Milwaukee brushless hammer drill Is this right?

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five.five-six

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I finaly replaced my old cordless Bosch set after 7 years of service. I went with the M18 setup and for the drill and impact driver I got the brushless fuel as those are the 2 I use most. I was on a resi remodel today and used my drill on a 4" holesaw for hand holes. My Bosch would turn that thing in drywall no problem but this Milwaukee seems to go into some sort of protection mode if it gets too much torque applied. I know I'm not supposed to but I'll tighten the chuck by holding it and squeezing the trigger a bit and I actually got it to cut out by hand in that manner. Is this the way those drills are supposed to operate?
 
When you say "some sort of protection mode" are you really just describing the shaft of the hole saw slipping in the chuck? That is what the rest of your description seems to imply.
Using a mandrel with a round shaft (no flats) on a hole saw that size just does not seem right.
 
Sorry, the motor shuts off momentarily. It seems to be more prone to cutting out at partial throttle and not so much under full throttle. I did need to drill a 4 X 12 beam with a 5/8" auger ... Not a new auger and I'd did make it through but cut out once or twice. It didn't even seem like it was straining that much. Just hit a threshold and cut out.
 
Whats the clutch set at? Anything other than max will obviously slip at some point. I've never had the problem with my m18 fuel but have seen it with my 20v brushless dewalt.


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It's not slipping, the motor is shutting off. It's differant than any drill I have ever seen. There is a clutch adjustment, but there is another controll that selects between hammer, clutch or drill. It was set to drill.
 
Sounds like overload protection is kicking out. This happen when you have been working it hard and motor is getting a little hot, or before you get to that point? I don't have the "fuel" drill, but can work my regular M18 drill hard enough with a big hole saw in it to make the overload protection kick in, but drill is usually getting noticeably warm before this happens.
 
From the Milwaukee website- "Simply put, M18 FUEL™ tools are the most powerful 18v cordless tools in their class".

I think you got a lemon. My old 18v Dewalt has no problem with a 6 inch holesaw in plaster ceilings. Did you get it from HD or another big box store by chance?

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
From the Milwaukee website- "Simply put, M18 FUEL™ tools are the most powerful 18v cordless tools in their class".

I think you got a lemon. My old 18v Dewalt has no problem with a 6 inch holesaw in plaster ceilings. Did you get it from HD or another big box store by chance?

-Hal
Click to expand...
Yep, got it from the orange one. Battery was fully charged but the drill wasn't warm at all. My old Bosch 18v (which I got from the orange big box as well) had no trouble turning a 4" hole saw in Sheetrock either. I'm thinking I may just have a defective protection circuit.
 
I have had that happen as well. As you said it seems to happen only at partial throttle where it is meeting a strong enough resistance that it does not overcome for some amount of time. I believe it is a protection circuit. If you give it enough throttle it does just fine. I think it times out if it is given a steady input and no rotation occurs for a set time.
 
five.five-six said:
Yep, got it from the orange one. Battery was fully charged but the drill wasn't warm at all. My old Bosch 18v (which I got from the orange big box as well) had no trouble turning a 4" hole saw in Sheetrock either. I'm thinking I may just have a defective protection circuit.
Click to expand...

no, what is happening is not normal.

the stuff sold at home desperate is made
for the desperate ones specifically,
different skew number and whatnot.

i've not verified it personally, but have been
told that internals on those may not be the
same as stuff bought elsewhere. plastic gears
instead of metal, stuff like that. at least that is
what i was told by the rep at the milwualkee
tool repair facility in anaheim.

i'd grown pretty disgusted with milwualkee,
'cause their batteries had a high failure rate,
and compared to some of the european stuff,
sucked, in a word.

the fuel 12v and 18v brushless stuff is pretty
top notch, and i've ended up with a fair bit of
the stuff now, and it's worked well for me. it's
not as good as the festool stuff, but the festool
stuff is expensive way beyond the cost/benefit
curve.

the 18v porta band kicks ass, for example. it
cuts faster than the same size tool, corded.

i've got the fuel drill, it's two years or so old,
and i've not had anything like what you describe
happen. take it back and get another.
 
Reminds me of when, a number of years ago, a friend of mine bought a Milwaukee corded Hole Hog at HD. The first time he used it was to bore some 2" holes with a Roto-Bore bit through 2x framing for conduit. On the very first hole the gears stripped. He brought it back and HD replaced it. He goes back to the job and the exact same thing happens again with the new drill. So, finally figuring it out, he gets his money back from HD and goes to a tool distributor to purchase the same model Hole Hog. No problems to this day.

Moral of the story is that I never recommend buying power tools from the Big Boxes. They buy such large volumes from the manufacturers that they can dictate a low price point and the manufacturers make the product especially for them while still maintaining their profit so something has to go.

From talking with other trades this holds true for a lot of other stuff too. I've had locksmiths tell me how Schlage and Kwickset from HD is nothing like the same products they get from their distributors. They won't rekey HD locksets because once you take the cylinder apart it won't stay together. Painters talk about Purdy paint brushes. Purdy is supposed to be professional grade but not at HD. Plumbers complain about HD faucets. Even though it may say Kohler or Delta it ain't the same. Don't expect regular repair parts to work.

At first I chalked this up to sour grapes but seeing is believing. Makes you wonder what they do to electrical products that we can't see.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
Reminds me of when, a number of years ago, a friend of mine bought a Milwaukee corded Hole Hog at HD. The first time he used it was to bore some 2" holes with a Roto-Bore bit through 2x framing for conduit. On the very first hole the gears stripped. He brought it back and HD replaced it. He goes back to the job and the exact same thing happens again with the new drill. So, finally figuring it out, he gets his money back from HD and goes to a tool distributor to purchase the same model Hole Hog. No problems to this day.

Moral of the story is that I never recommend buying power tools from the Big Boxes. They buy such large volumes from the manufacturers that they can dictate a low price point and the manufacturers make the product especially for them while still maintaining their profit so something has to go.

From talking with other trades this holds true for a lot of other stuff too. I've had locksmiths tell me how Schlage and Kwickset from HD is nothing like the same products they get from their distributors. They won't rekey HD locksets because once you take the cylinder apart it won't stay together. Painters talk about Purdy paint brushes. Purdy is supposed to be professional grade but not at HD. Plumbers complain about HD faucets. Even though it may say Kohler or Delta it ain't the same. Don't expect regular repair parts to work.

At first I chalked this up to sour grapes but seeing is believing. Makes you wonder what they do to electrical products that we can't see.

-Hal
Click to expand...

I'm sure you're right in general, but how much can you tinker with a steel j-box? Or a 500 foot roll of 14-2 NM?
 
gadfly56 said:
I'm sure you're right in general, but how much can you tinker with a steel j-box? Or a 500 foot roll of 14-2 NM?
Click to expand...

Some items are just purchased in large enough quantities that they get a good price on them even if it is same standards as what is sold to others.

Copper wire products - may come down to watching copper commodities markets and making purchases at the right time.
 
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