11 Milwaukee Tools That'll Keep Your Next DIY Project Cheap
The red and black power tools found on store shelves across the country are underpinned by 100 years of innovation and history from Milwaukee tools. The modern ranges — the M12 and M18 cordless systems — bring even greater versatility and a wide range of functionality to the professional and DIYer alike. The tools aren't always cheap when compared to other brands' offerings, but the performance that comes from these units is often unmatched. This is especially true for the Fuel lineups in both battery systems, a designation that marks a series of improvements from brushless motor technology to intelligent battery management.
Fortunately, there are plenty of great offers available on Milwaukee tools. Bundle deals and flash sales make the red and black devices more affordable throughout the year, and can power your next project to even better results, faster outcomes, and a reduced budget with ease.
The best part of purchasing a great new Milwaukee tool is the knowledge that you'll be purchasing many years of utility. A circular saw bought to accommodate a project today will fuel cuts made in building all sorts of projects for years to come. This feeling is made all the more potent when finding a solid deal on your purchase. These are some of the best options to bring cost savings and superb performance together for your next DIY adventure.
M18 Fuel Drill/Driver Combo Kit
Any DIYer worth their salt will have a combi drill on hand. These units combine standard drilling settings with a hammer action for improved cutting power through hard material like brickwork or concrete footings. If you don't already own a combi drill (or are in need of an upgrade), a Milwaukee combo kit that brings together a Fuel-branded combi-drill with an impact driver is a great choice.
This is the perfect starting place for a new homeowner or novice DIY enthusiast just starting out on their renovation and repair journey. Milwaukee's M18 Fuel lineup improves on power output, battery efficiency, and tool longevity through a brushless motor system underpinned by cutting-edge technology far surpassing the standard M18 or M12 systems.
In addition to the drill — a crucial piece of equipment, to be sure — this combo kit from Acme Tools provides two XC 5.0 batteries for the M18 system, a charger that also juices up M12 batteries, a carrying case, and Milwaukee's M18 Fuel Impact Driver. The pair of high-performance tools allow for much faster drilling and screwing operations when building any number of DIY projects. Moreover, the improved power found in an impact driver makes fastening workpieces far less straining and much faster. These two tools in combination form the backbone of any toolbox's powered section.
M12 Five-Tool Combo Kit
Another option that brings all the basics together is this five-tool combo kit that includes a charger, soft shell carrying case, and two batteries rounds out an M12 system package that can facilitate nearly any kind of work you might have in front of you. The M12 tools are part of Milwaukee's standard range and provide excellent power and reliability at a rock bottom price. The pack ships from Walmart for just $252 (or about $50 per tool with the extras thrown in on top).
Included are the staples, including a drill-driver that tops out at 250 in-lbs of torque and an impact driver delivering 850 in-lbs of torque. Both tools are almost impossibly lightweight when compared to the larger bodies of the M18 platform, which makes them great for reaching into tight recesses to secure a workpiece. In addition, the kit comes with an M12 Hackzall, a slimmed down profile of the larger Sawzalls and Hackzalls offered by Milwaukee.
These tools can cut through nearly anything, allowing you to slice out timber riddled with screws and nails, unlike a circular or jigsaw. Rounding out the combo buy is a right angle ratchet and an M12 portable work light. Both tools are great for tackling specialized fastening and DIY safety needs. The light can keep you working long into the evening while the ratchet saves your strength during fastening or bolt breaking operations.
Green Beam 3-Point Laser Level
A departure from the battery platform tools offered by Milwaukee, a great bargain can be found at Acme Tools for a Three Point Laser Level. It uses a USB rechargeable battery that doesn't require one of your M12 or M18 battery packs to operate, giving a DIYer more flexibility to handle a range of complex tasks without slowing down. More importantly, a USB charging feature means that you won't have to shell out yet another hundred bucks or so to bring in another battery to your toolbox just to use the level while cutting, drilling, or fastening — maybe even all three at the same time.
A level can improve your work product immensely, and it's a staple on any professional jobsite, as a result. Whether in the installation of cabinets or the placement of a simple curtain rod, a laser level makes finding plumb lines and marking square angles a mere afterthought. The three-point performance of this Milwaukee level allows for versatile leveling across numerous work requirements.
M18 Oscillating Multitool Kit
The M18 Oscillating Multitool is another underrated gem for decorators, renovators, and all manner of DIYers. The kit comes with a battery and the dual M12/M18 charger unit. Ace Hardware notes that the battery included in the package deal is a 1.5 Ah M18 build, but the image shown includes a High Output CP 3.0 battery instead. Either way, the combo pack is selling for just $129, the same price the bare tool alone is fetching at Acme Tools and Home Depot. This gives DIYers the opportunity to snag a fantastic deal that will get the tool directly into use straight away — even if it's the first Milwaukee tool of a collection.
A multitool might not seem all that important at first glance. However, these power tools are massively useful. From cutting to sanding and scraping, a multitool utilizes a blade movement that is unlike any other power tool. Rather than the standard blade spin, a multitool rapidly vibrates the blade or alternative attachment back and forth. This allows for direct plunge cuts that target the exact spot you want to begin a slice in the workpiece.
Adding sockets to a wall, trimming crown molding or skirting boards, or even cutting into door frames to slide in new hardwood floorboards all fall within the purview of a multitool — tasks that would be immensely difficult if not impossible without one.
M12 23-Gauge Pin Nailer
A nailer is a power tool that many DIYers eagerly add to their arsenal. Nailers make quick work of all sorts of cabinetry, furniture, decorating tasks, and more. A powerful nail gun once required the addition of an air compressor and hose, but cordless variants now provide the same pop without the strings attached — all at a much lower price tag.
Milwaukee offers a wide range of nailers in both its M18 and M12 builds. Among the M12 lineup, Milwaukee makes a 23-Gauge Pin Nailer, the perfect tool for driving headless pin nails into any workpiece you need to secure. The tool can drive nails from 1/2 inch to 1-3/8 inch lengths with its double action trigger. The nailer weighs less than four pounds and is capable of driving 750 pin nails on a single battery charge.
Whether you're doing up the house with some customized furniture pieces or looking to secure molding throughout a room, this nailer is a great alternative to the larger units that command a hefty price tag. It certainly isn't lacking in power, and the compact footprint means that the nailer can easily slip into tight corners for ample fastening versatility. Perhaps more importantly for a DIYer on a budget, the nailer is available at Walmart at a steep discount — $200 for the bare tool, down from $343.
M18 Wet/Dry Shop Vac
A shop vac is a crucial piece of equipment for cleanup and jobsite management. There's nothing worse than a messy workspace. It's hectic, and can even become dangerous in some cases. The active DIYer may be consistently creating dust, rubble, and other messes around the house as projects spring up. The ability to efficiently and quickly clean the workspace can make all the difference in sticking to a proposed timeline. When renting other tools to get the job finished, a shop vac may even serve as an integral component in keeping to a set schedule in order to return the tool on time and saving money on the project.
The Milwaukee M18 Wet/Dry Shop Vac is a portable and eminently useful option when seeking a cleanup solution for your home or any other DIY workspace. The tool features a 2-gallon capacity and runs on Milwaukee's signature M18 battery system. It's available at Ace Hardware for $140, but the outlet is running a promotion in which a $200 purchase of an M18 battery pack starter kit (the charger and an XC 5.0 high output battery) gets you the vacuum (or one of three other M18 tools) thrown in for free.
Anyone seeking both a shop vac to streamline their work and another Milwaukee battery to support seamless tool usage might consider the bundle deal for just a bit more. Considering that the same battery on its own costs $160 at Ace Hardware, the bundle can provide major cost savings if you're looking for multiple Milwaukee products.
Reconditioned M18 Fuel Compact Router
Milwaukee calls its refurbished products reconditioned, and authorizes a few key outlets as resellers of these units. Acme Tools is one such provider, and carries a number of reconditioned Milwaukee tools, which are a great choice for DIYers looking for excellent functionality on a tight budget. The M18 Fuel Compact Router is one of these selected tools.
Compared to a new unit, the reconditioned router saves buyers $70 ($130 compared to the $200 price tag on a new router at Acme Tools), a reduction that equates to a pair of M12 1.5 Ah batteries or a single M12 CP 3.0 option. It also puts it in the same ballpark as an $80 reconditioned M18 drill/driver.
Routers of all varieties are a staple piece of equipment for avid DIYers, and this cost-saving option brings a whole lot of value to your project space for multiple reasons. The M18 Fuel designation marks this router as a wonderfully powerful and competent cutting tool, and its compact size allows for precision cutting and shaping in even tight areas or around pieces already installed in place.
Reconditioned M18 Fuel 8-1/4-Inch Table Saw
Keeping with the theme of reconditioned tools, a $50 savings on a Milwaukee table saw is also available at Acme Tools. The standard M18 Fuel variant (with One-Key included) retails for $450, while the reconditioned unit drops the price of the 8-1/4-Inch M18 Fuel Table Saw down to $400.
For a DIYer seeking the best in versatility, two saws must feature in the workshop — a miter saw and a table saw. While many other tools combine to make projects more efficient, these two cutting tools form the basis of nearly every sawing application you'll require. A miter saw delivers angled cuts across the face of a board (bringing it down to length), but the table saw is crucial for making long, straight cuts down a board, and the Milwaukee M18 Fuel is one of the best options on the market.
If you've ever needed to shave off an inch along the whole face of a board to fit it into place and only had a circular or jigsaw on hand, you'll know the pains of not having this crucial power tool. A table saw's fence allows a DIYer to set precise and repeatable cuts for dialed in accuracy that simply can't be matched with a hand saw or any straight line-cutting powered option. The Milwaukee Fuel table saw is capable of shearing through 600 linear feet of cutting material per battery charge and offers a 24-1/2-inch rip capacity that's perfect for handling 4x8 sheets of plywood and similar boards.
M12 Fuel 3-Inch Cut Off Tool
Yet another cutting tool might not be high on many DIYers' priority lists when shopping for new productivity options. However, there's heaps of praised to be showered on the M12 Fuel 3-Inch Cut Off Tool. A deal at US Tool and Fastener pegs the price of this chopper at $129 with a HO 2.5 battery for the tool included for free. That means Milwaukee system users can get cutting with this cut off tool straight away, as a result, even without any other M12 products already in the garage or toolbox.
The tool spins its blade at up to 20,000 RPM and can slice through a bevy of different material types, including metal, concrete block, and tile. In this way, the tool closely resembles an angle grinder, albeit with the blade stalk facing vertically rather than horizontally. In fact, the cut off tool is often lumped in categorically with grinders.
However, the thing that makes this compact cutter different is the reversible blade direction. Rather than having to contort your body or plan out exactly where you'll stand to accommodate for the blade's direction of spin, the cut off tool allows for spin in either direction. It's a unique feature among sawing, grinding, and other cutting tools. Even hand saws position their blades facing in one direction or the other (i.e., Japanese hand saws cut on the pull). A compact tool with immense range and a great price tag, the M12 Fuel Cut Off Tool is a wonderful addition to any toolbox.
M18 Three-Speed Jobsite Fan
There are a number of fans included in the Milwaukee catalog, including the new product in the M18 range — an 18-inch fan utilizing the M18 battery platform. However, perhaps the most valuable of the bunch for a DIYer looking for excellent buying power and functional utility across a range of applications is the portable is M18 Three-Speed Jobsite Fan. It's selling at Ace Hardware for $100, bringing excellent cooling power to your workspace for a bargain price point.
A fan is an essential piece of power tool equipment, even though it won't factor directly into the workflow of any project you might be tackling. In the same way that a ladder, work platform, or lighting solution forms an integral part of any job you might take on, a jobsite fan helps maintain an atmosphere in which work can be completed in a timely manner and without intense physical and mental strain.
When cutting, drilling, or building anything, a hot and sticky work environment slows down the entire process. It can even lead to mistakes that might involve either miscuts — leading to repeated steps in the work — or injury, slowing or halting progress altogether. A small, portable fan is great for targeting cool air to any part of the workspace you may need it. The tool can even factor into tasks like soldering or heavy sanding to guide harmful particles or byproducts away from your nose and mouth.
M12 Hammervac SDS Drill
A unique tool, the M12 Hammervac SDS Drill is a combination tool that brings heavy drilling functionality into play alongside a secondary tool — a dust extraction unit. It is usually extremely difficult to trap flying dust particles and chipped material evacuating a piece of masonry when it's being drilled into or even demolished with an SDS drill, but the Hammervac presents a solution to this problem. Available for $235 at Walmart, the Hammervac ships with two CP 2.0 batteries for immediate usability.
SDS drills are heavy, purpose-built machines. Unlike the combi drill, an SDS unit is designed specifically for drilling into concrete, brick, and other hard material. The hammer action on many units also allows for the disabling of the rotation function, enabling instead a sort of jackhammer action that can be leveraged to tear down these hard material constructions. Any homeowner who lives in a property built with a concrete structure rather than timber will simply require an SDS drill. The same goes for those who maintain brick facades or landscaping features, among many others. These drills make far quicker work of standard drilling tasks too, as is to be expected.
The Hammervac drill makes cleanup far less taxing though, allowing you to put the finishing touches on a DIY project in record time and with far less effort. Moreover, as an M12 system solution, the SDS drill is heavy at 9.02 pounds, but weighs far less than a comparable drill might in a larger model type. This takes just a bit of the pressure off when relying on the drill's power for a large chunk of the day.