Buying advice 18V Makita Multi-Tool and Angle Grinder
Arathonk
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Who here can help me with some buying advice for some new Makita 18V swag?
Particularly interested in an cordless Angle Grinder, I narrowed it down to the Makita DGA517.
Does anybody have any experience and thoughts on this model?
Especially, how’s the runtime?
Many people seem to be in the “get corded” camp, but I’m not going to use it for hours on end, so good enough runtime is good enough.
Regarding the Makita Multi-Tool;
I’m debating between the Makita Multi-Tool DMT51 and DMT52.
The DMT52 has a lot of plusses over the DMT51, expect for Starlock, those blades are expensive like hell.
Oslo Tool sells an Starlock adapter which you can use to attach the standard OIS bladed on an Starlock machine, it looks high quality and only costs something like $40.
https://www.oslotoolcompany.com/products/makita-dtm52z-xmt04-adapter
Does anybody have any experience with this or any suggestions?
How’s the tool in general? I’ve read about some quality control problems.
Replies
Do you have cordless tools, batteries, and chargers now? I prefer to stick with one platform. I don't see much difference between any of the better brands, so I wouldn't bother having different batteries and charges.
Makita makes excellent tools. But if I already had DeWalt or Milwaukee tools, I'd just get their angle grinder too.
Yes, I'm fully invested in Makita.
But how's runtime on cordless angle grinders anyway?
Not great, compared to some other tools. Depends on what you are cutting or grinding, and for how long. More than one battery is helpful.
You make this sound like you are going into the angle-grinding business full time?
Actually not at all, I won't be using it hours on end, or professionally in any way.
Just trying to figure out if it's worth it. What would you say is the average runtime?
I guess anything 25 minutes and more is good enough.
Run time will be dictated by the amperes available from the battery, that is the fuel, voltage is close with all major makes, I have DeWalt and can go long time with an angle drill, the big one, with a 5 Amp, 20 volts battery and just bought the largest 10 amp or so so I can go longer, I use it to operate winches on a sailboat and it goes a long time. Those lithium batteries are very powerful, I would guess you can grind for between half an hour and an hour of run time on one charge but once the battery is out, it’s out, they don’t fade away they just quit suddenly so you need a Backup .
So on a 5Ah battery I can expect half an hour?
No experience on this specific tool, but I suspect 30 minutes would be optimistic. I get about 5-7 minutes on a 5Ah battery using a leaf blower which is a similar power application. I saw another site which claimed 8 minute run time for the lightest of the angle grinders with a 5Ah battery. Even that is probably pushing what you can do with them. Cordless angle grinders are great for removing wheel clamps or cutting rebar for small projects, but I suspect would run out of juice quickly in applications like wire brushing. If you need to grind nails off a roof though, it's a pain with a cord and if I ever have to do that again, I'll definitely buy a cordless.
My experience of various Makita tools:
A drill will go all day (in workshop use) on 5Ah.
A weed eater 20 mins or so.
I get bored long before it runs out on my hedge trimmer so I have no idea how long it lasts!
My small circular saw dies after about 32' of cutting 18mm ply with a 1.5Ah battery but I've never managed to run it out with a 5 or 6 on board
My trim router will only run about 1-2 mins on the 1.5Ah pack.
Cordless tool batteries will all go punk eventually. I've had cordless ,drills mostly, since about when I first saw them. I purchased Makita, eventually the batteries started to weaken and the price of new batteries was high but a new kit / drill two batteries and a charger was not much different than the cost of batteries so I did that only to discover that the new identical sets batteries would not lock into my old tools. Makita changed the latch. Eventually those batteries started to grow weak and by then the whole format had changed on pretty much any kind of cordless tool available so I did Makita again. When those batteries started to run down I discovered that Makita had changed the latching mechanism yet again. So I changed to Panasonic and those batteries lasted a really long time and held a charge much ,much longer. About the time those batteries started to go Milwaukee came out with their M12 system and now that's what I have and I really like them. I have a couple of sets of them and I did purchase the multitool which works just fine although i have a couple of corded vesions of that tool. They make all kinds of tools that work on that system. The M18 system wasn't available when I bought in but if I ever change up I would probably go for that. I don't know if Makita is still obsoleteing their tools by making the batteries not match up to their older versions or not but I would check that out before I would buy in. All those old tools ended up in the trash by and by! On a multitool I would not consider anything that did not use a universal type attachment for the blades and things . Ultimately that's where all the money goes and it pays to be able to shop around! The sharpening service that I use for example resharpens old Fein blades and sells them for $6 a piece.