10 New Milwaukee Tools To Add To Your DIY Workshop In 2024
For years, Milwaukee made tools geared toward professionals and stationed firmly at the higher end of the price range. The company made a short list of solid tools that did a no-nonsense job and did it well. All that has changed.
As lithium battery technology truly came of age, competitors like Makita and DeWalt began releasing a treasure trove of unique cordless gadgets, pushing the envelope of what a power tool company can make. Milwaukee's sister company Ryobi started making lots of power tools for different uses, and it wasn't long before its own higher-end range of tools also began to rapidly expand.
Nowadays, Milwaukee releases a lot of power tools every year, offering what's become a pretty wide variety of useful and interesting additions to any home setup. Here are 10 recent Milwaukee tools worth adding to your DIY workshop in 2024. These innovative tools have all come out in the past year or so and have certainly piqued our interest.
M18 Track Saw
Track saws combine the mobility and flexibility of a circular saw with the precision and accuracy of a table saw. They make fast and dead-on work of plywood and other sheet goods. Many carpenters and new woodworkers even forego the table saw to begin with, opting for a space-saving and versatile track saw until they're able to invest in something more robust.
As is often the case with woodworking tools, Festool is considered to offer the best-in-class, but its performance comes with a hefty price tag, usually around double the nearest mainstream competitor. The upper-to-midrange category has belonged to Makita for a number of years, with many saying its track saw gives the best value for your dollar. Now Milwaukee is offering an option that promises to bring a lot of the premium smart features Makita lacks while staying well below the Festool in price.
This video by a devout Makita fan — so much of one that his shop is painted teal — makes a strong case for Milwaukee's newest track saw being a serious alternative between the two fairly distant price points and feature sets. With dead-on accuracy and high-tech features, this is an excellent track saw.
M18 FUEL Duplex Nailer
Cordless finishing nailers are nothing new, but full-on framing nailers have long been tools that require attachment to a pneumatic compressor to deliver the necessary power. For this reason, it has taken quite a while for realistic job site nailers to show up on the market.
In recent years, Milwaukee has been one of the companies to introduce a full-on framing nailer that needs neither a compressor nor a wall outlet. Using nitrogen springing action that does away with the need for an external fuel cartridge, the newest nailers in Milwaukee's range can sink heavy nails with no ramp-up time, nearly as quickly as you can pull the trigger.
New to the range for this year, the Duplex Nailer brings that same power and portability from the world of framing carpentry to formwork concrete construction, and other applications that require driving a lot of nails that need to be easily pulled out later on. Driving up to four 8D or 16D nails per second, the duplex nailer could be a real game-changer for those with jobs that require sinking a lot of nails for repetitive tasks, and it's a great tool if you want help finishing a basement remodel.
M18 FUEL 1/2-inch High Torque Impact Wrench
One of the areas where Milwaukee has made its name is in cordless impact wrenches. Just as with the nailers mentioned above, these are tools that demand a lot of power and have traditionally been the sort of equipment best left to the air-powered market. With advances in brushless motor design and higher-powered batteries, Milwaukee started bringing professional-grade cordless impact wrenches to the market around 10 years ago, introducing stronger variants that its press releases promised could free mechanics from the compressor once and for all.
Due to an ever-broadening product range, Milwaukee has occasionally made some concessions to add more value-oriented products, sacrificing some of its reputation for solid build and industrial-grade power along the way. This year's new impact wrench is a true return to form, delivering excellent build quality and one-upping its game yet again. Unveiled during the company's Pipeline event, this Milwaukee tool is a great new garage addition.
Delivering up to 1,100 lb-ft of nut-busting torque, and 900 lb-ft of fastening torque, this driver is an absolute beast. It has the cranking power to break loose the most stubborn, rusted lug nuts. While this power comes at the price of some significant heft, that weight helps keep a secure hold on a tool with this much cranking power. At the same time, the driver's fine torque adjustment allows you to dial back the strength for more delicate applications where you don't want to strip any threads.
M18 Green Interior Rotary Laser Level Kit
Many of us have experienced the ease that comes with a small laser level that fits neatly in a toolbox and readily casts a laser across a wall with self-adjusting precision. As with most of Milwaukee's range, this level kit is a bit much for the weekend warrior, providing some serious industrial-grade computation for contracting professionals.
Like Milwaukee's similar outdoor red laser kit for surveying new job sites, this new internal kit puts a lot of accurate measuring and leveling power in the palm of your hand. The unit comes with a remote receiving module, which allows you to read feedback from the main sending unit from across the biggest rooms.
The leveling kit can be mounted from wall or stud-hung applications, using built-in rare earth magnets, or you can just as easily mount it on a tripod. Ensuring that a drop won't ruin a pricey piece of equipment, the tough impact protection cage claims to be able to withstand a sheer fall of around 5 feet or a tripod tip of 6.5 feet. The receiver can detect beams from up to 1,000 feet away, and handle advanced calculations with user-friendly, one-handed operation. In short, this thing doesn't mess around.
M18 FUEL Blower
While some of Milwaukee's previous efforts in the area of blowers have left some people nonplussed, this year's new model should deliver plenty of power in a similar form factor and with a well-built chassis.
A lot of this improved performance comes from the brushless motor design and robust 18-volt battery platform. The new Milwaukee blower claims to deliver a 15-foot swath of clearing power, doing more work in less time than similar blowers, including its previous model. While the older blower could take up to 4 seconds to get up to full clearing power, the manufacturer claims that this one reaches full output in 1 second flat, again getting things done quicker and easier. Milwaukee also claims that, because of its brushless motor platform, this blower weighs considerably less than a lot of the competition, while at the same time being much quieter.
For more intensive landscaping needs, the company also offers a dual-battery blower with a similar platform, as well as a backpack-mounted model that takes the weight out of the tool itself. If you have a serious amount of clearing to do, these may be preferable options. For most people, however, this blower packs a lot of punch at a pretty competitive price point.
M18 FUEL Dual Battery String Trimmer
This string trimmer is among the first to offer 36-volt, dual battery power, which means it can do some heavy-duty work cutting back heavy, overgrown grass and other plant life.
For years we have seen professional landscapers using heavy, smelly gasoline-powered trimmers for more intense clearing applications. While single-battery units are fine for day-to-day suburban landscaping applications like edging and cleaning up what a lawn mower leaves behind, areas in the rough like ranches and golf courses call for something a bit more aggressive. This Milwaukee tool will help you whip your lawn into shape without the messy and unpleasant hassle of working with gasoline, not to mention cutting back on needless pollution as well.
This tool bridges the gap between something a little lighter — if any of Milwaukee's line can really be called "lighter duty" — and a full-on brush trimmer. It has enough power to clear some serious brush when you need it, and it does so in a far quieter, more environmentally responsible manner than a lot of what's out there.
M18 FUEL 1/2-inch Router Kit
As we've said, the world of cordless tools has come a long way, and Milwaukee is one of the companies doing a lot to prove this. One of the tools that still has a strong contingent of nonbelievers as far as cordless is concerned is the router. And we're not talking about lightweight, single-handed trim routers. The woodworking and remodeling community remains firmly plugged into the wall when it comes to the kinds of serious, heavy-duty wood routers that hog out mortises and cut wide molding profiles in hardwood.
Here again, Milwaukee is looking to change some minds. This full-featured router has a half-inch chuck, taking cordless routing well beyond edging and laminate trimmers. Using powerful bits backed up by a 2.25 horsepower motor, you'll be able to do some serious routing without worrying if there's a wall socket nearby.
This is a hefty and substantial tool, and its power is well matched by competent dust extraction, something which is frequently very challenging to achieve with a router. A plunge base along with the fixed one means this router can drop safely into the middle of a workpiece, showing Milwaukee's confidence that the cordless unit is up to the challenge of cutting through serious material. It's hard to say how well the tool will hold up long-term, but early signs indicate that this is a cordless router to be taken seriously.
M12 Auto Technician Borescope
While delivering raw power is Milwaukee's bread and butter, it's also no slouch when it comes to the world of precision instruments. With this new Auto Technician Borescope, optimized for light truck and diesel applications, Milwaukee makes its entry into the automotive diagnostic category. This borescope brings extremely accurate visual inspection technology in a rugged and durable design, making a sophisticated piece of equipment that can endure the challenging environment of an automotive shop.
The 5mm inspection head comes with an exceptionally bright, dimmable LED light built into a uniquely compact size, allowing far greater visibility and maneuverability compared to typical 8 or 10mm heads. Reviewers have praised this compact head design, which allows the user to look inside tiny spark plug holes and other crevasses that would be both invisible and inaccessible to the naked eye.
The head also comes with front and side-mounted cameras, allowing you to view different angles controlled from the intuitive display and control unit. The unit includes recording and playback features and lets you save inspection footage to an SD card. Allowing you to get a look around the inside of an engine with surgical accuracy, this addition to the M12 cordless line could be a mechanic's diagnostic dream.
M18 FUEL 2 Gallon Compact Quiet Compressor
Like the router above, many users still stick to plug-in, outlet-dependent air compressor brands. Though detachable tanks can provide pneumatic power in a more portable package, they eventually run out of air. Skeptics abound when it comes to battery-powered compressors, but Milwaukee's newest option has left several reviewers pleasantly surprised.
Staying within the M18 FUEL ecosystem, this 2-gallon model is completely capable of delivering pneumatic power for smaller jobs. This could be an ideal solution for those who have already invested in a lot of pneumatic tools, or for applications such as painting and varnishing, or just for filling tires low on air.
For any number of reasons, many DIY enthusiasts and contractors simply prefer having the option of air-powered equipment, and this compressor provides a pretty attractive opportunity to go cordless. It has a sealed, grease-free design, and Milwaukee claims it's the quietest cordless compressor currently on the market. These features combine to make portable, battery-powered pneumatic power a reality.
MX FUEL 14-inch Cut-Off Saw
While no Milwaukee tool should be taken lightly, this is some serious heavy equipment indeed. Competing not merely with plugged-in power, but with full-blown gasoline engines, this saw is not a tool for the weekend warrior. Its 14-inch blade can handle concrete, thick steel, and heavy timber with ease, all on a zero-emissions battery platform.
Gasoline engines do not provide a satisfactory, or safe option for cutting into slabs and other hard surfaces indoors, which is why having a reliable battery-powered option is so important. In action, this tool makes quick work of what would otherwise be an extremely laborious task, going through hard concrete like a warm knife through butter. These kinds of tasks require a water supply, and preferably a stable, stationary cutting fulcrum for accuracy, which some may say cuts down on the practicality of a cordless platform. Nonetheless, freeing the user from the need for external power sources or messy, gas-emitting engines will be a very attractive option to contractors and other professionals for whom a heavy-duty tool like this cut-off saw is an essential part of their work.
Weighing just shy of 50 pounds, and with a price tag well over $2,000, this Cut-Off Saw is the biggest, priciest, most intense offering on this list. But given Milwaukee's reputation for professional and industrial-grade equipment, it's not something the average person would ever even contemplate. Rather, it's serious technology for people who need to do serious work.
How we picked these tools
When you're looking to add new tools to your collection, it's important to have all of the latest information about products, especially ones that might set you back a fair bit. So, given that these tools have only recently been released, we've primarily sourced our details directly from Milwaukee's official website. This provided us with the most accurate descriptions and specifications of its latest offerings.
Additionally, we've scoured the first impressions available from leading online tool reviewers who received advanced hands-on experience. While these initial reviews offer valuable insights into the performance and features of the new tools, they are just a starting point. As with anything brand new, long-term performance use reports are unavailable.
As you consider adding these tools to your collection, we recommend keeping an eye out for more detailed reviews as they become available. This will ensure you have a more complete view of how these tools work (and last) over time.