This week, FLEX turns a bunch of grown men into whiny infants. Plus, TTC plays with a monster impact, and Nate reveals more Makita secret plans. THIS is your power tool week in review.
Sparky Channel | Milwaukee Polyester Fish Tape
Today we have several tool stories for you, starting with some truly fantastic news. Bill got his Polyester Angler Fish Tape from Milwaukee!
A couple weeks ago Bill from the Sparky Channel got his hands on the all new Milwaukee Angler Fish tape, but at the time, he didn’t have the polyester tape cartridge, which seemed to make him sad. You see, Polyester is his tape of choice, and he was certain that the new Angler would work much better if he had one. And this week, he got his wish. Look how happy my favorite tool reviewer is! If you’re an electrician, you’re probably already subscribed, but even if you’re not, you should head over to the Sparky Channel for the full review.
Torque Test Channel and Man Caver Tools
It’s not often we feature modded tools on our show, but this week, the Torque Test Channel showed us something we couldn’t ignore.
THIS is the Frankenstein Impact, which makes no sense because Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster. Fine. Anyways, this is NOT a Milwaukee tool, but it sure looks like one. As it turns out, it was custom built, by this guy.
This is Dave of Man Caver Tools. And he thinks Milwaukee should make a version of their impact driver with a half inch anvil. But instead of simply suggesting it, he went ahead and did it. After an unholy night of power tool dismemberment, Dave merged the 2853 Impact Driver with the ½” anvil from a 2855. And instead of destroying two perfectly good Milwaukee tools, he managed to build a better one. So while Milwaukee shut down their operations due to embarrassment, Dave sent his new creation over to Torque Test Channel in search of some proper proof. And yeah, he got it. TTC tested it directly against the 2853 impact and the 2855 stubby that both gave their lives to birth this beast. And the results were nothing short of amazing. Now the comments are full of theories for why this works so well, with a lot of unanswered questions about long term durability. I highly recommend you watch not only the Torque Test, but head over to Man Caver Tools to see how he built it, and you’ll find a ton of other creative tool content while you’re there.
Doresoom Tool Reviews | Makita Patents
Last month Makita FINALLY announced the US Arrival of their new 40 and 80V platform, XGT. Since then we’ve all been theorizing about what over powered tools they plan to bring us over the next year. But no one sees into the future better than Nate at Doresoom Tool Reviews.
It’s top secret patent time again! Nate stayed up late digging through Makita’s trash (or the patent website) to find 10 NEW patents that just might give us insight into Makita’s upcoming plans. He found some really interesting stuff. Like this 36V Thickness planer, which, come on… that’s gonna be 80v right? There’s also an upgraded cordless rebar tying tool, a crazy 120,000 rpm pistol grip air blower, and a freakn mini fridge! But that’s not the strangest thing he found. No, that would be a lawn mower that looks like an upright vac. I for one LOVE it when Makita makes unique stuff. I think it also makes for a compelling reason to choose their battery platform. You can see all of the cool secrets over at Doresoom Tool Reviews.
Tool Talk | Flex & Makita Patents
It’s time for tool talk guys. Last week we revealed the new In-Line Circular saw from FLEX, and asked you guys to tell us what you thought should be Next, for Flex.
Lucas Wasson said “Next for Flex should definitely be specialty tools. They’re gonna want to get as many people on their platform as they can. A rival to pack out would be nice but those won’t get the people who need specialty tools to switch.”
John Totten said “Track mounted tools. Bring it in at an actually affordable price to the US market. It’s insane that the cheapest name brand option is still $400+ for the saw alone. A cheap cordless track saw is all I want.“
I’ll tell you what, an innovative tracksaw should be high on their list, but at this point, if they beat Milwaukee to it, I’ll eat my shoe.
For this week’s tool talk? Yeah, we’re still talking about FLEX. The reveal event video finally went live, and it was the corporate commercial WE expected, but some of the rest of you seem to be surprised that they put on a show where FLEX won everything. But don’t worry, there are a ton of new test reviews that went live, and a bunch more to come.
Shop Tool Reviews put the FLEX High Torque impact wrench to work, Mastering Mayhem went live for a half hour, putting the FLEX recip in the ring with a bunch of pro competitors,
and Stan the Dirt Monkey used a FLEX Circular saw to cut 2x4s in a fish tank. I’m gonna give that a moment to really sink into you brain. And before you ask, yup it’s just as amazing as you think.
And of course before the event a few lucky buyers got their hands on the FLEX tools thanks to a Lowes screw up. High five lowes! And we got an early look at a few tools tests, most notably was Jim from Phillyfixed who just started his YouTube channel less than 2 months ago, just happened to get his hands on the tools early, and put the standard FLEX drill and recip saw through a series of tests.
And as you all know, tool fans are the most patient, kind and understanding people you’ll ever meet, so they were all super nice to Jim and thanked him for his effort. At least I did. Now there are still a ton of FLEX tools that haven’t been properly reviewed. So for today’s tool talk, you have two choice. Either tell me which FLEX tool you want to see reviewed, or you can tell me which ridiculous Makita patent you want to see brought to life.
I’ll be ready to chat with you right after the show.
Construction Junkie | Bad Bridges
It’s time to head over to Construction Junkie and find out what’s going on in the world of construction, and this week, we find out how crappy our bridges are. I feel safer already.
According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, or ARTIE-buh for short, there are currently 618,000 bridges in the US, and roughly 45,000 of them have been rated as “Structurally deficient”. Let that sink in before your next road trip. At this point, ARTIE-Buh says that at the current rate of repair, it would take 40 years to fix them all. But don’t worry, you’re statistically likely to die driving over one of these bridges before then. I’m guessing. Looking at the data, they were able to create a list of the states with the most bridges in poor condition, with Iowa leading the pack with 4,571. Which I call BS. There is no way Ohio didn’t make that list. Have you seen our bridges? Look at this thing. And that one. This is the main bridge leading into Columbus. Ohio Sucks!! For the full story, and before you traverse a bridge this weekend, head over to construction junkie dot com.
Last week, we revealed the FLEX In-Line Circular saw which you can watch right here. Special thanks to SKIL and OPT