If you need to drill a hole in steel, you’re going to want a drill press. The power, the stability, and the accuracy will allow you to bore your way through small or narrow pieces of stock. But what do you do when you need precise holes in a large piece of plate steel that you can’t take to the drill press? You need to take the press to the steel. Milwaukee’s magnetic drill press lets you do just that.
We like the new Milwaukee 0880-20 28V wet/dry vac if for no other reason than it looks like a toolbox — so we’ll probably be able to manage it more easily than the normal, R2-D2 looking vacs on the market. Oh yeah, it also features a two-gallon capacity and an airflow rating of 45 cfm.
According to Milwaukee, the 0880-20’s V28TM lithium-ion batteries will power the vac continuously for around 16 minutes on one charge. With more air power and suction than its 18V predecessor, it’ll quickly and easily remove dust, debris, and water.
Milwaukee Electric has added a new grinder to their vaunted V28 lithium-ion line of cordless tools. The V28 grinder features a 3.0 Ah, 28V lithium-ion battery and can spin up to 8,000 RPM.
We’re pretty stoked that Milwaukee chose to expand the V28 line, and we’re happier still that they picked a completely practical tool to do it with. The new grinder also features a soft start and weighs in at just under 7 lbs with the battery attached. No word on price yet, but we expect it to pass the hundred dollar mark.
V28 4-1/2” Grinder 0725-20 [Milwaukee]
Milwaukee unveiled their new line of gas-powered generators this month, so if you’re in the market for one, now might be the time to pre-order. Ace Tool Online is taking orders and have priced it at $1,770 which is a deal considering list price on this generator is over $3,000.
The generator’s power plant — an 8 HP, 240cc Honda GX engine with a 7-1/2 gallon gas tank — provides 4,300 watts of power. The generator sends the juice to several outlets: four 20A/120V three-prong outlets, one 20A/120V twist-lock, one 30A/120V twist-lock, and one 20A/120-240V twist-lock. A dedicated, branch-rated breaker protects each circuit.
Thanks to the hand truck design, you can move the generator easily around the job — it also has a fold-away lift hook. Milwaukee provides a two-year warranty on both the generator and engine.
Press Release [Milwaukee]
4943-24 [Milwaukee]
Milwaukee 4943-24 [Ace Tool Online]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Not all of our favorite tools are inexpensive. In fact, Milwaukee’s V18 was one of the more expensive drivers to grace TM’s shop last year. And that’s saying something, because if there’s one tool we see a lot here at TM, it’s cordless drill/drivers. But the V18 won over even our cheap-ass hearts. Read on past the jump to see why it’s one of our top ten of 2007.
Call it what you like — Sabre, Sawzall, Recipro — I call the reciprocating saw a must-have tool. Since Milwaukee Tools originated it, I’m not surprised that they’re the first to add a 360-degree rotating handle.
If you’re looking to purchase a new corded drill, you NEED to take a look at Milwaukee’s venerable Magnum 0234-6. Although Milwaukee packs 8.0A of power into their newer lineup of 1/2″ drills, this model only sports 5.5 amps of oomf. However, this is an old-school model — a proven workhorse, and preferred by many over all other corded drills.
In a nutshell, the 0234-6 has a heavy-duty, industrial 1/2″ chuck, a side handle, an 8′ detachable cord (a.k.a. Quik-Lok), and a 5.5A motor that demands respect and spins at 0 - 850 RPM. It weighs 4.8 lbs, and it doesn’t come with a case.
The best bit: Amazon is currently offering this drill for $94 with free standard shipping (as opposed to slow as heck super-saver shipping). Big box retailers stopped carrying this drill a while ago, and while it is still available at various online vendors, rumor has it that the 0234-6’s will soon become even scarcer. With an average street price of $130+ and dwindling availability, hesitation is your enemy.
Magnum 0234-6 [Milwaukee]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
We previously posted a Dealmonger about Milwaukee’s 18V li-ion 4-piece combo kit, but the $80 gift certificate from that deal is no longer available. This deal, however, will get you the best price we’ve seen right now. As we mentioned previously, this 4-pack combo kit brings together some of the more popular Milwaukee items into one convenient kit: you get the 1/2” hammer driver/drill that delivers up to 550 in/lbs of torque, the Sawzall recip saw, the 6-1/2” circular saw, and a xenon worklight with Clip-Lok.
Milwaukee’s Sawzall practically gave the reciprocating saw market its name. And Milwaukee continues to evolve the recip saw into new, more specialized configurations like this one, which they call “The Hatchet.” In short: it has a 6-position pivoting handle. In staight-out mode you can grip it like one of those ever-popular straight-handled Japanese hand saws, or you can pivot it all the way down and grip it like a drill driver. Milwaukee claims that it’ll easily fit in between 16” studs.
The Milwaukee 4208-1 Adjustable Position Electromagnetic Drill Press sounds like something NASA would use, doesn’t it? That’s not too far off the mark. It’s essentially a drill press with a magnetic base, allowing you to take the press to the work when you can’t bring the work to the press — perfect for drilling accurate holes into heavy ferrous metal surfaces.
Work is always easier with some good tunes in the background, and Milwaukee (like other manufacturers) makes it easy to bring a boom-box to work: their job site radio runs off either 120V AC — with a pass-through so it doesn’t eat a precious spot on the power strip — or any of Milwaukee’s 12 to 28 volt power tool batteries.
Today only, Amazon is offering this Milwaukee Thunderbolt 20 bit drill bit set for just $20. It includes the following sizes: (2) 1/16″, (2) 5/64″, (2) 3/32″, (2) 7/64″, (2) 1/8″, 9/64″, 5/32″, 11/64″, 3/16″, 13/64″, 7/32″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, and 1/2″. All bits feature a thicker-than-usual “web” designed to reduced breakage and friction and penetrate faster — resulting in increased run-time on cordless drills.
Thunderbolt Set [Milwaukee]
Via Amazon
Street Pricing [Google Product]
As we wrap up glove week, we couldn’t help but include one pair of fingerless gloves: Milwaukee’s. We suffered through our scary memories of 1980s fingerless driving gloves, reminding ourselves that these are work gloves — not something from 1983 that Eddie Murphy might wear — to bring you some quantitative test results. Read on past the jump for our experiences and (of course) lots of photos.
Our next contestant in glove week is Milwaukee’s Contractor glove. Unlike other tool-branded gloves, the Contractors don’t have any other logos adorning their stitch-work. It’s red and black all the way with these babies. Read on for the results as we run them through the Toolmonger “gauntlet.”
Bigger isn’t always better, and it looks like Milwaukee’s looking to offer a smaller, lighter 18V option for the V18 crowd. Specifically, this new “Compact” drill features the same five-cell lithium-manganese battery chemistry as the V18 — minus the V18’s ability to interface with a battery reader — but weighs in at a svelte four pounds versus the V18’s 6.1 pounds.
This week Milwaukee announced the first product in their new 12V sub-compact line: a tiny, high-torque driver aimed directly at electricians and other pros looking to put their mid-size drivers on a diet. Of course, with this launch Milwaukee clearly draws a bead on Bosch’s successful PS20 — offering the first competition in the still-brand-new sub-compact category.
There are a lot of ways to cut curved shapes out of flat sheet metal, and we’ve tried almost all of them. Our favorite: a nibbler — a device that cuts by chomping out little bits very quickly. The model pictured comes from Milwaukee, and it can handle steel up to 10 gauge at a whopping 8-3/4 feet per minute.
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