 with the forge which, in theory, is returnable

 

Battery reads 3 bars...



... but charger says it's full, and won't top it off.



So pull the battery case apart (4 T10 security bits on the smaller batteries, 4 T10 security and 4 small T8 Security bits on HO12.0)...



... and measure voltages across different cell groups. This one reads 3.53v.



This one reads 4.05 v. That's a big difference when the range is ~3.3v to 4.2v.



This one reads 3.7v. Note that it reads NEGATIVE 3.7 due to way I hooked up the leads. When charging the cell groups, pay VERY close attention to polarity; hook up negative and positive incorrectly and you will have an ignominious problem.



I use and Xtar 2 cell charger to charge each cell croup one at a time. Ignore my jainky shimmed up charging circuit, but it was a simple solution that didn't require me to permanently solder anything to the charger, which would be a better solution. Kinda.



Charge one cell group at a time until they are topped off at 4.2v. Takes a few hours as you have to swap the leads to each cell group, so I usually have one on the workbench while I'm cleaning up or working on something non-intensive in the shop.

 

Weird. I’ve been a Milwaukee whore for a long time with a lotta batteries and have never had one do that. I’m sure that now I said it it’ll happen tomorrow.

 

Haha. Probably...

 

So, we used to rebalance Prius batteries and if memory serves it was a .2v difference that triggered the CEL. We would eventually replace the individual battery packs inside the larger battery pack. Have you considered replacing the offending cells, since you seem to have a reoccurring problem with them?

 

Some of my batteries do this, I just run them down further…..

 

Considered, yes. Considered seriously, no.. not really. I'm not certain where the imbalance occurs - whether it's the resistance of the individual cells (I would guess as most likely), a circuitry glitch, or something else. If it's the individual cells, that would make sense, but my soldering skills are car audio level, not circuit board level..

The cell pictured is the only one thus far that I've had to rebalance more than once. This is its second go round. I've rebalanced a dozen other 12.0's, 8.0's, and 6.0's - most with very few charge cycles. I think this one has fewer than 10 cycles on it. I haven't found any reason or rhyme to the imbalance, as I push some batteries quite hard without issue, but some batteries get used in a rocket light once and only lasts 2 hours before tapping out and not charging back correctly. So I can't say that it's user demands causing the issue, but have to think it's from the factory. My guess is that they rapid charge to one bar and it charges once set more than the others. But I dunno.

I reconditioned two of my original 12.0's that came from within a few months of the initial release of 12.0's. I've had my kids using in the mower for half the summer. They seem to have held up well until they pulled one and used it on the blower, then put it back in the mower with the other battery at a different charge level. But I haven't pushed them since it got cold, so I don't really know if there are real issues with them.

 

Ordered

 

Now I’m on the hunt for the m12 3/8 stubby on some kind of deal. Can’t seem to find one that’s not full price…

 

M12 stubby 1/2” kit for 199..

https://www.acmetools.com/milwaukee...n-impact-wrench-kit-2555-22/045242521203.html

 

That’s the 1/2” model. I’ve got a big boy m18 1/2” already which is why I was thinking m12 for the 3/8”. Bare tool at HD is $199.