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g/tools • Posted by u/milwaukee_mark •

M12 vs M18 for service work — I went all-in on M12 for a year and here is what broke Discussion

Experiment: for one year I ran M12 only for service calls, M18 stayed on the van for install work. Wanted to know where the line actually is rather than carrying both everywhere.

Where M12 was completely fine:

  • Drilling and driving in anything up to 2x lumber
  • The M12 right angle drill got into places nothing else fits and it is the reason I did this experiment
  • Ratchet — the 3/8 M12 ratchet is the single best tool in the lineup, no argument
  • Bandsaw for anything up to 3/4 EMT

Where M12 failed and I went back:

  • Hole saws over 2 inch. It will do it. It will do about six before the battery is dead and the tool is hot.
  • Anything overhead sustained. Lower torque means more time under load, and the ergonomics advantage evaporates when a job takes twice as long.
  • SDS. The M12 rotary hammer exists and I do not recommend it for anything past a few anchors.

The real finding: the weight savings are not about the tool, they are about the bag. Going M12-only cut about eleven pounds off what I carry up a ladder and my shoulder noticed within a month.

Current setup: M12 in the bag, M18 hole saw kit and SDS in a separate case that stays in the van until I know I need it. Two trips to the van a week, versus eleven pounds on every ladder every day. Easy trade.

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u/dewalt_donna •

The "weight is about the bag, not the tool" point is the whole thing and almost nobody frames it that way. A tool comparison that weighs two drills against each other is measuring the wrong thing. The comparison is between two loadouts.

Same conclusion on the DeWalt side with Atomic versus full size, for what it is worth. Different brand, identical logic.

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u/sparky420 •

Agree completely on the M12 ratchet. It is on my belt every day and it has never once been the wrong tool.

Pushing back slightly on hole saws — I run 2-9/16 in the M12 hole saw kit for recessed cans and it is fine, but the trick is the right blade. A carbide-tooth hole saw pulls maybe a third of the current of a bi-metal in the same size. Half of what people diagnose as an underpowered tool is actually a dull or wrong-technology blade.

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u/milwaukee_mark OP •

Fair, and I was running bi-metal for most of the year. Ordered a carbide set to retest. If that closes the gap it changes the whole conclusion on hole saws.

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u/first_year_felix •

First year, building a kit from nothing, and this thread is the most useful thing I have read in months. Everybody tells apprentices "buy quality" and nobody tells us which quality. Starting with M12 and adding M18 only where it fails is a plan I can actually afford.

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u/milwaukee_mark OP •

That is a good way to start and it is cheaper than the alternative in both directions — you are not buying big tools you do not need, and you are not buying cheap tools you will replace. Buy the M12 drill, impact and ratchet first. Add from there when a specific job tells you to.

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u/ev_charger_eli •

The two-trips-to-the-van tradeoff is one people talk themselves out of because a trip to the van feels like wasted time in a way that carrying weight does not. But carrying weight is a cost you pay with your body over twenty years and a trip to the van is four minutes.

I made the same switch last spring and my back is the reason.

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u/snap_on_stan •

Automotive side runs the same split — 3/8 impact in the cart, 1/2 on the wall for when you need it. Nobody in a shop carries the big impact around all day. Service techs in the field ended up reinventing the same layout, just with a van instead of a wall.

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