Festool’s new TID 18 finally gets reviewed and EGO is dating someone new. Welcome back power tool fans, it is Friday, July 24th 2020 and today we’re going to do the power tool news, and share some tool videos you won’t want to miss! Let’s Go!
On Tuesday this week, Home Depot shocked the tool industry with a press release, stating their plans to drop the most popular outdoor power equipment brand in the industry, EGO. Why? It didn’t exactly say.
In their mysterious press release, they said they would be cutting Ego as part of an outdoor power equipment “reset”. The odd part was that dropping Ego seemed to be the only change. The rest of the cordless brands, Ryobi, Makita, DeWALT, and Milwaukee, along with the gas-powered Toro, Echo, John Deere, Cub Cadet, Honda and Troy-Bilt would all be staying. Naturally leaving the rest of us to wonder, how exactly is that a “reset”.
In an interview with BizJournals, Sara Gorman, a spokesman for Home Depot, said “We are focused on the most relevant brands with the greatest adoption”.
So let me get this straight. Consumer Reports’ Highest Rated Push Mower, EGO. Highest Rated Self-Propelled. EGO. String Trimmers, backpack blowers, snow blowers. ALL EGO. And when you look at the reviews on Home Depots own website, Their last gen mower, 4.7 stars with 11,500 reviews. Their new mower has 700 reviews, and it’s sitting on a 4.9 star rating. It’s about the same across the full line. So HOW is Ego no longer relevant?
Well, 24 hours later we heard from someone else. Specifically, Home Depots only real competitor, who currently sells MORE OPE than HD does. Sarah, would you care to guess? Lowes. They sent us their own press release, announcing a deal that made them the exclusive national retailer of what else, EGO power equipment. Not only that, but they’re also bringing on the full line of NEW OPE equipment from SKIL, which is owned by Chervon, the parent company of EGO.
So… did Home Depot dump EGO like they suggested? If so, Chervon landed an entirely new and complex deal with their biggest competitor in 24 hours. So what do you guys think? Who really dumped who, and if you have an opinion on that, why? Because the truth is, when this blows over we’ll still have two giant stores, each with a fantastic lineup of OPE equipment. So while the whole thing is fascinating, it doesn’t really affect any of us, so let’s move on.
Our friends at Tool Box Buzz, who got their hands on a new Roofing Nailer from DeWALT. Right off the bat, Rob doesn’t seem too happy. He notes that the new DeWALT 20V Cordless Roofing Nailer is heavier than it’s pneumatic brother, and it has a flywheel wind up and wind down sound. But speed is the most important thing on a roofing nailer, and the DeWALT delivers. But of course that’s not everything. Rob goes on to say that it’s good for smaller jobs, but the bigger ones will still require pneumatic. To find out if it’ll work for you, head over to tool box buzz on Youtube.
A couple months ago Festool surprised us with a new Cordless Impact, the TID 18, that came with the Festool prestige, but at a discounted price. This week John from Tools that Build got his hands on the newest kit, and gave the impact a test drive. Now while it’s cheaper, it’s still a Festool, and from the looks of it, its still awesome. John particularly loved the led light and the compact body. But he found it to be a bit noisy, and then look at this. This is a bosch impact he had on hand. Like all of these tools they blow some air out the side. Now look at the Festool. It’s a dang leaf blower. Before you know it, Home Depot will be talking crap about it while Lowes uses it to replace Ego’s blowers. Too soon? For this full review, head over to Tools that Build on Youtube.
So the Milwaukee Framing nailer continues it’s march of dominance, this time arriving on the shores of Middle Earth. Mr Brown actually got his hands on the wildly popular cordless nailer a few weeks ago, but this was the first time he’s been, you know, framing. So was he just as impressed as everyone else? Yeah you could say he likes it. He doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know about the nailer, but it’s Scott Brown, so it’s somehow super fun watching him use things you’re already familiar with. It’s a hobbit thing. You can find him at Scott Brown Carpentry on Youtube.
It’s time again for our construction industry news, courtesy of the Construction Junkie. We’ve all done it. We put our time in on the jobsite, and earn our spot at the top of the crane, and then spend 2 hours a day climbing a ladder. Ugh.. amirite? Well thanks to a UK company weirdly named Select Plant Hire is working on a solution.This is their new tower crane elevator, which as far as we can tell, is still in the development process. But they clearly have one working, and the crane operators in this video are thrilled. Pretty soon they can stop losing their breath climbing ladders, and instead lose their cool when they get stuck in an elevator like the rest of us.
From 1988 to 2017, the Palace of Auburn Hills was home to the Detroit Pistons. On July 11, 2020, it was blown right the heck up, ending an era as they say. The demolition crews used over 800lbs of explosives. I know you guys want to see the roof blown off this place from at least 6 different cameras. Fortunately, they had 7. I literally started writing a joke here about Jordan being demolished by the Piston’s infamous Bad Boys in this very building, only to see Shane beat me to it in his original article. And he did a better job. To read it yourself, and for the rest of your Construction Industry News, be sure to head over to constructionjunkie.com.
Our buddy the Building Guru showed off his sanding stick collection, something I didn’t even know existed.
Nate was helping his neighbor upgrade to a Bosch HVAC system, and brought along his favorite Wiha tools in his Veto bag.
And Paul the ToolPig himself has decided that the absolute best way to measure trim is with the Bosch LEM, and we can’t disagree.
Thank you Skilsaw and Ohio Power Tool for sponsoring this episode. Sincerely, we couldn’t do this without you.
For the latest deals on the power tools you know you need, visit Ohiopowertool.com