Bosch Reviews

It turns out Bosch makes both vacuums that need bags and vacuums that don't. The bags are very expensive, so it makes sense to buy the vacuum that doesn't require this constant, expensive purchase.

I bought this bit thinking that it would work well for me in steel reinforced concrete. There were no reviews on it and I am new to this. I have used this bit and the 2" bit as well several times now. If you are boring through pure concrete or concrete block, it goes through pretty quickly. For thick concrete, I found that it was easier to bore down about 3/4" to 1" then work the bit sideways to break off the piece. Since there are no slots on the sides of the drill bit, you basically have to bang out the piece just broken off. If you bore deeper than 1", then you will have a heck of a time getting that piece of concrete out of the bit, because it binds between the outside of the bit and the center bit (not shown in the picture). Last, if you hit rebar, forget it. This bit won't touch that. It did break up some of the wire mesh used in one hole, but did not go through that either. I had to get a friend to torch out the rebar and the mesh. I was simply putting drains in my garage floors.

If you are boring thru concrete block, then this bit will serve you well assuming there was no steel put into it.

One last thing, the bit simply pounds down using the Bosch Hammer Drill. It does not turn. So, you do not have to worry about it catching on things. Because it is simply pounded in, the initial edge will be a little ragged for about 3/8" around the outside of the hole. Hope that helps others.

The carbide tip is held in the chuck with a small set screw. The chuck is low quality aluminum and the set screw tore out the threads of the chunk before it even started to tighten down.

Good charger unles the battery is bad. Nothing on/in charger to prevent it from burning out because of a bad battery and no way to tell until you try to charge and burn up the charger you just paid $24 for. Have battery tested first.

Save your hard earned dollars and add another 10-20$ for regular drill. This drill performs poorly when drilling in concrete. I could see smoke coming out of the drill when driving 2.5 inch deck screws. My cordless Craftsman drill had more power and was only warm. Ok, you say that it is not meant to drive deck screws. Agree, but this unit overheats when making 1/8 inch pilot holes. Shame on Bosch. Luckily, I paid only thirty bucks at Walmart on clearance. I thought what a great deal. Wrong.

Im not impressed with this drill. It's ok with wood but the hammer is not that powerful, and it also neede regular maintenance.

I bought this drill in order to set some masonry screws into brick. I have found it to be excellent for this purpose and have had no trouble at all with the tool. I can see that it would be underpowered for heavy work. For someone who just needs something to help with the occasional masonry drilling job this would be the one to get.

Amazon is selling the saw without any power cord at all, and does not bother to disclose this in their promotional materials.
Home Depot is selling the same saw WITH POWER CORD for only $159.

Have you priced 25' extension cords with #12 wire lately???????
Shame on you, Amazon.

Here is a e-mail I just sent to bosch.

I needed a new Reciprocating saw to replace my favorite bosch with the orbital action. I was reluctant to buy the new RS20 because it did not have the orbital action. In fact I first bought a Hitachi instead and returned it for the bosch RS20 the next day. The bosch rep. assured me the RS20 did not need the orbital action and would out cut any Reciprocating saw on the market. Although the RS20 has many great features it is far from the Reciprocating saw Bosch use to make with the orbital action. In fact the Hitachi will cut faster but not near as fast as your old model. Also, after one day of use, my RS20's motor makes a weird squeaking noise when the trigger is released. I used to own a Milwaukee Reciprocating saw with the orbital action it was a great saw, but your old Reciprocating saw with orbital action would put it to shame. The bottom line is, I have no choice but to take advantage of your 30 day money back guarantee and shearch for another saw.
Disapointed in Kentucky

I love my Bosch RS20CX.

Pro's:

* Well formed grips for comfortable, easy and secure handling.
* Two speeds (Lo/Hi). I use the low speed for more precise cutting of drywall. The Hi speed tears through anything and everything (even double studs - no problem).
* Powerful 13 amp motor (compare to less expensive 10/11 amp)
* The joist handle is very handy indeed. I've hung the saw on my toolbelt and ladders, but not yet a joist.
* The cord connection is super tight to ensure a snug fit. Also, it has an additional cord thingy (for lack of technical term) that the cord clips into to ensure the saw does not come unplugged if there is tension on the cord.

So far, no signifigant cons. It does have a tiny LED headlight I noticed, but I haven't benefited from it yet. And, enlarging the case to fit the power cord would be helpful. However, chances are good the power cord will services three tools at any given time through the project.

Despite the bad reviews, I bought 2 of these. They are not great. They flex and they won't stay perfectly flat, but they do keep those small slices from falling inside the saw. ~When I get the extra time~ I'll replace these with something more substantial, until then, it gets the job done.

There are two reasons to use a zero-clearance plate around your table saw blade:
- to support the workpiece more completely, for less chip-out and splintering; and
- to cut small pieces that would fall through the larger hole in the standard insert.

This insert requires finicky adjustment for the first point, but serves quite well for the second. In the tradeoff between lower cost and higher performance, this is the lower cost option.

The plate is made of molded plastic with a rectangular grid of supporting ridges on the underside. (It's very similar in construction to the standard insert plate, but made of plastic instead of metal.) Because the plate is soft enough for the saw blade to cut through easily, it isn't impressively stiff. And it's not just a drop-in replacement as the metal plates are; you must fasten it down with four phillips screws. And you can't just tighten these down all the way, either. The plate would normally sit below the level of the saw table. These fastening screws are just outside the height adjustment screws (which use slotted screws, so you'll need two different screwdrivers) and the plate is flexible enough that the combination of screws forms a spline curve rather than a fixed plane as you attempt to adjust both the height screws and the fastening screws.

At first thought you're probably appalled by this idea, but in practice you can make it work acceptably for 90 degree cuts. What I ended up doing was to make a curve that's uniform left to right, and dead even with the tabletop as it crests at the axis of the blade. A wide workpiece will be supported by the table proper, and it doesn't really matter if a narrower workpiece slides up and down a smooth curve as long as it's at exactly the right height as it crosses the blade.

The downside here is that if you're expecting to work with your miter gauge set to anything other than 90 degrees, you're limited to work that's wider than the insert because the plate won't be both flat and at table height. Alternatively you could build up the bottom of the plate with washers under the fastening screws, and something (Bondo?) at the long ends. Or you could just buy a more expensive replacement that's easier to make both flat and level.

Personally, I got this mostly to cut small trim pieces without having to go fish them out of the built-in bucket that collects sawdust under the blade. This insert was cheap and does an OK job for what I need.

This plastic insert fits the Bosch Table Saw with a minimal amount of adjusting--I turned one setscrew 1/8 of a turn to adjust the height. The color is red which makes it easy to find when you set it somewhere. No one could match the price of $5.99 that Amazon offered and since I bought it at the same time as the saw there were no taxes or shipping fees. I ordered it on January 30, it was promised for February 14 or 15, and I received it before February 10. This accessory is plastic as after you set it in place you turn on the saw and raise the blade all the way up which allows the blade to cut through the plastic giving you the "zero" clearance. This is a safety accessory and it works great.

OK, so I ignored the other reviews and bought it. What a mistake. You know the "Greed" thing that some humans suffer. It got me. I thought: variable speed, quick collet....what a deal. FORGET IT. The collet requires the fingers of a gorilla and the variable speeds are not what you think. The speed varies of its own desires. Very annoying until it completely stops. I took mine back and got the DeWalt 621. Right, Should have initially and saved the gas money. Believe the reviews....DON'T waste your time on this piece of junk.

I read the reviews of this router before I bought it. I figured that the reports of dying motors and bad collets wouldn't get the best of me. I was wrong. After about a month and a half I am having huge problems. Cutting in soft pine, which should be no trouble for a router such as this, proved to be impossible for this pathetic machine. The engine faded and then died completely. After a few hours I got it running again, but the same thing happened again and again. This is about this most worthless tool ever, most Skil tools have proven to follow this trend. I am now waiting for a refund check (luckily this happened within the first 90 days) so that I can get a descent router. Take it from me, don't buy this router. I thought that I would save some money but get just a good of a router, doesn't happen. Spend some more money and get a good one, you will save in the end.

I didn't read the reviews before purchasing this router and I'm glad I didn't. I looked for the best combination of features and this was it. The quick release does take a bit of muscle behind it to lock into place but I still consider it easier that a wrench. I love the soft start and have had no problems with the motor. I have had the unit about 30 days but have not had any regrets yet.

I burned up this drill in less than 10 minutes on the first hole that I drilled. Drill got too hot to touch in less than 5 minutes. I was using a 1" bit in masonry. If you need a heavy duty drill, look elsewhere.

I bought this drill to mix mortar for tile about a year ago. I have done about 6 small to medium sized tile jobs since then. It has only drilled about 8 small holes in concrete for anchors and besides that, some holes in 2x4's for running wires. Thing worked like a champ until now. After drilling one 3/8 hole in concrete, it made it about an inch down on the second one and just slowly ran out of speed and just stopped. (just like the other review posted) No noises pops or anything.....just a smell of warm electrical parts. Left me hanging with two holes left to drill! Big store tells me that it is in the manufactures hands now. The receipt is long gone...so I am sure that I am out of luck. Could be a design flaw or could be just a fluke. I have the Bosch sliding 12" and the Bosch table saw and I am very happy with them.

I'm not going to knock on Bosch for this drill as I own several of their power tools. I've had the 1199 for about 2 months and after about a total of 9 hours of use the motor finally burnt out while drilling with one of Bosch's 3/4" blue granite bits. It's the drill's max rated size for concrete. I've only used the 1199 for concrete and this is the largest bit I've fitted to it while drilling through my driveway which is about 5 inches thick. After continuous use for 3 hours straight the motor finally gave out, but never showed any symptoms of straining. The 3/4" bit was used only for about 1/2 hour total. So tonight I'm heading to Lowes for a return or possibly an exchange.
I've considered the Ridgid Pulse hammer drill (very similar)when I chose the Bosch model. I'm having second thoughts about the Bosch now. I'm not dissapointed with the 1199, just concerned about it's durabilty.


11/22/2004 - I ended up exchanging it for another and problems again! After about 4 hours of continuous use, the drill started stalling and losing power even before the anti-kickback clutch engaged. I let it cool off for about 40 minutes and the power resumed to normal. This had to be done several times and this 2nd drill just wasn't reliable enough for me to keep again. So it was returned for good. I ended up buying a Hilti TE 6-C rotary hammer. It's 2 and a half times the price, but I'd rather not deal with the frustration with an unreliable piece of equipment. The Hilti allowed me to finish the job much sooner drilling in identical conditions the Bosch was subjected to. But then I can't expect too much from the Bosch unit because the Hilti was designed for daily heavy industrial use. -Guess I was expecting too much from the 1199 as these two units are in totally different tool classes.

After 5 years our Skil battery operated screwdriver finally died. The screwdriver was still as strong as could be but the batteries we had for it would no longer hold a charge. (We actually had two batteries because in a move we lost the unit, but still had the battery and charger). We specifically searched for another Skil screwdriver because my husband had been so happy with them for so many years. We purchased a Skil 3.6 volt battery operated screwdriver (model 2936). I am so upset that we wasted $30 on this new piece of junk. It holds a charge for about 15 minutes and it is nearly impossible for my small female hands to remove the battery to place on the cumbersome charger. It actually takes me longer to remove the battery than the charge it holds. Based on the Skil name we foolishly did not save the packaging or receipt or even register the product. I used to recommend the Skil name to everyone, however in a few minutes though I am leaving to purchase a Black and Decker screwdriver!

I have to agree with other reviewers here that the battery life is terrible on this tool. I also had a previous good experience with a Skil screwdriver that I had for 5 years before the battery finally went. I replaced it with this unit because I liked the light and the articulation features (which are great).

My only other complaint is that the flathead and phillips bits are 2 separate pieces and theres nowhere on the screwdrived itself to store the unused bit, making it easy to lose. My previous Skil screwdriver had a reversible bit that was much more convenient.

Mine works well thus far, and meets my expectations. It drives screws for furniture and disassembling packing crates, and provides more than enough torque for these applications. I haven't had any battery issues. It holds a charge for several days.

The site light is more useful than I expected, especially for furniture, where you need to see inside a countersunk hole.