Milwaukee brushless hammer drill Is this right?

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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
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Some of that may be true however I don't believe the locksmith as I've re-keyed too many of them myself with no cylinder problems. Same is true with plumbing repair parts and while I don't do the volume they do I have not had an issue that stands out or indicates a trend.
 
mivey said:
Some of that may be true however I don't believe the locksmith as I've re-keyed too many of them myself with no cylinder problems. Same is true with plumbing repair parts and while I don't do the volume they do I have not had an issue that stands out or indicates a trend.
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I agree that some of it is true, but don't think it happens with everything in the store.

Circuit breakers? If anything gets changed it would have to be something that doesn't effect the listing standards. It would also mean resetting tools/machines or replacing stocked components on the assembly line to make a run of product for one customer. Might be worth it if the run is big enough, but something tells me there isn't much to change there in the first place.

Paint? It is easy to put less pigment in the can and sell more water for a lesser price. When it doesn't cover very well the customer buys more paint and ends up spending more then if they purchased a better quality paint to begin with.
 
When it shuts off, it will not start turning again until I release the trigger and pull it again. What seems to cause it is if I stop the chuck from rotating, and when I am cutting wallboard with a 4" holesaw, I cut slowly to reduce the snowstorm. Every time it binds up the drill stops running until I release the trigger and reengage it.
 
The Li ion batteries have protection circuits built in because they are such a fire hazard. I've had a few early version M-12 cells just stop taking a charge. Something in the protection circuit just disconnected the cell, an otherwise pretty new item that just sat and maybe got charged once or twice.

With the brushless ECM motor, I'm sure there's a chip in there that knows the current draw exactly and knows the 4" hole saw is over the tool rating, basically an electronic trip, probably the tool and not the battery protector. The same tool in Bosch has a three position electronic torque setting for various type jobs. In this case the tool, the chip that runs it, is probably too smart for the job. The same tool in a brushed motor with a non electronic speed control will probably just keep trying to turn the load within the capacity of the battery. It will not have the overcurrent trip the brushless ECM motor has.

I gave up on Milwaukee probably 15 years ago. They went through a period where every tool I bought had the cords rot off and the trigger switches went, one or the other or both in less than three years. Been buying Bosch everything unless its a Milwaukee only item. The M-12 would have been good tools except for the new batteries that just decide to stop working.

I like Milwaukee but I've always got two or three that have to out for new cords and triggers.
 
I don't believe the locksmith as I've re-keyed too many of them myself with no cylinder problems.
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You have done it personally or had a locksmith do it? I've seen it personally. If you beat the cap on over the pins to peen it it MAY stay on. Then again it may go flying off...

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
You have done it personally or had a locksmith do it? I've seen it personally. If you beat the cap on over the pins to peen it it MAY stay on. Then again it may go flying off...

-Hal
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What cap? The only cap I can think of is the one over the springs, and you don't remove that (at least for the locks I've used) Most deadbolts you pull the cylinder out and twist the key 180° to access the holes opposite the springs. Alternatively, you push the cylinder out with a shaft of the same diameter. Not once have I had to deal with a "cap."
 
The one on display at HD would do the thing. It's really weird because the drill is really powerful like more powerful than a hole shooter but once it hits that threshold it just cuts out.
 
What cap? The only cap I can think of is the one over the springs, and you don't remove that (at least for the locks I've used) Most deadbolts you pull the cylinder out and twist the key 180° to access the holes opposite the springs. Alternatively, you push the cylinder out with a shaft of the same diameter. Not once have I had to deal with a "cap."
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The cap holds the springs and top pins down. You pull the plug out while sliding in a follower to keep them in place. What I have heard and found in many instances is when you replace the bottom (plug pins) to rekey with good quality pins from your kit, when you reassemble it it operates roughly or you have to play with the key to get it to turn. The problem is the crappy top pins that probably weren't finished well. So you have to remove the top cap and dump the springs and top pins to replace them also. Seems that there isn't much "meat" on the Chinese cylinders to peen it back down.

Doesn't happen all the time but when it does how do you tell the customer that you can't put his deadbolt back together? So now you own it.

-Hal
 
I was always able to replace the springs and drivers through the core hole, one at a time using a slightly tapered follower. I would not even try to remove the swaged hole cover and then stake it down again.
 
GoldDigger said:
I was always able to replace the springs and drivers through the core hole, one at a time using a slightly tapered follower. I would not even try to remove the swaged hole cover and then stake it down again.
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My thoughts exactly. I do believe that some of the high-end cylinders like Schlage have a slotted cover, but all the ones I've ever touched (Weiser, store brand, etc) have been swaged and probably aren't intended to be disassembled in the field.

If you 're changing the top pins it would probably be easer to do it as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS7DLf4RSQE
 
Rampage_Rick said:
My thoughts exactly. I do believe that some of the high-end cylinders like Schlage have a slotted cover, but all the ones I've ever touched (Weiser, store brand, etc) have been swaged and probably aren't intended to be disassembled in the field.

If you 're changing the top pins it would probably be easer to do it as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS7DLf4RSQE
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Continuing off topic, I like the "brass magnet, but was perfectly happy inserting the driver a short distance using tweezers. Then jam the driver in place using the follower long enough to get the screwdriver or tool of choice to push the top of the driver the rest of the way down.
You can even continue the process to insert any required master disks, if for some reason you do not want to load them in the plug.
 
I don't know what you're talking about - that never happens.

Did you try again with the drill in low? :)

Another thing to look out for is the difference in torque for the various models. It tends to go up in $50 increments, and it gets painful to spend an extra $150 for a nameplate and a hope.
 
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...

Still have a corded Hawg from 1972.
 
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