This week lumber gets cheaper, Home Depot pulls a Lowes and leaks all over the place, and Makita brings the biggest gun yet to the high torque war. This is your Power Tool Week In Review.
Tools & Stuff | Milwaukee Impact Drivers
Welcome back Power Tool Fans! We have several tool stories for you, starting off with Tools and Stuff who took a deeper look at 4 Milwaukee Impact Drivers. 2 Standard, and 2 Surge. He thoroughly explains the difference between the four of them and why you should choose the best one for the task at hand. He said that if he had to start his Impact Driver collection again he would probably go with the 12v Surge and the M18 Standard. To find out why, and what would work best for you, head over to Tools and Stuff.
Torque Test Channel | Epic impact Battle
I got an email last week from the mysterious team over at Torque Test Channel, and they told me they got a hold of the new Makita 40V XGT ¾” High Torque Impact Wrench, and then promised me… And boy were they right. Makita has been struggling to explain to us exactly why they made a new platform, but today, we get it. Yup. Literally OFF THE CHARTS. “So yeah…a monster” The Makita didn’t just show up to push the ¾” Milwaukee around, in the reverse test it even bested the 1” Milwaukee. Makita is currently the king of the Torque Test Channel, and it’s pretty fun listening to them process that. For the full test head over to the Torque Test Channel.
Shop Tool Reviews | Flex Grinder
Mr.Johnson goes deep into testing this week with the new FLEX 24V Variable Speed Grinder and loves the tool so much he replaced his Go-To DeWALT with this guy. He does say that No, this is not going to replace the everyday corded grinder workload, but with the insane power that comes with FLEX’ battery technology and 24v system we could see this replacing a lot of other cordless brands in shops everywhere. To take a look at this thing in action and get the full review, be sure to visit Shop Tool Reviews.
The Den of Tools | Dropping Lumber Prices
Hey you know how it is, you’re out for a stroll in the woods, you see a bear, you pee a little and then run screaming? Amirite? Well calm your bits boys, because this time the Bear came out of his Den of Tools to bring tidings of comfort and joy. Lumber prices are falling! Either the market is leveling out like all the professional economists told us it would, OR, if the armchair conspiracy theorists are to be believed, the lumber mills and Home Depot just bored with screwing us. Either way, cheap lumber is on it’s way. After reaching a 52 week high of $1670 per thousand board feet, the futures price of lumber has started tumbling, reaching as low at $900 as of Tuesday this week, which is still double what it was pre-pandemic, but things are looking good. For more details and the opinion of a large bear with a youtube channel, head over to den of tools.
Mark Thomas Builder | ECHO Concrete Saw
Mark Thomas released a fantastic review of the 14” Diamond Saw Blade and ECHO CSG-7310 Concrete saw and gave us a flashback to an old episode where we found out Rob’s highschool nickname. Man, we looked younger back then. Mark proceeds to show off the features of the saw and wants to know “What projects would you use this saw and blade on?” Be sure to check out his review and answer his question at Mark Thomas Builder.
Belts and Boxes | Milwaukee PACKOUT LEAK
In case you missed it, Home Depot pulled a Lowes this week, and leaked a popular new tool, WAY before it was supposed to be announced. This is the all new Milwaukee PACKOUT rolling tool chest which features a huge double wide storage bin, and dual mounting points on top for additional packout stacks, making it impossible to open the lid. I’ll tell you what, Keaton Power pointed out in the comments, that the orientation of the packout cleats on top of this thing, makes both packouts face towards the handle, which means you can’t unlock the back stack, without first taking off the front stack. And if you have drawers, forget it. Now Milwaukee hasn’t officially announced this thing yet, so they can’t answer any of my questions about it, and I have several angry questions. To see just how stupid this thing is designed, you can check out our breaking news segment right here on Belts and Boxes.
Quick Reviews | Various
Tools In Action got their hands on the Bosch Pocket Planer that is almost too cute to use.
Man Caver Tools pins the HILTI compact drill driver against the DeWALT XR drill driver to find the king of mid range drivers.
Project Farm discovers which shop towel is the best of all of the shop towels.
And finally Nick runs us through a Power Tool Rundown of the Festool TSC 55 K Cordless Track Saw over at Ohio Power Tool.
I will be sure to link all of these videos, and the rest of the videos we mention in a full article on our website at Belts and Boxes.
Tool Talk | Robotics on the jobsite
Alright before we get to our personal stuff, It’s time for a bit of Tool Talk. This week I stumbled upon the ENR FutureTech virtual industry show, which offers free access to their streamed Keynote event, which included a series called Robotics and Automated Processes in Construction, presented by Carlos Crespo of Acciona. Now If you’re a regular here, you know I’m fascinated by jobsite robotics. So this talk was right up my alley. Now Acciona is involved in both robotics and AI, and its integration with the jobsite. They’re already working with Boston Dynamic’s spot for inspection, both small and huge robotic arms that are handling parts and printing concrete walls, and even robots with omnidirectional wheels for automating indoor tasks.
But with all of these amazing robots, it got me thinking about power tools. Milwaukee isn’t likely to build the best jobsite robot. Then again, Boston Dynamics isn’t likely to make the best hammer drill. Only Hilti is currently trying to do both with Jaibot. But wouldn’t it make more sense for Boston Dynamics to make us a durable jobsite robot, with a universal joint, that FLEX can use to make a robot specific hammer drill? Makita comes out with a new XDT20 Impact, available in either Human, or Robotic format? I made a few mocks here to show you what I’m thinking. For today’s talk, I want to know what you guys think. If Milwaukee made a version of their tools for robots, would you be excited to learn how to manage robots? Or feel betrayed by a brand that’s supporting robots intended to replace you? I look forward to your perspectives. For reference, I’ll link to the ENR event below.
Last week we found out how many tools you can actually pack into a Milwaukee XL PACKOUT which you can watch right here. We want to thank SKIL and Ohio Power Tool for sponsoring this episode. Guys, we couldn’t do it without you. If you liked our show give it a thumbs up, and if you loved it, we hope you subscribe. Have a restful weekend, and maybe one of us will see you next week…Hopefully.