Home Depot springs a Milwaukee Leak, DeWALT surprises us with 4 new tools with new DeWALT tech and more! Coming up next on your Power Tool Week In Review!
New From Milwaukee – Milwaukee Top-Off
We’re still 3 weeks away from Episode 3 of Milwaukee’s PIPELINE, their online new product symposium, and the new tools we’ll see are anyone’s guess. Home Depot had a guess this week, and leaked all the details.
This is the all new Milwaukee TOP-OFF. Home Depot accidentally posted it to it’s website for a few brief hours, and reportedly emailed the details in some customized customer emails. All before Milwaukee even noted it’s existence.
Possibly due to this event, Milwaukee announced the TOP-OFF in full detail just yesterday, as it showed up in online stores for preorder. The new 175w inverter snaps onto any M18 battery, and immediately powers a USB A,USB C- PD, and a 120V outlet. All three maintain full charging power even when all in use simultaneously. And that USB C PD port is significant. It’s the first time one of these hyper-powerful ports has been put on a power tool battery.
I can’t tell you much, except that Milwaukee asked Sarah and I to take an early look at the TOP OFF, and we’ll be reviewing it with them in the 3rd episode of PIPELINE, on October 10th. So if you’re not already registered, head over to milwaukee.com/pipeline and get registered! We’ll have a direct link in the description.
New From Makita – Makita 18V X2 LXT Brushless Power Cutter
Moving on, Back at WOC 2020, Makita announced an entirely new 36V Brushless 9in Power cutter. And it looks like it’s finally about to arrive.
The Makita18V X2 LXT Brushless Power Cutter, model XEC01, aims to eliminate the hassle of gas, cut down on noise, and bring powerful concrete cutting indoors, complete with OSHA Table 1 Compliance. It includes several important safety features, which you can see in action over at Tool Box Buzz, and Pro Tool Reviews.
Previously promised in the Spring of 2020, the new XEC01 is now due to finally hit the shelves THIS month. We haven’t found it in stock anywhere yet, but if you’re looking to chop up some concrete with those 18V Makita batteries of yours, your wait is almost over.
New From DeWALT – DeWALT FLEXVOLT ADVANTAGE
Just 2 days ago DeWALT announced a series of new 20V tools, all featuring a new tech they call FLEXVOLT ADVANTAGE.
The tools include a new 20V MAX Brushless 7 ¼” Circular Saw, a ½” Hammer Drill/Driver, a Reciprocating Saw and a 5in Cordless Grinder. Each tool benefits from FLEXVOLT Advantage, which allows the tool to recognize a FLEXVOLT battery when it’s attached, and utilize it to produce power previously unheard of in a 20V tool. Here are a few examples.
The Reciprocating saw boasts 50% more power when connected to a Flexvolt battery. The Brushless Hammer Drill, 42% more power, and the Grinder, 54%. The 7 ¼” Circular Saw has up to 77% more power when you click on a FLEXVOLT battery. These are NOT small performance gains. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until October to get our hands on these new tools, and experience them for ourselves.
Project Farm – Impact Head 2 Head
Finally, we have a unique impact head 2 head this week, this time from Project Farm. Being a project Farm video, we’re treated to a detailed review of EVERY, SINGLE, FEATURE, and detail from weight to power, and even noting where each one was made. He tests the four impacts by driving lag bolts into railroad ties until they melt, busting lug nuts, dropping them onto concrete and more. I think you will be surprised who won. Just kidding it was Milwaukee. Or is it! No it is. It’s Milwaukee. But the video is a great watch, and you can find it at Project Farm on YouTube.
Construction Junkie
Tall mass Timber buildings, are tall buildings, with lots of timber mass. A construction process that replaces steel and concrete with the beautiful guts of a dead tree. And thanks to new changes to the NFPA code, they’re gonna be here sooner than later.
A couple of years ago the International Code Council approved mass timber buildings up to 18 stories high and 270 feet tall, changes they planned to add in 2021. But now the National Fire and Protection Association has adopted provisions to allow for taller mass timber buildings within the NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code, and NFPA 1010 Life Safety Code. To you and me, this simply means we’ll soon be seeing more tall buildings built from wood, a low-embodied carbon alternative compared to traditional building materials.
We’ve reported previously on the construction of the new Las Vegas Raiders Stadium, and this week EarthCam showed us how it was built, in just 3 minutes.
The time lapse covers all 32 months of the construction process, from breaking ground to cleaning the glass. Oddly enough, seeing it built this fast makes it look no harder than a lego kit. More expensive maybe, but not by much. The video gives us a quick look at over 65,000 hours of work in 1.4 million images. Earthcam says that to fully capture a project this size, they incorporated new techniques to capture 400 mega pixel images every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You can watch the entire thing, and get the rest of your construction industry news, at constructionjunkie.com.
Instagram Favorites
Murray from Krugerconstruction made quick work of some 2x4s with his portable Makita Planer, which he says not only does the job, but when paired up with a vac, it completely eliminates the usual mess.
Sarah from ToolGirl’sGarage made some “measure 12 times, cut once” cuts this weekend, and would only trust them to her Bosch Tracksaw which she calls “Nothing short of Beautiful”
And finally, The Concord Carpenter himself was using the Makita drywall cutter hooked up to proper dust collection, making it the perfect tool when working in inhabited homes.
Special Thanks to SKILSAW and Ohio Power Tool for sponsoring this episode. We couldn’t do it without you.