Milwaukee 28V Cordless Range

Mike Barter puts the heavy duty Milwaukee 28v cordless range through its paces

Milwaukee 28V Cordless Powe rtools

This is a top trade brand; never cheap, but heavily built and designed to take the brunt of site work. We gave the Milwaukee M28 Pack G plus circular saw to our resident 'rottweiler' Mike Bartter to give it a hammering as he and his men put a new light industrial building next to the GMC workshop. A tricky job at hand; putting the shell of a new building over the old one complete with new services - while the old building inside is still in use - then demolishing it and extracting it safely. A bit of a challenge as Mike is first to admit.

HD28 HX Hammer Drill

We needed to get the steels bedded down properly on to the concrete so that the new shell was completely secured before the concrete side panels were completed. This drill with extra welly was just the job in lieu of the usual 110V drill we would use. The optional standard chuck wouldn't get a lot of use I suspect, this really is just an SDS beast.

HD28 CS Circular Saw

A nice bit of kit but I was disappointed it didn't have greater cutting capacity. It's fine for light trimming work but if Milwaukee do a really big corded circular saw then I'd have to choose that most of the time. I did notice that the charging time on the batteries is quick.

HD28 PD Percussion Drill

This a good one. Up on the roof here we're fitting these lightweight metal clad dense foam roof panels; there is an endless number of bolts to drive in so the long life on the battery is welcome, only a few thousand to go! The side handle comes off easily as we wouldn't have that in place up on the roof - it's safer without.

M28 Worklight

I'm afraid we've boxed ourselves into a bit of a corner here; the new building is close to the old one and we have an office and toilet with drainage and service pipes to consider, so being able to see into dark corners is essential. I like the way this light just sits there aimed wherever I need it; it'll be interesting to see just long the battery lasts.

Milwaukee Kit Bag

I keep telling them to keep their vans tidy even though they are properly partitioned; being able to stow all this gear in one bag it gives them no excuse, and it's got wheels on it, too!