This week, Milwaukee FINALLY responds to the onslaught of FLEX. Plus, Australia brags about having tools we don’t, and VCG, Project Farm, PlumberParts and several others have new tool reviews for us! THIS is your power tool week in review.
Oz Tool Talk | Bosch Strong Arm
Today we have several tool stories for you, starting with my favorite Aussies, Dwayne and Mike, who found another Bosch Profactor tool, that Rob here still can’t get.
These are the two all-new Bi-Turbo, Strong Arm Circular saws, part of the all new PROFACTOR series from Bosch. They’re still on pre-order status here in the states, but Australia has had them for some time now. The Oz Tool Talk team got their hands on both of the new Strong Arms, one with a normal base, and the other with a track-ready version. Bosch sold us on the Profactor series with a promise of a whole new level of power, which the boys said they experienced in their testing. While we still can’t get our hands on Profactor tools just yet, you can see the complete review right now at Oz Tool Talk.
Tool Review Zone | Diablo Blades
Next up, I’m going to show you something rather rare. And I feel I must warn you, what you’re about to see, is a bit shocking.
That was Clint, a tool reviewer for Tool Review Zone, admitting he was wrong about something. As far as we can tell, this is the first time a tool reviewer has ever admitted to being wrong. What was he wrong about? Well, Clint previously pronounced Diablo blades as the best multi-tool blades ever. But as it turns out, they’re not. Instead, THESE Diablo… blades… are the best… What exactly was he wrong about? Well, if you use a multi-tool, and you want the best blades, I think Clint can help you. Just head over to the Tool Review Zone.
Ohio Power Tool: Freud Diablo Blades
Shop Tool Reviews | Batteries
Cordless Power Tools are nothing without their bleeding-edge batteries. But as Tim Johnson of Shop Tool Reviews finds out, not all batteries are the same.
18-650, 21-700, cells, rows, packs, parallel, series, there’s a lot going on under the hood of your favorite battery platform. And the details can make all the difference. Tim decided to tear open batteries from Milwaukee, Flex, DeWALT, Ridgid and Snap-On and identifies the cell types, brands and capacities. He also carefully explains the difference between them, and tells you why you should care. Before you invest in a new battery platform, you should probably know as much about them as you can, and Tim’s ready to teach you. You can find him at Shop Tool Reviews.
Milwaukee | Flex Head Ratcheting Wrench
Milwaukee Finally responded to FLEX this week! With a new set of Ratchets with a flexible head design…I didn’t say it was a strong response.
These are the all-new Milwaukee line of Flex Head Ratcheting Combination Wrenches. They feature a flexible head design that allows better access to hard-to-reach spaces. TAKE THAT FLEX! With a 2.5 degree arc swing, and 144 ratcheting positions, these new wrenches allow for quick and efficient work in awkward spaces. The double-stacked pawls are engineered to increase durability, and extend the life of the tool. They’ve all got MAX BITE Open-End Grip which helps it hold onto nuts and bolts, which they claim translates into 25% more torque than stupid smooth-faced wrenches. They also have comfy handles, and ink-filled labels so you can tell what size they are for years to come. You can get them this may in either Metric or Standard 7 piece or 15 piece sets, or buy them individually. The 7 piece sets will be $170, while the 15 pieces are $290. You can pre-order yours at OhioPowertool.com
Pre-Order MILWAUKEE 15 PC. METRIC FLEX HEAD RATCHETING COMBINATION WRENCH SET 48-22-9513
Pre-Order MILWAUKEE 15 PC. SAE FLEX HEAD RATCHETING COMBINATION WRENCH SET 48-22-9413
Pre-Order MILWAUKEE 7 PC. METRIC FLEX HEAD RATCHETING COMBINATION WRENCH SET 48-22-9529
Pre-Order MILWAUKEE 7 PC. SAE FLEX HEAD RATCHETING COMBINATION WRENCH SET 48-22-9429
Quick Reviews You Won’t Want to Miss
There were a few more reviews you won’t want to miss this week. Torque Test Channel paired up the #1 selling air impact against an M18 and Matco competitor.
Project Farm is measuring Measuring Tapes to see which one measures up, and measures the THAT’s enough of that.
VCG finally puts their FLEX drill to the test against a pair of Milwaukees,
Plumberparts shows off this crazy Drill Pump we had no idea existed,
and Tools & Stuff reviews the worlds first ½” Cordless Router from Hikoki, mainly to make Rob jealous.
Tool Talk
On last week’s show we gave you two options for tool talk. Either A, tell us in the comments, what new FLEX Tool you want to see reviewed next, OR B, tell us what crazy Makita patent you want to see come to life.
Thomas Carroll dipped his toes in both questions, saying “Someone needs to run a test in that flex angle grinder for real and I would love to see that Makita mini-fridge made for real sounds interesting” and I agree, I want the fridge.
On the other hand, James O’Mara ignored both questions, and instead complained about DeWALT saying “I honestly just want a DeWALT 20v max bandsaw that doesn’t weigh 12.5 pounds and cause me to have to carry an extra bag to work…. oh wait there should be an atomic bandsaw coming in February… oh wait its April. Where is my pipe slasher.” We’ll see if DeWALT listens.
For this week’s tool talk, in the face of a full year of the crazy COVID business, we want to ask you this… Are you ok? How are you holding up? Can we do anything for ya? If you guys would enjoy that, just some time to talk about tools, or the industry, and share a bit about how you’re managing it all, let us know. We do hope you’re all doing well.
Construction Junkie | Walk off the job
It’s time again to get our construction industry news from Construction Junkie. I don’t know about you, but I think about walking off the job ALL the time. But as a contractor, walking off a job site when the job goes sour, is not something you should do without pausing to think.
In a recent post from The Lien Zone, a great source for construction law-related advice, Patrick Barthet offers some steps to take before calling it quits. You might think it’s as easy as making the GC or Owner find a replacement to finish your work, but the contract you signed may get you into some legal or financial trouble if you’re not careful.
The article, titled “Think Twice Before Walking Off a Job,” offers four steps to take before walking, including reading and understanding what the termination requirements are in your contract and provide the necessary notice. But that’s just the beginning.
Sometimes, walking away from a bad situation is the RIGHT move, but before you do it, be sure to read the full article over at the lien zone.com, and for the rest of your construction industry news, head over to Construction Junkie.
Last week, we had a small problem with our show. Only 5 minutes after we launched it, we had to take it back down to fix a rendering glitch, which meant a few comments were removed as well. One such comment was made by AceUltraman, I’m sorry bud. Hopefully this week we only post our show once. On last weeks show we looked at a bunch of new Makita patents with Nate, which you can watch right here. Special thanks to SKIL and Ohio Power Tool for sponsoring this episode. We couldn’t do it without you.