Milwaukee Tool going to crap

Frank1541 · #1 01-14-2022, 10:21 AM

I have been buying Milwaukee M18 tools for a decade and I have pretty happy with them. Their hydraulic 1/4 impact driver is really great. Now they seem to be going down hill. I bought a 7 1/4 circular saw. 2830 worm drive copy. What I piece of crap. The blade and the shoe are not parallel. Over .020 off measuring from the front to the back of the blade. I could not figure out why I was having so much trouble cutting against a straight edge. I had the saw serviced by Milwaukee and they did not fix the problem at all. I did get some nice scratches in the blade guard however. Plus they must have tightened the blade bolt with an air hammer. So another trip to have it repaired.
While it was in the shop I got a 6 1/2 saw, 2730. The blade is within .002 parallel. However it is impossible to get the blade to 90 degrees. The rear stop is not adjustable and it prevents the saw from getting to 90. I ended up fixing this by taking the shoe off and hammering the tang a little.
Amazing, no quality control and poor service. I might just as well buy all my tools from Harbor Freight, at least I get what I pay for.

Getter-Done · #2 01-14-2022, 09:47 PM

Oh No.
Sorry to here this

I have swapped to Milwaukee cause De Walt is going to crap.

I have several boxes of junk from de walt.

So far I have had good luck but I am just starting the Milwaukee adventure.

Maybe HF is the way, They are stepping up their game a little

Farmall450 · #3 01-15-2022, 11:07 AM

I've had good luck with Mac and DeWalt (DeWalt makes Mac's cordless tools).

charlie105 · #4 01-17-2022, 09:50 AM

Still happy with my m12, and m18 tools, but they were all purchased more than 5 years ago. Considering where they are made, I’m not surprised by the degradation. I’ll have to look at other brands, but they are all likely made in the same “place”. We have forgotten how to make everything we use, and the Old Talent is gone, or going away fast.

Frank1541 · #5 01-21-2022, 09:48 AM

Update. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Milwaukee is sending me a new saw to replace the 2830. They don't even want the old one back.
Good to see that they are standing by their product and taking care of a loyal customer. Not many companies do that these days.
It amazes me how many companies see customers as an adversary that they can treat like crap.

Billy-O · #6 01-21-2022, 11:24 AM

I'm sure Milwaukee has a lot of squeaky wheels to grease! I vowed never to buy Milwaukee again after problems with a couple of their products. One was batteries going bad on a new 12 volt saw-zaw that I never raised an issue with them. The other was their 46" top and bottom tool box I bought from Home Depot a few years ago .... the black paint (probably powder coated) was de-laminating on several of the drawers. A few calls to Milwaukee got me nothing but get run around. I should have taken the damn thing back to the store but I tossed away the box that tool box came in. I have yet to buy another Milwaukee since!

ChristopherCT · #7 01-21-2022, 11:55 AM

Frank,

I know what you mean about inconsistency and quality. But are you saying that, front-to-back, the carbide teeth are 2/1000" (1/500") out of parallel with it's shoe? That seems pretty managable for me if its a hand held circular saw. Now if it were a Festool that clipped into a track, maybe .02" would cause problems. I don't know. Also, on the bright side, I was using a brand new low rpm Milwaukee "Magnum" the other day. After reaming some large holes in 1" steel, the bit got bound (my fault). My gloved hand, on the long, right angle bar, was spun around til it punched the floor with great force. The thing is a beast to be respected and it is running well.

Frank1541 · #8 01-22-2022, 10:41 AM

Sorry for the confusion. Front to back the blade is over 20/1000 on the 2830. It is visible if you lay a straight edge against it that is wide enough to be close to the edge of the shoe. I did many cuts with an older 2630 using a straight edge with no issues. With the 2830 I got crazy results especially with thin blades like a Diablo. There is no way to keep the pressure consistent enough to prevent the blade from flexing.

ChristopherCT · #9 01-23-2022, 10:06 AM

Right! 20/1000 = 2/100 = 1/50" (I hope

Now I get it. And yes, those thin, sharp Diabolos are great and I'm not surprised that there is binding or generally bad cutting.

So are you going to regrind the edge of the "foot" so that it is parallel to the blade? Thats a lot of work, and annoying if the tool is brand new.

Frank1541 · #10 01-23-2022, 03:56 PM

It seems that the problem with both saws is related to how the sheet metal parts are bent. I suspect that they are not checking the bending jigs as they use them and they are out of spec now. Who knows.

There was a gap in the pivot assembly of approximately .025. I had a couple of .010 spacers. I was able to move the saw body that much relative to the shoe. It is pretty close now.

It will be interesting to see how the new one from Milwaukee is. I will probably sell one of the two 2830's.

Can't wait to start using the 2730 on the Truetrac system I got recently. Waiting for warmer weather.