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Tactical Reviews
SOG DonationsI feel like I am getting old , I remember my dad telling me as a kid that pneumatics were far superior but they really are not anymore. My Makita is about on par with my snap on pneumatic, if not a little better.
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Cordless is pretty awesome these days, we’ve a lot of Amish around here and their fully equipped with it, strange but true
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But do they use Yellow (Dewault), Red (Milwaukee), or Blue (Makita)? /sarcasm
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Around here they use what ever the person they are working for buys.
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So I went down to the local Home Depot and Ace Hardware to see if they have any of these in stock. I got to looking around and maybe I am paranoid but those Milwaukee pack around tool boxes are way too flashy.
I was tempted to buy one because I like the idea but no way in hell would I want to pack around a bright red toolbox like that, you are just asking to get jacked.
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the problem when going to the big box stores - you are not getting the “pro” stuff but paying “pro” prices - they buy a large amount of specific models made just for them. The warning is in the warranty - if it is specific to only returning to the retailer you know they were made just for them - the serial number is what will tell for the warranty not the model number.
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As an old guy I remember tools with brushes and everyone else whos’ been around knows does too. Every mfgr moved away from them as soon as possible with newer tech Soon they saw the writing on the wall to ditch the 120v power cord, So Makita and All the Others ate the weenie on that type of gear & followed with new tech. In the past I went with a complete offering whether is be Makita, Delta, Dewalt or whatever. As battery power got to radial saw, chop saw etc the older low voltage batteries could not cut it so staying with one brand was tough. When I battery drills bought multiples. 1 for pilot holes, 1 for a counter sink 1 for the shank hole (another for taper bits) 1 with bit to insert the fastener and so on. I’d put colored vinyl electrical tape on them to remind me of their function. One drill with a snap in extension is ok but for accuracy are too wobbly and makes for sloppy work and often rework. So I stick to multiple drills for big count fastener work. All the mfgrs make mistakes some learn some never do. 8v Dewalts are like that. Not enough beans. Milwaukee was slow to get into batteries and had a limited line for a long time. I bought a couple items to try and swore them off. On a bathroom job I needed a small 3"+ skill type saw and bought a 12v Milwaukee. Prior to that I had a couple impact battery drivers for nut bolt and maybe a flat tire. They all rattled off small stuff Dewalt was probably the worst and I took it back to depot and told them so. Milwaukee guy was there smiling and showed my their 1400ft lb 18v monster and said this will pull the lug nuts off a semi wheel and never even break a sweat. So I had come back over to Milwaukee and can tell you that you better have a hold on it when you give it the gas, With that in mind I went to the same M guy and asked about his 12v baby saw. He said buy one, take it home and you won’t be bringing that one back. I did just that, then I bought the 12v small driver same same. I now have about 10 different 12 and 18 volt M tools. The latest one is their 18v tire inflator with 4 memory banks for pressure settings. Wifes commuter 35psi, wifes hotrod Mustang 38psi my one ton PU 50 pst front and 60 psi on the rear duals. The memory is nice but the speed that it pumps up the tire is amazing and when it reaches the preset psi it stops, pauses hits it again after a few seconds to check it and then does it a third time after which your good to go. So first of all pick the tool voltage for the job. Big work/high voltage, mid range voltage for lighter work, tighter spaces and a lighter wt tool. Today and without looking on line I think I can say that Milwaukee has more battery tool variety than any other company hands down. They might even have more than a couple of their closer competitors combined and I’ll also say that I nor anyone that I know works for them or any of the other mfgrs I have mentioned…
I checked on this Milwaukee has over 150 18volt tools alone.
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You’re right about the temptation issue. I think if you have a van and keep it locked they are fine in that respect. I drive a 4 door dually and I can usually put 6+ in the back seat with it folded flat. But putting them in the back is asking for trouble. I was doing the siding at home and dragging shit out onto the lawn only to have the wife jump me about wasting time going back and forth to the shop. She suggested that I buy a set of roll around boxes that stack up. Lucky me! So I did but I did not buy the Milwaukee units. In fact they were not even on the street yet and I went to Lowes and bought theirs. The quality is ok as are the features. Some of the M stuff that is now out there have a few tricks that I like but not enough to pay the difference and start over, The key to stackables it to have a big variety according to the job. Plumbing. electrical, framing, siding, fasteners, masonary, small accessories. painting supplies and so on. I even separate small tools from medium etc and an open tote for electrical cords. That way you can keep stuff off the floor in your rig and not in a heap! The M guys now have some wall like racks which in a van could a life saver for stowing their boxes. But for us Lowes tote owners a sheet of plywood, some eyebolts and bungee cords will allow their boxes to be stacked along the interior wall as their boxes interlock with latches when stacked on the roll around box. As to guys jacking tools I have a 357inch adjustable wrench that fits any size jacker. I carry it on every site and it is my go to tool for anything unusual that comes up. Best Old Bob
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Air tools have a place but it’s usually a work station in a production line but even today those are/or have been taken over by lithium fkg batteries. Besides it’s pretty easy to trip over an air line and bust your ass.
Best Old Bob
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Check out the stacks at Lowes Craftsmen wannabes but most are black with clear lids. The bins and dividers are red but the whole affair is a lot less splashy. They beat M to the market and I bought mine before M were even in the stores.
Best Old Bob
PS They cost a lot less too.
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Yeah for sure. Production line workers are also generally walking around with thier noses to thier phones an air hose is a dangerous obstacle for them 
I use a few pneumatic tools but would rather not at work.
Are any of the newer battery powered angle grinders any good?
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Don’t cut ammonia short. It stinks (good to find a leak if you’re not dead from the leak) historically the serious heavy duty industrial freezers carried on with it for a long time. Before refer containers refer ships were all ammonia. First ship I did was a 130’ gulf mud boat that was turned into a box as high as the pilothouse on the nose, spray insulated and the ammonia compressors went in a little deck shack behind the pilothouse. The freezer was about 35’ wide, 24’ high and 100’ long, Just a giant shoe box. The air handlers hung from the ceiling under the compressor shack on deck and blew like an arctic gale the length of the box. Temp in the box hovered at just about -15 and time in the box was closely watched less you fk up and die. Hauled dry cargo etc north to the Canneries in the tip of the islands of Alaska, then then hove too for a few months until the catch was in and processed. Freezer was left to run and when it was fully loaded with over a million pounds of product we went south with it. After a few years of that including some horrible storms were we often spent over a day with our bow into it coming out of the north. One time it blew over a 100 miles per hour for more than 24 hours and the owner took over the jog steering for that period of time eating and drinking coffee at the wheel. He peed in a can and I don’t remember his ever traking a break to go to the head for a crap no less!
That mud boat was a tough one. After that when we got home they cut here in half and stretched it 30’ and it became 160’ long when it floated off the drydock. Made one more trip I believe to Alaska and he sold it to an Italian company that converted all most all the freezer space into a mini processor to make little filets and chunks of face pink died crabmeat. Glad I didn’t have to pull that duty. So ammonia does stink but I l have to agree that for heavy duty commercial work it is probably still the best.
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Kind of corrosive isn’t it?
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especially when mixed with bleach 
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I don’t know if I ever knew the ph of ammonia and if I did don’t remember it, But diluted in water it makes a great cleaner and wax stripper which my wife uses to clean finished (sealed) Bamboo floors in our home and it works well for that. Even then I don’t think it is corrosive and it does not affect the lacquer finish on the wood, only the dirt gets loosened up and I have to use a sharp tool like a puttyknife to scrape off the softened dirt/etc off the floor with a near vertical dragging/scraping stroke.
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I only asked because I remember fertilizer seemed to accelerate corrosion. We always had to wash everything down really good.
In the 80’s one project I worked on was a Single Stage Closed (Rankin Cycle) Loop OTEC Plant with anhydrous ammonia as the working fluid (I think they’re finally starting to build models). One of the costs associated was alloys that were corrosion resistant, but also because of seawater too. If I recall it is a mild-medium base, & ph would vary by concentration if not anhydrous.
I would imagine large plants such as the one you described are still being built to use it as a working fluid.
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Amonia is actually gaining popularity as the ecotards in places like the left coast get more say so. Basically it is toxic to humans in large quantities but its also environment friendly. Its also cheaper than say C02 or freon. Amonia is for industrial use though, there are lots of saftey measures put in place to lesson the risk. Im general I think 300 ppm is where it gets lethal but anything over 25 I think is where OSHA and those sort draw the line. You can work in low amounts for upto 8 hours by law.
Freon makes sense for residential or most buisnesses. Imagine a leak in a school or wal mart , that could go really bad really fast. Really it boils down to what you are doing with it.
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The sensors they use catch it most of the time . But its one of those things you want knowledgeable operators and techs for not just any mechanic with a wrench dinking with shit to figure it out. Its rather startling when you first hear Amonia hammer the pipes as you start up the system or slugging occurring from pressure issues on the compressors.
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Funny story, We have this production manager with no refrigeration experience, he knows everything (because of google).
He thought we needed to flush the compressors with a chlorine cleaner which is fine I guess but not when you purge the amonia system and it mixes with chlorine and water in the gutter. I got hit with that shit and puked. Of course he denies its his fault but both techs were calling him the idiot in charge so…
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Probably laugh when you cut yourself.
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