5 Basic Milwaukee Tools No Handy Man Should Be Without

When you're getting your start as a contractor, the very first thing you need to do is fill out your toolbox. As you progress through your career, more tools with more specific functions will gradually make their way into your toolbox, but before all that, you need to have the baseline implements ready and waiting for the minute-to-minute jobs. As cool as power tools are, after all, there's no real reason to break out the horsepower for a situation that only calls for a screwdriver. If you're looking to feed that burgeoning toolbox, the Milwaukee hardware brand has a variety of basic hand tools on offer to get you started.

What these tools may lack in hyper-advanced features, they make up for with old-fashioned usefulness and resilience. No matter what job you're taking on, these tools will be the first things you reach for. We've gathered up five basic Milwaukee tools for your consideration, all available at your local Home Depot and backed up by reviews from users and professional contractors. More information on our selection methodology is available at the bottom of the page.

Whether you're laying pipe or putting up a shelf, it is of critical importance that everything is precisely on the level. After all, if you build an entire shelf without making sure it's leveled, you may find the entire thing listing forward as soon as you let go of it, unceremoniously dropping your knickknacks onto the floor. To ensure that little tragedy doesn't happen, you need a precision tool for checking the level at any angle.

Milwaukee's 360-degree Locking Torpedo Level is not just an accurate level, it's also highly adjustable for any level-checking situation. You can lay it down on a horizontal surface as usual, but thanks to the 360-degree rotating and locking vial, you can check for level on any flat surface, no matter how it's oriented. As an added bonus, the level contains amplified rare earth magnets, allowing it to stick fast to any metallic surface, which makes level checking much easier on walls and overhangs.

The Milwaukee 360-degree Locking Torpedo Level is available at Home Depot for around $50, where it has a user rating of 4.6 out of 5. This level is recommended by Kenny Koehler of Pro Tool Reviews. In addition to the level's locking system for ensuring measurement accuracy, he also appreciated the convenience of the level's magnified vials and sharp black lines, which make it easy to read at a glance.

They say that experienced contractors can eyeball the distance between two points to get a semi-accurate measurement. That may be true for workers who have been in the game for many years, but if you're new to the handiwork scene, you're going to need something a little more empirical. You need a sturdy, lengthy measurement tool that'll give you an accurate readout of the precise distance between two points.

Milwaukee's Auto Lock SAE Tape Measure is a classic choice for all your measuring needs, featuring a hefty 25-foot tape with a large-print fractional scale for easy reading. The measure is built with AutoLock tech, so you don't need to worry about the tape coming loose and snapping on your fingers while you're taking measurements. What's especially nice about this tape measure is that it's built tough; it's got a five-point reinforced frame, a lacquer finish on the tape, and wear-resistant nylon blade protection. You could drop this thing from the roof of your house, and it'd (probably) be just fine.

The Milwaukee Auto Lock SAE Tape Measure is available at Home Depot for $17.97, where it has a user rating of 4.5 out of 5. Users enjoy the AutoLock feature, which is great for measuring long surfaces and pipes without worrying about the tape retracting. Several users feel confident in the measure's construction, unconcerned about potential drops thanks to its sturdy design.

Every proper toolbox needs a good, sturdy hammer. You might not use a hammer as often as old TV shows led you to believe you would, but when the time comes to start pounding nails into the wall, there's no other tool that can do the job. Besides just being a strong hunk of metal, though, a proper hammer needs to take user comfort into consideration with helpful features and protections.

Milwaukee's Milled Face Framing Hammer pounds nails into any surface with its mighty 22-ounce steelhead, backed by a precision-balanced body for clean, even swings. In addition to that tough head, the hammer also features Milwaukee's proprietary Shockshield Grip, which the company says reduces handle vibrations from swings 10 times more than hammers of a similar design, reducing user fatigue. There's also a magnetic nail-setter built into the head for easy nail alignment.

The Milwaukee Milled Face Framing Hammer is available at Home Depot for $28.97, where it has a user rating of 4.7 out of 5. This hammer impressed Phil Brind'Amour of Homefixated, who enjoyed the comfort and convenience of the Shockshield grip and nail-setter. By his estimation, a professional carpenter could use this hammer for decades without needing another.

The annoying thing about screws is that they come in more shapes and sizes than you may initially realize. This is why, rather than a single screwdriver, most toolboxes have entire sub-kits dedicated to stashing a myriad of screwdrivers of varying sizes. That's a rather unwieldy approach, so instead of that, why not cram every single screwdriver you could need into a single, convenient package?

Milwaukee's Ratcheting Multi-Bit Screwdriver includes 27 different screw bits, including Hex, Phillips, Slotted, and more, all of which are stored in the slide-out handle compartment. These bits can be easily swapped on and off the bit holder, which itself can be removed from the screwdriver and attached to a separate power drill if you've got one. If you've got an especially stubborn screw on your hands, the hex shank is wrench-ready, allowing you to hook a wrench on for an assisted turn.

Milwaukee's 21-In-1 Ratcheting Multi-Bit Screwdriver is available at Home Depot for $29.97, where it has a user rating of 4.1 out of 5. Users love the portability of the driver and its bits, which are much lighter to carry around in a toolbox or satchel than an entire screwdriver set. The handle is nice and comfortable, and the drive is fully reversible, making it a solid all-purpose screwdriver.

In a similar vein to screws, different kinds of wires require different kinds of tools to properly handle. You can't use the same tool to strip a wire that you would to cut it altogether, for example. If you're working with many different kinds of wire in your line of work, such as that of an electrician, you need a multi-faceted tool that you can use in any situation.

Milwaukee's High Leverage Combination Pliers combines seven different head types into a single device. By aligning a wire with one of the divots in the head, you can perform a variety of different functions. The front of the head does normal plier work, grabbing and twisting, but it can also function as a crimper, a stripper, a cutter, a loop maker, a reamer, and even a bolt cutter. The swing-lock design and high-leverage handles ensure you can perform all of your wire work with a single hand.

Milwaukee's 7-in-1 High Leverage Combination Pliers are available at Home Depot for $29.97, where they have a user rating of 4.7 out of 5. Clint DeBoer of Pro Tool Reviews said that these pliers can really do it all, handling the jobs of seven different tools in a single convenient package. He said that this tool might just beat out both the previous iteration of Milwaukee combo pliers and his usual heavy-duty wire stripper.

The preceding products were chosen amongst top-rated Milwaukee-branded hand tools available at Home Depot. Preference was given to products with at least a 4 out of 5 user rating based on at least 300 user reviews, as well as recommendations from accredited tool review sites.