Dewalt’s Sale on 36V Nano DCX3210R

Dewalt’s most powerful cordless combo kit, the 36V Nano Phosphate is on sale at tylertool.com.   

The DeWalt DCX6210R Includes:
• DC900R 36V 1/2″ hammerdrill/drill/driver
• DC305R 36V reciprocating saw
• 1 hour charger
• (2) 36V Nano Phosphater Lithium Ion batteries
• 360 degree side handle
• reciprocating saw blade
• contractor bag

Use coupon code - tt082650

Deal starts - August 26, 2008

Deal ends - Not sure.

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Dewalt Random Orbital Sander Power Tool Review

We reviewed the Dewalt orbital sander model number DW423K.

Specifications - Dewalt Random Orbital Sander Model - DW423K

Amps - 2
OPM - 12,000
Volts - 120
Size - 5″
Cord Length - 10 Ft.
Weight - 3.8 Lbs.
Other Features
Electronic Variable Speed
Dual Plane Counter Balance Fan
Dust Sealed Switch
Carrying Case
Control Finishing System

As a woodworker, you need to produce a nice surface for a variety of reasons.  Knowing this, we decided to test an orbital sander for this power tool review.  We found a Dewalt Random Orbital Sander at tylertool.com as a factory reconditioned tool, so we thought we would give this a test.

Our first impression was good.  If you have been following our other reviews you know we love carrying cases, and the Dewalt random orbital sander has its own case.  There is even room to pack some sand discs, along with other misc. items.

We wanted to run this sander through a bunch of tests, but one must remember with these tests, the sand paper will play a big part in the results.  So we tested the normal items we usually do with each power tool, but we added three additional test. One was vibration affects and arm fatigue. Another was weight applied to the sander before it bogs down. Third was how it finished work on softwood and hardwood.

Our first test was how vibration affected arm fatigue.  Dewalt uses a dual plane counter balance fan.  After using the sander for a while our hands did get tired.  The vibrations are a lot less than other orbital sanders we have used, but grabbing the sander from the top did cause some arm fatigue.  We found if you grab the sander on the side, you had more control and fatigue did not show up as soon.  We are not sure if it has to do with the tool design or the counter balance, but either way the side hold is far better.

Our second test was weight factor. Here we wanted to see how much weight could be applied before the sander would stop. For this test all we did was put a 1 inch piece of plywood down on a scale and started the sander up.  Well for a 2amp motor, we were impressed. At full speed we  were able to push down to 50lbs and the sander still didn’t bog.  Our scale only went to 50lbs.  On the slow speed or number 1 position at 40lbs we could hear the sander start to strain, but it was still going at 50lbs.  Not sure why you would every want to apply this much pressure with an orbital sander, but if need be it can handle this.

Our last test was the finish on softwood and hardwood.  A lot of this has to do with the sandpaper, the pressure you apply and your variable speed setting.  We still wanted to look and monitor the Dewalt Sander.  We used a variety a different grits with different speeds on both softwood and hardwood.  If you sand and use the correct speed for every type of wood, the final finish came out looking great.  We even applied stain to help bring out any blemishes, but for the most part, this was not a finicky power tool. Therefore, you do not have to be dead on to produce perfect finishes.

Over all, our power tool review of the Dewalt random orbital sander is great. We were extremely impressed with this power tool.  We like the dust covered power switch, the dust collector and the variable speed.  If you are a woodworker, you will need an orbital sander. We would recommend getting a new model, as we bought this during their closeout special.

Pro’s - Variable speed, low vibration, case, nice work output

Con’s - Grabbing from the top did produce a little fatigue, this is an older sander.

Professional Power Tool Guide Rating
Performance

The performance of the Dewalt sander was great. The main items, like vibrations, were very low. Most of the power seems to be transferred to your work, not your arm.

Ease of Use

The sander is very easy to use when looking for that sweet spot for speed and pressure, depending upon what type of material you are sanding

Features

The Dewalt random orbital sander is very nice because it has the random setting to get the correct speed.

Feel

This sander has low vibrations, but holding this sander on the top did cause some fatigue in our arm, while holding the sander on the side let us work for longer periods of time.

Overall

Over all the Dewalt random orbital sander is a very nice sander. We like the power and low vibrations. We are giving it a 4 blade rating instead of 5 because it is an older model and our arm did get a little fatigued. We would suggest acquiring a current model, as this is a nice little power tool.

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New Woodworking Plan - Potting Bench Plan

A member sent us this woodworking plan he found - Potting Bench Plan.  He is in the process of making this and will post pictures once he is done.  You can check the forum to see his status

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Milwaukee Drill Power Tool Review

         

    

We reviewed the Milwaukee 1/2″ corded drill model number 0302-20.  If you are looking for a power house drill, take a look at this Milwaukee drill

Specifications - Milwaukee 1/2″ Corded Drill Model - 0302-20

 

Ever power tool owner needs to own a corded drill.  It’s not one of the main tools in a handy mans arsenal, but when you need power, its a must.  For most applications, you can get away with a cordless drill system, especially with today’s quick charge packages.  But even with all the advancements, the battery power drill still can not compete with the over all power and continuous work load of a corded drill.  So we wanted to test a corded drill and decided on the Milwaukee Corded 1/2″ drill which we bought at Tylertool.com.

We went with the 1/2″ because of its chuck size, they also offer a smaller version in the 1/4″ and 3/8″.  The first item we noticed, Milwaukee doesn’t offer to many cases for their drills, which is always nice to have, but not a necessity.  After we unwrapped the drill and put it in our hands, we made one unfair judgment , and that was with regards the balance of the Milwaukee drill.  The weight is towards the front, so if you are a one handed power tool user, while keeping your other hand free, you arm will get very tired.  Now that we made that unfair judgment, lets get back to reality.  First, this type of drill is made to use with two hands and secondly, for most applications the drill will be pointed towards the floor, so balance on this drill is not a huge issue.

We ran the Milwaukee Drill through a bunch of tests for durability, heat output, power output and the longevity of the Milwaukee Corded drill.  Because we don’t want to get into a long winded review, we will focus on two of the corded drill power tool tests we performed.

The first test was for a practical application, mixing stuff.  When you mix a heavy material, only a corded drill will work and even this can put some strain on a drill.  In fact for mixing you should be using a bigger drill such as the Milwaukee Super Hole Shooter, otherwise you can burn a drill out in no time. Because this is more than a corded drill should do, we thought we would mix up a batch of Ardex.  Ardex is a self leveling concrete and patch mix.  We grabbed our 30 Gallon barrel and dumped two bags in and threw some water on top, enough to make the mix stay fairly dry and hard to turn.  We wanted to see how much heat we could build up on the drill and see if we could pop a 15 amp circuit. We started out slow and then turned it up.  After getting the mixture as a hard paste, the drill kept on turning like it was just playing with us. In fact, the mixer bit stuck in the mix and all we ended up doing was spinning the 30 gallon drum filled with two heavy bags of Ardex and the water.  I think it was harder on us then the drill. We had two hold onto the drill tight.  Even the big guy had a hard time holding the drill. Well, we finally stopped and added more water to keep the drill moving and it mixed it great.  We ended up not popping any breakers, and the drill got a little warm, but not extremely hot.  We were going to measure the torque, but when we got the torque meter out of the truck we realized it was broken. Maybe next time!

The second test we ran was using a 3/4″ drill bit (shank size was 1/2″) to drill holes into a 4×4 with a clay ground underneath.  This test would let us get a good handle on starting and stopping the drill in a quick fashion, plus making the Milwaukee drill do some heavy work with the bit and hitting the clay.  One of the major things we learned about this drill is you better use two hands.  One of the guys wasn’t paying attention and the drill bit on something, let me tell you this bad boy has some serious power. Anyway, we drilled about 60 holes through 3 stacked 4×4s and then hitting about an inch of clay.  Again this drill did the work without stalling or getting to hot. 

Over all, our power tool review of the Milwaukee Corded Drill is EXCELLENT. Light in weight, with the Quick Lok feature, the bit will not come out of the chuck and best of all, lots of power.  If you are looking for a corded drill, go with this Milwaukee Drill as you will not be disappointed.  If you don’t need the 1/2″ go with a nice 3/8″.  You can see all the specifications or buy this power tool at Tylertool.com

Pro’s - Excellent Power, Chuck hold bit in place, Light weight, Power Cord Quick Lok

Con’s - Doesn’t come with a case

Professional Power Tool Guide Rating
Value

There is no questioning of value here. You get a lot more tool and power than we expected for the price.

Performance

The Milwaukee drill performed well above our expectations. We thought we could get it to heat up easy, but we failed. Ran cool and performed awesome.

Ease of Use

Its a drill, how much easier does it get. Put the bit in and hold on to this drill.

Feel

This is a drill you can pick up and right away feel good craftsmanship in the product. When you run the Milwaukee drill, you can feel the power.

Overall

This is a must own power tool if you are looking for a corded drill for heavy duty use. We love the power it produced, we just wish it had a case, but again Milwaukee makes some very nice tool bags that this would fit in. The 360 degree rotation handle is extremely nice because it allows the user to operate the drill at any angle and still be able to use two hands. Over all the Milwaukee drill is a great drill.

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Bosch Bulldog Rotary Hammer Power Tool Review

              

              

The Boschdog 11224 VSR is a workhorse.  This Rotary hammer drill has a lot of great features and is very easy on the hands and your wallet.

Specifications - Bosch Bulldog Rotary Hammer Model - 11224 VSR
Amps - 6.9
Volts - 120
BPM - 0 - 6,150
RPM - 0 - 1,100
Cord Length - 8 Ft.
Weight - 6.25 Lbs.
Other Features
SDS 7/8″
D Handle
Chisel Lock into 36 Different Positions
Modes - Hammer, Drill, Rotary Hammer
Carrying Case
Depth Gauge

 

Bosch makes some of the best power tools in the world and the Bosch Bulldog Rotary Hammer is a perfect example. Right  out of the box, the first item we noticed was the case and the big Bosch logo.  When opening the case, we noticed a lot of room, more than enough to carry bits, chisels and screws.  This is a nice feature. We know it’s only a case, but the extra room for peripheral tool parts saves trips back out to the truck.  This is the Bosch Bulldog drill we bought at tylertool.com

After picking up the tool, the first feature we noticed was the weight. The Bosch Bulldog rotary hammer was very light and weighs in at 6.25 lbs.  I was a little surprised, I thought it would weight more. The Bosch was very easy to handle as the balance between your front hand and rear hand is nice.  On the front of the tool, you can change back and fourth to drill, hammer or rotary hammer with a well placed dial.  The handle is a “D” handle, meaning it gives a user more control when using it over your head or on the ground.  The “D: handle is a very nice feature because control is important when using this type of power tool.  The only downside to a D handle is sometimes its harder to get into tight spots, but that’s not a bad trade off! We really like the SDS system. The bit locks into place by pulling back the chuck and dropping it in.  The SDS system is nice if you are using a variety of different bits or chisels. The down side to an SDS system is that the bits tend to be a little more expensive, but we think they are well worth the extra cost.

We ran the Bosch Rotary Hammer through some tests.  We used a chisel to break up some brick and drilled holes for Tapcons.  We performed some other tests, but these were the main two tests we wanted to monitor.

The first test was using a chisel to break up some brick that was laid in a cement walkway.  Again with the SDS bit system, the chisel locked right into place with no hassles.  We set the dial to Hammer and went to town.  The D handle was very nice as we could control the Bosch hammer very easily. We busted up about half the walk way rather quickly (18 minutes) and we didn’t feel a lot of strain on our backs.  The tool ran rather cool as we didn’t feel a lot of heat produced from the Bosch Rotary Hammer.  After we were half done, we tried another Rotary Hammer (Different brand name that we will put into another review).  This one didn’t have a D handle and we could tell from the start this made a big difference.  When we finished the last part of the walkway, we were a little more tired for two reasons.  (By the way, it took us 26 minutes to finish the second half). First, we were a little more tired partly due to the absence of the D handle. Second was the power transfer.  On the Bosch we couldn’t tell how much power it was transferring to the work, but after using another manufacture for the last half, we could really see that the Bosch was transferring more of the power to the chisel instead of back into the power tool.  Over all the Bosch was a great tool for this job. Great balance, but the best discovery was how much power it transferred to the work instead of your body.

The next test was to put anchors into concrete walls.  For this we used the Condrive 1000 Tapcon system.  This was a no- brainer.  The Bosch Bulldog Rotary hammer knocked this out without breaking a sweat.  Again, when we did it on the ceiling, wall or floor, it was very easy to control.  As long as you match the bit to the right screw, you could fly through this without stripping a screw.  Once you set the depth on the Bulldog, it was no problem.  The only minor obstacle we ran into was the screws.  When we used the tapcon screws, we could really get them to bit and hold with no problem.  The off brand screws wouldn’t always hold or the heads broke rather easily, but this is more due to the screw or human error, not the Bosch Bulldog. 

We ran a couple more tests to rate durability, but we had a hard time getting this tool to run hot. It runs very cool.  Over all this is a great Rotary Hammer. So if you are looking at getting a Rotary Hammer, definitely take a look at the Bosch Bulldog.

Pro’s - D Handle, good transfer of power, SDS system, great power

Con’s - It depends on what you are using this hammer for. If you are looking to get into tight areas, its not bad with the D handle, but could prevent some movement.

Professional Power Tool Guide Rating
Value

You get a lot of power and a lot of tool for the price. This was a test on the 7/8″, for a little more money you can get the 1″ SDS which might be better.

Performance

The are no questions about the performance. It Does everything you want. More than enough power.

Ease of Use

As with most of Bosch power tools, this is very easy to handle and also has great balance.

Features

With the Hammer, Drill or Rotary hammer, there are more than enough ways to get the job done. The trigger is very easy to hold to get the right speed.

Balance

This tool has good balance. The forward part of the power tool has a good balance by itself. With the D handle you can easily control your work. You will end up getting tired because of the ability to keep on working with a well balanced tool.

Feel

This is an extremely solid power tool. When you pick this rotary hammer up, you can feel the balance. It doesn’t seem cheap. Just one of those good power tools to hold in your hand.

Overall

Overall we are giving this a “5 Blade” The Bosch rotary Hammer has great balance, lots of power and the SDS system makes it easy to change bits on the go. The case has more than enough room to store bits and screws, which is a nice feature.

 

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