MAKITA 40 VOLT: Should You Ditch Your 18 Volt Now?

uh scott brown here before this exciting  episode begins then we get into the makita   40 volt system this video is sponsored by  skillshare now i like learning new skills and   finding new hobbies but between running a business  and creating exciting episodes every single week   i don't have a lot of time to invest skillshare  offers heaps of courses that are relatively short   and come in manageable episodes or classes i like  that i can pick up a class or two when it suits   my schedule lately i've been watching a course  called productivity masterclass principles and   tools to boost your productivity by ali abdal ali  discusses the concept of the productivity equation   and he also goes into myths around productivity  and he actually gives practical advice that i   find really helpful so if you're like me and you  want to learn a new skill but you're short on time   then give skillshare a go you can learn a little  bit a day or a little bit per week in a time frame   that suits you so the first 1000 people who click  the link in the description below will get a free   trial of the skillshare premium membership and  then after that it's around 10 a month so cheers   to skillshare for sponsoring this video and if  you want to learn new skills click the link below   speaking of new the new makita 40 volt system  are you on 18 volt makita do you want to change   to 40 volt and you're wondering if it's worth it  what are the 40 volt tools like in general and   what tools are coming up that's what this that's  what this episode's about so enjoy so here we go   the makita 40 volt system all the 40 volt  tools that i've managed to get my hands   on so far anyway so now these tools behind me are  actually mine i'll talk more about the miter saw   soon i'm just buying that from akita for the next  week the other tools all belong to paido now if   you watch my videos you will know who he is he's  been working with me from the start of the channel   and well before that as well he had a makita  kit that was six or seven years old and it was   showing a bit of wear and tear so  i reached out to makita and i said   hey is there any chance that we could maybe  hook pair up with something he's in the videos   all the time and we're using your tools day in  day out it would be cool if he could upgrade   um there's any way that you guys can help out  and basically they just said leave it with us   week went by a couple of weeks went by and then  one day they turn up to site with all these brand   new boxes filled with makita 40 volt tools and  gave it spider and that's why he has the 40 volt   circular saw there's also why he has the 40 volt  reciprocating saw and the drills and batteries and   they hooked them up which is amazing so  it's been a few months that we've had these   on site now and we've been using them day  in day out so here are some of my thoughts so let's start with the system as a whole i've  been using makita tools since 2004 2005 2004 and   i started off with an impact driver the 18 volt  impact driver it was one of my earlier videos on   this channel um i reviewed that and talked about  how i got on the makita platform and how a lot of   the people that i worked with here in new zealand  were also on the makita platform that drill lasted   a decade at least and i since upgraded to the 18  volt that looks very similar to this and that's   been pretty damn good too so it wasn't until last  year that makita came out with the 40 volt system   so after all my years as a builder on one makita  platform makita has finally come out with a second   one now i should say that i'm not a battery expert  i don't know a lot about this kind of stuff but   in our experience the main improvement has been  run time we hardly ever charge these batteries   i i changed the battery today but that was the  first time after maybe five days of using it and   that's using it every single day this battery  here in particular is the four amp battery   and you can see it's quite chunky when it sits on  the drill here usually when we're using the drills   we prefer to use the 2.5 amp battery this one here  and if you compare it to the 4 amp it's quite a   bit bigger and quite a bit heavier so that's just  getting that out of the way the big improvement on   this system compared to the 18 volt is how often  you need to plug the battery into the charger so here are the drills side by side and if one  wasn't newer looking than the other you'd probably   struggle to figure out which ones the 18 volt  and which one's the 40. and despite what i   said earlier about none of these being mine  this is actually my impact driver i thought   i had pardo's one i know because the rubber  thing the rubber thing fell off in terms of   appearance it looks the same and in terms  of performance so far other than run time on   the battery it's been pretty much the same  the impact drivers are great both of them the drill is just like the 18 volt one that i had  prior to this as well it has a little windy thing   down here to adjust the speed which is pretty  cool you know how in some chucks they have it   up there well this is like a digital winding  thing now i'm not sure how to activate it so   i don't know how to turn it on but those are the  drills they're pretty much the same but they're   taking advantage of that new battery system so  the reason i'm making this video is because i   get questions about the makita 40 volt system a  lot since they started appearing in the videos   and in terms of favorite 40 volume makita tools  this is mine this is top of the list it is the   circular saw and it's the 185 millimeter circular  saw eight and a quarter it's a beast this saw   takes advantage of another thing that they're  introducing to all these 40 volt tools and that is   the bluetooth system that fires up the vacuum  if you have the makita vacuum cleaner sweet   there we go and also has a built-in dust port so  you can connect directly to the vacuums and the   festool vacuums also fit this dust port it also  has this great big rafter hook here which is very   handy look at the size of the thing one thing that  may be overlooked by some people but i think is   super cool i know these things don't matter that  much but see how it's side on like that rather   than some of the other makita circular saws that  have the battery hanging off the back like that   this one helps make the saw more compact and  i don't know i just really like it but that's   not the best thing about the saw the best thing  about this makita circular saw and the thing that   we've been using it for the most is its ripping  capacity we've been working on a couple of villas   and bungalows over the last six months and all  the walls are crooked all this does need packed   it's never even you're never just putting a 20mm  packer on a wall and it's good floor-to-ceiling   but it involves ripping freehand so you can follow  a squiggly line and this saw's been great for it   and now this is one of the things that  come up a lot for people who haven't been   completely converted to cordless tools in  general and that's the circular saw they say   oh yeah it's great for you know cross cutting and  trimming things but you can't rip timber with it   well that hasn't been true for a while  but in particular it's not true now   this thing rips no problem  with a fully charged battery   now this all sounds very positive i'm sure you  are picking up and you'll notice i put the word   advertisement up there earlier basically in new  zealand you have to say it is an advertisement if   you have been lent a product or given a product  for free so makita haven't seen this video   any sooner than you would have seen it um but  they did give us these tools so take that with   a grain of salt it doesn't have any effect on what  i say about the tools but uh i should point that   out the reciprocating saw i'm gonna go out on a  limb and say this is paido's favorite improvement   over the 18 volt now i haven't used it that much  but here against this thing has a lot more power   and again it's on the 40 volt system so  you're taking advantage of the runtime   so this is part of that bluetooth system that  i mentioned before and i've used in previous   episodes basically you plug this into your vacuum  cleaner it could be any vacuum cleaner it doesn't   have to be makita and then you turn that button  on and then you also turn the subsequent button   on the saw and basically when you fire the saw  up the vacuum cleaner automatically turns on   that way every time you go to use the saw  as long as the hose is plugged into it   you're gonna get that dust extraction we've  had problems with it previously when we're   using the um traxel basically you have to make  sure you're within range and nothing in between   perhaps that'll improve over time maybe we were  using it wrong i don't know but uh when it works   it works fantastic one thing a lot of people  wondered when this system was announced is   what's going to happen to the 18 volt now you know  a lot of us have invested in so many different   18 volt tools does that mean they're going to be  just void and no good anymore they are planning to   stick with the 18 volt range and it's really cool  that they throw in this little adapter here this   is the 40 volt charger and this is a adapter so  you can charge an 18 volt battery now they don't   have adapters so you can use an 18 volt battery on  a 40 volt tool and vice versa that doesn't exist it's going to be very interesting to see what  happens with the 18 volt now that 40 volt   is out now that i have 40 volt tools i only want  40 volt tools as soon as the 40 volt track saw   comes out i probably get it the 40 volt multi  tool i'll probably just change right over to 40   volt makita say that they're sticking with the 18  volt but it's hard to see how it's not an either   or thing why would you get 18 volt if 40 volt  is better it's kind of like analogous to cameras   for me and this may be lost on a few people but  this camera here that i have is a canon camera   and canon cameras have been out for years but they  recently upgraded the lens system so the adapter   here is different completely different so you know  decades of canon cameras it's a brand new system   so there's only a few lenses that are out at the  moment there's like maybe a dozen lenses that   fit this camera but as the years go by they're  going to bring more lenses in and these lenses   are better than the old system so i've invested  in this system and i'm only planning to buy the   new lenses there's no reason for me to go out  and buy the old lenses i'm probably going to cut   this out of the video because it's not really  about tools but it's kind of similar to this   it is pouring with rain today by the way a little light there now i'm  excited that they made this because   i've been pretty critical of makita mitre  saws in the past particularly the cordless one   for me drop saws as we call them are meant to be  portable certainly the cordless ones the great   thing about cordless drop tools in general is  that it's very easy to take in and out of the   van and very easy when you want to do a quick  cut it's the kind of tool that you'll grab if   you only need to do one cut whereas a corded one  you probably won't bother from a first impression   this is only 15 kilos it takes one 40 volt  battery it has the forward rail design and it can come out very very far  compared to saws of a similar size   it's early days like i said we only got it  today we've made a couple of cuts at work   i'll be using it for the next week and i'll  see if i can do a first impressions video   or at least talk about it in an upcoming  video now one thing that may put off people   is this handle i for one like this handle i feel  like your hand is more in line with the blade so   you're not putting unnecessary pressure against  the blade which helps keep it straight but a lot   of people just can't get used to that sort of  pistol grip i like it i've got it here on the   festool as well and this is even more in line with  the blade it's like your hands are literally on   the blade so you're not putting any unnecessary  pressure against it you're just on it whereas you   come over here and you look at the dewalt see  how much further i am away from it that's just   you know years of going like that eventually it  gets out of whack and that's what happened to this   that's why i end up changing so what  do you prefer do you prefer the uh   handle on the blade or handle to the side that's  the drop saw and that's the makita 40 volt system   does that mean we're going to stick with the 18  volt system i've still got a lot of 18 volt tools   and we still use them from day to day especially  use the multi tool but i will say that over the   last three or four months that we've had the  tools i haven't used my 18 volt impact i haven't   used my 18 volt drills we've barely used my 18  volt circular saws now that we have these tools   they're talking about simultaneously keeping both  platforms i see myself just going over to 40 volt   it'll be real interesting to see what happens i  just like that they're improving the systems and   keeping up with each other all the tool brands  are doing so well at the moment we're kind of   spoiled for choice when it comes to tools i think  it's a good system those are my first impressions   of it and um stay tuned for more exciting  episodes where we work with exciting tools   so what do you think of the makita 45 system  are you convinced are you more interested in   the other brands do they have better offerings  would you change from the 18 volt to the 40   volt i'm interested to hear your thoughts in the  comments below also i'll check a link over here   um at the end of the video to a channel called  tools and stuff if you haven't seen it already   the guy who runs that channel has done a load of  40 volt videos where he compares the 18 volt and   the 40 volt together i'm talking reciprocating  saws hammer drills most of the tools that i've   shown here already he's done a great in-depth tool  versus tool comparison so definitely check that   out if you want a more in-depth look at the tools  and i'll catch you in the next exciting episode

Channel: Scott Brown Carpentry

Views: 437,032

Keywords: Skillshare

Id: ab1Fe5zcoe4

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021