THIS WEEK, Marius gets his hands on a great big dril from FLEX, PTR digs into the M18 15G nailer, Hilti reveals the Biggest Pro Tool News so far this year, and we reveal the second $2,000 shelf of power tools for our giveaway! LETS GO!
Welcome back power tool fans, I’m Rob, Sarah is still out sick, I’m going to show you the second shelf that may be chosen by our production crew winner, but first, this week the industry was buzzing to the sound of Nuron.
HILTI Nuron
Hilti surprised just about all of us by revealing an entirely new pro tool battery platform, and 70 new tools to take advantage of it. The short version. All new 22V batteries with oversized connectors that allow the tools to pull up to a staggering 100amps, making them perfectly sized for your impact, but perfectly powerful for a concrete breaker. They also revealed a brilliant tool tracking technology, and expanded safety features. We took a closer look at Nuron in a video on Wednesday, which I’ll link to below.
Project Farm | DeWALT Power Stack
Todd over at Project Farm, bought himself one of the brand new DeWALT ultra fancy powerstack batteries, because he wanted to know if this new battery tech was worth the significant jump in cost. To make this determination, he built his typical gauntlet of power tool doom, and directly compared it to their standard 2ah battery, and for good measure, tossed in one of their 5ah as well.
Now we’ve seen this battery tested by just about everyone else on YouTube at this point but come on. This is Todd we’re talking about. Not only will he get to the inconvenient truth of it all, but he naturally peels the thing open at the end, just so we can all enjoy its gooey goodness.
Pro Tool Reviews | Milwaukee Nailers
The guys at Pro Tool Reviews are just as excited as the rest of us about the new Milwaukee 2839 M18 15 Gauge Finish Nailers. But as they pointed out, there are more improvements than you may realize. To detail them all, they decided to test it directly against it’s predecessor, the 2743.
When compared side by side, it quickly becomes apparent that the new nose offers significantly improved visibility, leading to more accurate shots. The power seemed the same, but the new Nitrogen air spring made a noticeably different sound, and produced less recoil. They noted that the price has gone up slightly, and to find out if they think it’s worth it, head over to Pro Tool Reviews.
Mastering Mahem | FLEX SDS Plus Rotary Hammer
Marius, who’s name I’ve been mispronouncing for like 2 weeks, sorry bud, is back reviewing tools again this week, this time he got a hold of the new FLEX 1” SDS Plus Rotary Hammer drill. His favorite feature, is the quick changing chucks. In a quick click you can go from your SDS Plus, to a ½” Full Metal Keyless Chuck, which really opens up your options outside of SDS plus bits.
Marius carefully walks you through each and every feature and setting, and then grabs a bunch of SDS Plus bits, and gets to work. And after drilling into a bucked of cured concrete, it quickly turns into a Head 2 Head vs the popular and capable DeWALT DCH273B, 20V Max XR 1” DSD Plus Rotary Hammer. If you need to drill some great big holes in really hard material, visit Mastering Mayhem first.
Kite Army / Kruger Construction | EGO 2 Stage Snow Blower
We still don’t have any significant snow here in Central Ohio, but according to the news, some of you are knee deep at the moment in the frozen rain. So you may just be considering a snowblower. But I know what you’re thinking.. Gas. Gross. I’m with you. But fortunately for us, a pair of our favorite reviewers, with more snow than we have, both took an extended look at the EGO 2 stage snow blower this week. We shared a video last Spring about ours, and found it to be extremely capable, and easy to use, if only a few inches too narrow.
But now Murray got it and put it to work in -35 degree weather. I have no idea what that’s like. It gets -5 here, and we all lay down to die a peaceful death. But Murry had what looked like 6-8in of snow to remove, and the EGO did an excellent job of shooting well into his neighbor’s yard. Was he happy? I think so.
But Andrew from Kite Army got his own two-stage to test as well, and he compared it to the single stage version. Andrew split up his driveway, and lets us compare the two side by side. In the end, he gives you some tips for choosing between the two, but keep in mind, I don’t know what temperature it is in Michigan, but It’s probably a toasty 12 degrees compared to Murry’s -35, so how reliable could Andrew really be amirite? I’ll link to both videos below.
Belts and Boxes Membership
Alright it’s tool shelf time. Our Youtube Membership program is called the Production Crew. And last week we revealed our new giveaway program consisting of 4 shelves, each stocked with around $2,000 worth of tools. At the end of this month, we’re going to randomly choose a member, and they’re going to get to pick one of these shelves for themselves.
And This week, we’re looking at the FLEX shelf. Naturally we had to start with their two flagship drills, the 24V Drill Driver with Turbo Mode, and their Quick Eject Impact Driver Combo Kit. Together, with a 160W fast charger, a 2.5ah and a 5.0ah battery, this kit comes in at $349. Next we have the FLEX Inline circular saw. This thing is one of my favorite tools. The design allows you to see your cut from either side of the saw. This kit includes another charger and a 5ah battery for $249.
Then we have the FLEX 1” SDS Plus Rotary Hammer for $299 bare. The FLEX Jobsite radio for $129, The FLEX Flood light for $99, The FLEX Multi Tool Kit with a 2.5ah battery and charger for $199, The FLEX 1.6 gallon Wet/Dry Vac for $139, and of course the FLEX Barrel Grip Jig saw for $199. And just for good measure, we’re tossing in a FLEX 12AH battery for those big jobs, which comes in at $249.
Whomever picks this shelf will have a full collection of pro tools, so you’ll naturally need pro accessories. Fortunately, Spyder is once again here to get the most out of these tools. The FLEX shelf includes a Spyder 6.5” Framing blade, which I don’t yet have on hand, this 11piece Mach Blue drill bit set, and to help you really put the drills to work, this Spyder 14 piece Set of Carbide Tipped Arbored Adjustable Hole Saw Kit, bringing our grand total to $2091. Oh, and FLEX just announced that they are extending their limited time offer of a Lifetime warranty, through 2022. So as long as someone picks this shelf and registers these tools by December 31st, they’ll get the lifetime warranty too.
Now our winner this month will be pulled from our members list. But a reminder, to qualify, you have to be a member when the contest starts. So for this month, that would have been December 31st. That means there are only 39 people in the pot this month. Not bad odds. If you’d like to be a part of next month’s giveaway, you have until the 31st of Jan to become a member.
There are two levels of membership. Our Shop Staff get to take advantage of exclusive deals to Ohio Power Tool, and of course get a member avatar next to their name when they comment. The Production Crew gets the added benefits of a free t shirt after 3 months, access to our private live show every Monday evening, and a credit at the end of each episode of the Power Tool Week in Review. But both levels qualify for our giveaways. If you’d like to join us, look for the join button below this video on YouTube.
That’s it guys. I want to thank EGO for sponsoring us this week. EGO has a bunch of new OPE tools coming out in 2022 that we highlighted in last week’s show. Go check that out. If you can, do something kind for someone else this weekend, and I’ll see you next week.