This Makita Drill/Driver is built with a maximum torque motor that delivers 450 in. lbs. of efficient torque, and at the same time is very compact in size. It is only 8″ long and weighs in at a light 3.5 lbs. It has a 2-speed design (0-400/ 0-1500) and covers a wide range of drilling and driving applications. The Shift-Lock drive system sleeve quickly shifts from “hammer drill” to “driver” mode. The drill/driver also comes with a built-in LED light for illuminating the work area. This tool accepts all Makita Lithium-Ion slide-style batteries.

The Makita Cordless Drill work capacity is Steel:1/2″ Wood: 1-1/2″ Masonry: 1/2″. Blows per minute: Low:0-6,000, High: 0-22,500. Watt hours for the Drill/Driver are 54 and the battery (Ah) is 3.0

This is a nice compact Drill/Driver. It is very light weight and extremely well balanced, which really takes operator fatigue out of the equation when doing a long job. The Ergonomic shape fits in your hand like a tight glove. The drill delivers even pressure and control is very easy. The only option on this drill that seems a little silly to us was the Built-In LED light. When we were using the drill, the light made no difference what-so-ever in illuminating the work area, and unless you are really working in the dark, you don’t need it.

You can see from our video that will be out shortly that this Drill/Driver from Makita is very easy to use. Whether you are a beginner, or a professional user, this tool is designed to make your job easy and short. There was no bogging down on this tool when in use, and it still showed us plenty of power in it’s cordless version. When we used this tool, it seemed to handle as well as any other Drill/Driver we have tested. Our test only involved about 25 minutes of constant use, but in that time there was no fatigue at all! We would venture to say that you could easily work hour over hour with this baby and experience little arm fatigue.

As you can see from the video, it drills through the wood very easy.  We even had some dull bits and the Makita didn’t hesitate.

All in all, a nice Drill/Driver by Makita. It’s light weight and good balance make it a fun tool to take to work. You definitely feel confident when starting a job with this tool. The only kink in the product is the LED light that is promoted as a help in lighting up the work space. We didn’t notice any difference in lighting when using the tool.  You can pick this up at tylertool.com.

Kit Overview

Makita LXT Flashlight Review – BML185

Makita LXT Impact Driver Review – BTD141

Makita LXT Circular Saw Review – BSS611

Makita LXT Grinder Review – BGA452

Makita LXT Contractor Bag Review

Makita LXT Reciprocating Saw Review – BJR182

Makita LXT Job Site Radio

Dewalt is launching its new 1/2″ stud and joist drill which is model number DWD460.  According to Dewalt the drill is built to drill large holes in wood using hole saws, ship auger bits and self-feed bits.

One interesting feature Dewalt has provided on this drill is a Bind-up Control™.  This feature provides increased user control in bind up and stall situations.  Anyone who has had a powerful drill bind up, knows that this new feature, if it works correctly, will be nice.  By the sounds of it the Bind-Up Control senses stalls and binds and then adjusts the motor’s torque to make the drill manageable.  A user will know this by an indicator light.

Over all this drill seems like a work horse.  It has an 11 amp motor.  There is a two speed variable control that is 0-300 and 1-1300 RPM.  As you would expect this drill has an adjustable bail and side handle, plus anti slip grip.  According to Dewalt it has a knuckle guard for hand protection, but again we haven’t seen this drill, so we can not comment if this knuckle guard is a gimmick or practical.

This review is for the Milwaukee V28 Hammer Drill.  We bought this kit through tylertool.com because it was the cheapest price we could find, plus we have always had a great experience with them.  This came in the Milwaukee V28 Combo kit model number 0928-29, but you can also buy this drill separately.  If you are looking to buy this separately, the model number is 0724-20.

The first thing you notice about this drill is the balance.  The drill only weighs 4.4 lbs without the battery.  When you attache the V28 battery, it balances the all metal chuck and sits perfectly in your hands.  To jump ahead, this drill comes with a side handle which you will need because it puts out an amazing 600 lbs of torque. The Milwaukee hammer drill has a 1/2″ chuck with carbide jaws and the clip-lok system.  The motor can also produce some serious speed, 0-9000/0-27000bpm and 0-600/0-1800rpm.  As you can see, there is a high and low setting plus 20 clutch settings.  Another cool feature is the battery can go on forward or backwards.  This helps when  you have to get into spots that are tight and the battery always seems to get in the way.  With this, you just turn the battery around and are ready to go.

We like the balance and feel of this drill.  We stuck on a 1/2″ dull drill bit to test the power.  We first drilled into a treaded 4×4 and as you can see by the video, the drill went through it with no problems.  The next thing we did was to use the dull drill bit and drill into a solid Oak 2-2×4.  We attached the two Oak 2×4’s, so in essance we had an Oak 4×4.  Again this drill ran through the solid Oak with no probelms, not once did it bog down.

Another test we did was to mix concrete.  In a 5 gallon bucket we filled it up half way with concrete and, mixed it with the drill.  For this test we knew we needed the side handle, because this drill will produce 600lbs. of torque.  As you can see by the video, we had a hard time holding the 5 gallon buck in place.  The drill mixed very well.  Now long term we don’t know how much of this type of work the drill can handle, but again, there are other corded drills out there that are better suited for mixing concrete.  Over all, the drill mixed the concrete great.

For the Milwaukee hammer drill we gave it 5 blades.  We really like the power it produces, but one of the best features is the overall balance.  This is a powerful drill that you can easily work with all day long and not get to tired.  This is one drill you will not regret buying.

Milwaukee V28 Kit Overview

Milwaukee SawZall Review

Milwaukee Battery Review

Milwaukee Work Light Review

Milwaukee Charger Review

Milwaukee Contractors Bag Review

Milwaukee V28 Circular Saw

This review is for the Hitachi Hammer Drill that came in the kit KC18DCL that we bought from tylertool.com.  The model number for this drill is DV18DL.  This drill packs a lot of power and produces 570lbs of torque.  Compare that with the Milwaukee V28 that produces 600lbs of toque, and the Hitachi is only an 18V.  While most hammer drills have two speed settings, the Hitachi has 4 settings.  The four settings are 0-200/400/900/1800 rpm, so as a user you do have lots of control.  One feature we really like is the unique access to the carbon brushes.  On the back of the drill you have easy access  to change the brushes once they get worn out.

When you first pick up this tool, you notice this has great balance and is extremely light weighing.  The tool only weights 4.9lbs.  The tool belt clip is a nice feature, but we found the light to be pretty much worthless.  While it does work a little bit, it just got in the way more than it helped.

We ran a couple tests on this drill.  One was simple drilling and the other was mixing concrete.  For the drilling part we used an old, dull drill bit.  We drilled into a treated 4×4 that the drill ran through with no problems.  We also ran this drill through two solid Oak 2×4s, and again there was not much resistance.

For the mixing test, we used a 5 gallon bucket to mix some concrete (normally you want to use a mixing bucket, but we did this so we could see it better with the camera).  Over all, as you can see by the video, the drill did bog down a little, but still mixed the concrete.  To be fair, this drill is not really designed to mix concrete, there are better and more powerful drills that are made to mix conrete and motar.  The side handle did come in handy because you can feel the power from this drill when mixing the concrete.

Over all, this is a very nice drill.  We like the low profile of the battery and how light this drill is.  This drill has a great feel and very good balance. You can use it all day and not get worn out!

Milwaukee announced their new power tool line of 18V called the M18.  Some of the new tools are the:

• M18 Sawzall – 2620-22
• M18 Circular Saw – 2630-22
• M18 Impact Driver – 2650-22
• M18 Hammer Drill – 2611
• M18 Drill/Driver – 2610
• M18 Work Light – 49-24-0171

These are all powered by Milwaukee’s 18V Lithium Ion Batteries.

Here are a couple key points about each tool.

1. The saw has a 3,500 motor.  A little slower than we would like to see, but will still cut some serious materials.
2. The Milwaukee hammer drill can produce 650lbs. of torque which is more than their 28V, pretty impressive.
3. The Milwaukee M18 Work Light has a head that will rotate 135 degrees.
4. The impact driver looks like it has an LED light on it, not sure if this will be good or more of a distraction.

Overall the new line looks pretty cool.

This new line of Milwaukee M18 power tools looks to compete with the other 18V Lithium Ion tool manufactures out there.  We hope too test these tools in the near future.

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.

Makita just announced the new launch of their 18 V LXT Lithium Angle Drill model BDA350.  Makita’s angle drill has 1,800 rpm which is great for wood or metal drilling.  According to Makita this drill is the fastest in its class. 

Makita’s 4 pole motor will give it good speed and power, with a compact design.  This motor gives the angle drill a great power-to-weight ratio.  The gear housing is made of aluminium which makes this angle drill very light, weighing in at only 3.5 lbs.

The Makita Angle drill delivers 121 lbs of torque which is pretty amazing considering its weight and size.  The chuck size is 3/8″ and the width size is only 2-5/8″ thick.  On the head there is an LED  that will help light up your work area. 

The Makita kit comes with the angle drill, 2-18 V Lithium Batteries that are 3.0 amp instead of the traditional 2.2 or 2.6. rapid charger, contractor bag and battery cover.

Makita’s suggested retail price for the drill only (BDA350Z) is set at $159 and for the angle kit (BDA350) is $369.