Power Tool Accessories Reviews

I took a chance and picked up the MM300 for $129 on closeout at one of the Big Box stores. I punched about a dozen 3/8" holes in some scrap pine - and then tried one 1/2" hole. Sheared the pin that holds the lever on, right off.

Had it repaired, under warranty, and had it back in about 10 days. After that - stuck with 3/8" bit and did another two dozen holes in some Mahoghany. For the price I paid, I'm OK with it. But if it was the MM300 for $200, then I'd consider the 651.

In either case - head on over to Lee Valley and pick up their conical hones to touch up the chisels before you use it.

I just last week received the mortiser, put it together. The instructions were clear, only took a few minutes to assemble. I was surprised at the quality. The quality of Delta products (and Jet) varies wildly. I got a good one, it seems. I punched a dozen holes with each of the chisels in some mahogany scrap I had lying around, all were quite satisfactory. I haven't tried it yet on any of the hard maple or oak I usually work with. I'll report back later if I have any problems. Menards wanted another [money]for their Jet model, without chisels. A set of 5 chisels is [money]. The Jet I checked out in the store wasn't fit for use, sloppy dovetail, sticky slide. Be sure to get the preservative grease off the dovetail and gears, and grease it all before you use it. So far, I'm having fun drilling square holes!

Gary

I've had this mortise machine for a little over a year now. It has worked perfectly giving me square true mortises every time. Setup is quite simple and with a few shop made supports drillling mortises in long rails has never been easier. I've only used the 3/8", 1/4" and 5/16 chisels to date but none of them faltered. Note: pick up a set of conical honing stones from Lee Valley. Sure makes life with a sharp bit simple! Great prodcuct from Delta. Not quite as fancy as the new replacement but works just as well for a few $$ less.

I need to know the specific depth of cut. This product does not list it.

The bit arrives sharp and well balanced. Always use at a very low speed like a 2 on a scale of 5.
Only in a router table and only when the router and table are securely matched. This puts out a lot and I mean a lot of vibration. If you don't have a better than average table and support system there may be trouble like: The router lock will vibrate loose and the router will slip down into the table so as to put the bearing off your pattern = gouges and flying wood. Then there is the possibility of the vibration loosening the screws that hold your router to the plate in the table. The router will fall into the table and while running tear anything it touches into pieces while you are protecting your eyes and groping for the power switch. Yes! it happened to me and the bit was ruined. I got another one because no one else makes such a heavy duty bit for a router. No problems now that I know how to use thread loc.

The depth of cut is 1", look at the image.

This chuck is 'okay' quality but the buyer should know that it is only designed for ID chucking. You cannot chuck on the OD of the workpiece. Grizzly sells a high quality 4 jaw chuck that does both OD and ID clamping through their website.

Wll This is pretty much what I expected. This chuck works but I imagine the more expensive chucks work much better and can achieve a better grip on the work piece. I do not know what problems the other reviewer was experiencing but I have only used this chuck to grip the OD of the work (I imagine ID would work as well). The 1st 1/8" or so is tapered inward and I have found making a short tapered tenon to work the best in OD gripping situations although since I am a beginner and do run into the occasional big catch I have been able to knock the work out of round. My biggest complaint would have to be the included "wrenches" which are nothing more than a couple pieces of round stock. These tend to bend when trying to get a real good grip on the work. Other than that though I feel I got my $40 worth but will probably get a better chuck in the future and will probably try coming up with some stronger "wrenches".

This is a great product, and many people on the woodworking forum I frequent agree. I recommend it, just make sure you know how to use it.

I bought this saw based on Milwaukee's reputation and the satisfaction I have had with their electric tools. This recip saw is no comparison to my DeWalt. It has no battery life and seems to lack the power of the DeWalt. Even when fully charged it seems to struggle through the work piece. Possibly a bad battery because I'm sure that Milwaukee would not intentionaly produce something which posesses the lack of quality as displayed in my saw.

Had two carpenters and an electrician working on a project at my house this week. They were in the middle of something, and needed a reciprocating saw. One guy was going to go out to his truck (a hike from where we were working), but I said I'd grab mine. Handed him the cordless sawzall, and he couldn't believe it. "I've GOT to get one of those -- that's the best sawzall I've ever used, corded or cordless." All of them had to give it a try.

The big features for him(and for me) are the reversable battery, the 90 degree adjustable handle, the balance and "feel" of the tool, and the blade locking mechanism. If your need is for all day destruction -- get a corded Milwakee sawzall, but for intermittent use this tool can't be beat. And will get into places no corded tool can handle. Comes with two long life, and quick charging, batteries. Enough that you'll hardly ever not have a fresh battery when you need it. You may be able to pay more for a sawzall, but you can't buy a better one.

The previous reviewer of the Milwaukee 6515 18v Sawzall must have obtained one manufactured on a Monday morning or something. I do not own this saw myself, but I have frequently borrowed it from a co-worker and have been very impressed. Battery life is surprisingly decent, and the saw performs nearly as well as its plug-in counterpart. It's a bit pricey though, costing around twice as much as a corded saw.

The machine is absolutely heavy duty. Although, there are a few things that I have found issue with:

1) machine doesn't work well with wide poplar boards. I have a heavy duty dust collection system connected to it but the poplar creates long strands from the wide boards. These strands clog up the exhaust chute causing the shavings to back up onto the outfeed roller and stop the boards from continuing through the planer part way through a feed. Basically have to lower the table and pull the board out to clean the strands out. This binding of the strands has tore up the outfeed urethance rollers to the point of no return. ***update: I was able to take the rollers off the machine and turn the urethane down on an engine lathe to straighten the urethane after much use. (note: high rpm, low feed rate and a touch with sand paper when finished) Works better than new now. I should be able to do this a few times before having to buy new ones. By the way, the new rollers are pretty cheap to replace.***

2) Wish the table length was longer or adaptable to adding an extension. Would be nice.

The machine is very easy to work with and work on. The molding feature is great and works well. I've done all the trim in my new house with this machine. Hope to have a long future with it in my business.

About eight months ago I purchased the powermatic PM-15 from a local tool supply store. I have loved using this fine machine for planing and moulding, and it has preformed flawlessly, that is until I got my first paying customer. A gentleman that lives near me brought me a load of roughsawn birch to plane down and run 50' of crown and 50' of panel moulding for him. While most of it (80 percent) came out nice, most of the pieces had some tearout, and 1 piece of crown was completly trashed. What a nightmare! I was suprised at this because I've run poplar, red oak, and pine through this machine with very little tearout (mainly around knots and hard areas). I can't fault the machine, I suppose, but I wrote this to warn any future millwrights about working birch.

When this planer arrived at my shop I couldn't wait to get it out of the crate and plugged in. I was pleasantly surprised to see how heavy the machine was built, its beefy stature screamed, throw anything at me I can plane it, and after some adjusting it did. I ran pine and white oak threw it, and it produced a wonderful finish on both. The one problem I have had is trying to plane exceptionally wide boards. For some reason if I plane a board 10" wide or better it machine has some trouble feeding the board threw. I found that with some adjustment of the spring tension on the urethane infeed and outfeed rollers this can be reduced but not completely eliminated. Other than this the machine runs great. It is easy and safe to operate, and fun to use. This planer is another fine example of Powermatic's expertise in building heavy-duty home shop machinery.

Years ago, when I was in college, friends would speculate on the grade their term papers would receive based on their weight. The Steam Fast SF 850 Housemate Steam Vaccuum Extractor looks and feels like an A+, but the steam function, performs like a C, at best.

The unit is solid. The attachments are made of heavy-duty rubber, vinyl and plastic. The locking mechanisms are study and durable. The Steam Fast SF-850 appears as though it would stand up to years of hard use, if I did want I needed it to.

I liked the design of the unit, especially the handle on top that makes it very easy to pick up and move. The controls, once you read the manual, make a lot of sense. The unit itself has a decent vacuum cleaner (though the actual design of the attachments could use some tweaking). The suctioning power for liquid spills was impressive. I was taken by surprise when I was cleaning the hose and it just gulped down a small bucket of water.

Where the unit lacks is in it's actual steam-cleaning ability, perhaps it's the way the steam and vacuum features function together??? The primary reason for purchasing this device was to clean approximately 800 square feet of carpet that are ravaged on a daily basis by 3 untidy border collies. For the last 10 years I have been using a Hoover Steam Vac with rotating brush that I purchased at Sears. That little unit rocked, but after years of use, finally died. It was great for cleaning up accidents, shampooing the carpets, and even scrubbing the tile floors in my kitchen. I hoped that the SF-850 would give me additional flexibility for cleaning showers (water stains), windows, etc.,

Unfortunately, the Steam Fast SF-850 can't hold a candle to my old Hoover's carpet cleaning prowess. While the SF-850 can deliver a good blast of steam for short periods of time (a minute or two), it does NOT appear to be able to deliver a consistent blast of steam powerful enough to pull the dirt out of the carpet. The carpet area I experimented with did not look cleaner, or smell a whole lot fresher after I finished using the steam and extract features of the unit. I tried all 3 flat attachments and none did the trick. With a retail price of $899, this unit should work way better than the Rug Doctor rental units you might see at your local grocery or hardware store. It should certainly work beter than my old Hoover did. It doesn't.

It did, however, do a decent job cleaning 1/2" mosaic,tumbled marble floors in our bathroom (area is about 4' x 6'). Mopping just makes a lingering mess in the little grout lines. I think the SF-850 is meant more for solid floor cleaning than carpets.

Other complaints:

oThe first one is minor: the fill bottle broke the first time I used it. A small piece of plastic holding the "plunger" snapped off while filling the unit.

oIf I ever decide to purchase an industrial strength steam cleaner (home units obviously won't do it), I would be more inclined to purchase a unit that could be refilled on the fly. This particular unit needs to cool down for more than 45 minutes before it's safe to open the water-fill valve. That said, I have no idea why a unit with a tank that holds water at such a super-heated temperature has a problem delivering enough steam/pressure to pull dirt out of the carpets.

The SF-850 has the potential to be a 5 star cleaning machine, but it just doesn't deliver.

This machine steams floors and then simultaneously (instantly) vacuums up the resulting dirty water. Because it is steam, floors are sanitized without the use of soap. There is no residue of soap left on the floor. There is no residue at all, as the floor is actually left dry because all the water (and dirt) from the shots of steam are instantly sucked from the floors leaving floors bone dry, clean and sanitized. This is clearly the best, most sanitary way to clean hard floors. I tested it on a really dirty floor and it left the floor white and dry and white-glove free of dirt or residue. There was nothing left on that floor. No smudges, no dirt, no soap, no water was left.

If you have babies in the "on-the-floor-a-lot" stage or pets who wash their paws you do not have to worry about your baby getting germs or your pet constantly ingesting cleaning solutions from their paws. (There was a case of a German shepherd and other animals who died after washing their paws after Swiffer pads were used on the floor.) If we use antibacterial soaps on a regular basis, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (super-bugs) will begin to grow in our homes. So, we should not regularly use antibacterial solutions for household cleaning.

The SF-850 steamer is really the ideal way to clean kitchen and bath floors. Steaming with immediate suction of the residue is the most sanitary method. Steaming kills the bugs without antbiotics the same as if one could BOIL the floor. The steam hits the fllor for an instant and then gets sucked away taking the dirt with it.

However, I was truly hoping that th SF-850 could also serve as a carpet cleaning sytem as well. The SF-850 does steam the carpet and scuk away the water, but since it is perfectly calibrated for truly first rate HARD floor cleaning, the SF-850 does not, cannot, remove those traffic and pet stains from dirty and stained carpets.

The carpets seem to need more aggressive steam, vacuum and brush agitation than the SF-850 delivers. Hard floors need precisely the amount of brush the SF-850 offers, deep carpets needs more settings more suitable for the deep pile. If the SF-850 delivered carpet-suitable agressive and deep burst of steam on hard floors,it would just be a mess, so maybe that is why the manufacturer did not offer deep carpet settings. They didn't want us to use those carpet-suitable settings on the hard floors. As the user, we would learn quickly to use either floor or carpet settings as appropriate.

The SF-850 is flawlessly calibrated for floors and would need to offer a new set of settings to really also do carpets equally fantastically. To do capets better, the SF-850 would need a specific setting for carpet pile, which would offer a deeper, larger burst of steam (to get into the pile) a differently designed brush (and/or a hard edge squeegee)) and significantly much more suction power to pull the water out of deep pile. All of these carpet settings COULD be incorporated by the maufacturers into this unit, but it is NOT so-designed now.

The SF-850 is FANTASTIC for really sanitizing HARD floors, but not currently calibrated for equally killer deep carpet cleaning. Yes, it steams carpets now, but isn't calibrated for deep and stained carpet pile. Maybe if the manufacturers read reviews like this one, they will put out the truly best floor AND carpet cleaner extraordinare! This they could do. I will look for it.

If you really want a way to REALLY sanitize and wash, clean and dry hard floors without residue of any kind, this is THE machine to do it. The attachment to clean grimy baseboards etc is excellent too. Bath floors? Fantastic result. No dirty water left in the grout depressions. No drying of the floor is needed as the dirty water is instantly vacuumed up. The wand is marvelous to use. This is a first rate peice of equipment. With a new set of settings for deep carpet pile it would be THE product on the market for truly having it all and doing it all.

If this is available at the price quotes of under $20 its the best deal. Hoping that amazon.com keep up its word and send me 2 of these as per order for each of my floors- first and second.Nothing can beat it.

I actually was going to buy this drill with the gel stuff, but I looked down the shelf at walmart and found the same drill with no gel, and an extra battery for the same price. Its a winner no doubt, but I must agree the case is pathetic. I took a dremel to the case and now its all good, but I shouldn't have had to do that...

I bought one of these to replace an old cordless I'd busted. After buying a cheaper cordless drill with totally weenie torque and returning it, I found this drill on sale and went with it.
It's been a few months and I have used it alot. The removable drill bit thingie with a driver bit underneath is amazingly handy to use...just drill, pop off the thingie, grab a screw and put it in the hole without removing and replacing the bits each time. The torque is fantastic and the grip is comfortable. The only reasons I gave only 4 stars is because the plastic case it comes in is pathetic...no place to put bits or anything except the drill w/ charger. And having an extra battery would be smart for any drill or cordless tool that gets alot of use, but they didn't include a second battery...but you (and I) can get one here at Amazon.com ...45 bucks a piece...ow.
But I love the drill, it's worth it and I'm getting an extra battery because I use it so much...
If you're looking for a great cordless drill that isn't too expensive...get this one.

I bought this item because i needed two more 18v batteries and it is a better deal to get two tools with the batteries instead of buying the batteries separately, it works out to spending $50 and getting a second hammer drill and cut out tool. The hammer drill is great I now have two. it is a bit heavy so expect your wrist to give out after a long day. Also the drill has more kickback and recoil then it should. I'm a bit dissatisfied with the cut out tool, there is no variable speed control, and the tool is physically large so it not good for detailed work.

The tools are great! The service from Amazon is by far the worst you will ever experience in YOUR LIFE!!! AMAZON STILL OWES ME OVER $500.00 and if I cannot get it back to my credit card I will have to sew the company!

I was remodeling a basement for a customer and gonna be hanging a bunch of drywall with lots of cuts. I decided to purchase the dewalt cutout tool to save time since I work by myself. I needed some extra bits as well. I got both 1/8" and 1/4". The 1/8" are for outlets and recessed lights. When I started using these bits, they seemed pretty good, but be careful not to go too fast. If you go too fast, you will definitely break these bits. I ended up breaking about 8 bits through the course of the job. It's probably par for the course, but make sure if you are gonna cut out either a door or a window to use the 1/4" bit, they work great.

Overall the general purpose bit is pretty good. For the price you can stock-up on them without breaking the bank.

Be careful if cutting through dense woods. The bit heats up fast and can dull prematurely as a result. It you are going to do alot of cutting in dense woods, I recomend you get yourself one of their bits with the carbide burrs (dw6613). It is designed for tile and stucco so, it should not have any problem with hard woods.

It's great to have a dust bag for your planer since they spray shavings halfway across the room. This is a must if you want to plane a door inside. It works great and fits inside the case of my DW680K planer. It's big, about6"X6"X3", but it does fit inside the case of my new DW680. It has a zippered bag and wire frame that you have to assemble with 4 screws, but it's easy and quick. Would be nice if it folded flat, but it has a wire box frame. When I was shopping for a planer, this was the only one I found that even offered a dust bag. For 20 bucks, it's worth it. Took Amazon a month to finally ship it though.

DeWalt Planers do an excellent job but they do spit out a mess. If you are building a house or in a workshop it is really not a problem but if you are just planing a door, instead of rehanging it, in a finished house wood chips will go all over and make a huge mess. This dust bag catches all the large planed shavings but small dust particles will still escape but isn't so hard to clean up. Sure beats their chop saw dust bag which is totally worthless.

Downfall is that it doesn't fold down and so it will not fit in the metal storage case the planer comes in without taking it apart.