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Tool Reviews & Buying Guides by Trade

If you want to read articles and reviews that are trade-specific, try our Tool Reviews by Trade section. This organizes our site into topics suited particularly for a specific trade such as plumbing, electrical, framing, roofing & siding, concrete/masonry, and carpentry.
Tool Reviews by Trade Craft
Roofing and siding pros will find pneumatic roofing nailers as well as tools like cap staplers and hammer tackers. Tile & Flooring Pros will gain easy access to our tile saws, flooring staplers, and floor scrapers. As a painting professional, reviews of airless sprayers and cordless sprayers may interest you the most. You can count on one thing: whatever your craft, you need good tools. Our tool reviews by trade will help you drill down to quickly find the information you need. If you want to avoid anything that sits outside of your trade, this way helps you do it. If you can’t find a tool here, let us know.

FastMac U-Socket USB Receptacle Review
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USB Receptacle – FastMac U-Socket Review

by Clint DeBoer

In the past 85 years, not much has happened to the electrical outlet. At least, nothing groundbreaking except for perhaps a new form factor to give it a facelift (think Decora-style outlets). One thing that has changed is that more and more devices require power. I remember when a home was filled with blenders, vacuum cleaners and those gigantic televisions – and not much else as far as table-top appliances and devices went. But now we’ve got all manner of electronics and portable electronics. And that’s where FastMac’s U-Socket gets real practical. With iPhones, iPads, Kindles, and all the other gadgets we use, your wall outlet could start looking like it’s giving birth to a host of adapters and USB chargers. I don’t know about you, but it would be nice to have a cleaner and more organized way to charge your devices. Apparently not FastMac, who invented the U-Socket, agreed. The U-Socket marries the standard wall receptacle with a pair of 2.6A (2600mA) USB outlets.

Festool TS 55 R Flush Cut Circular Saw Preview
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Festool TS 55 R Flush Cut Circular Saw Preview

by Clint DeBoer

Festool has had its popular TS 55 EQ Circular out for quite some time, but a recent scoop of the new tool on a German website told us they are releasing the next update soon. The company revealed a new version of the tool that is tweaked (and perfectly suited for) flush-cutting applications. The new model is the TS 55 R. Festool’s new circular saw has improved handling, and since the blade is now approximately 1/2″ from the edge of the now smooth and flat blade guard, it’s suitable for more applications than ever.

Kobalt 18V Li-ion Cordless Impact Wrench
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Kobalt 18V Li-ion Cordless Impact Wrench Review

by Clint DeBoer

For anyone who does any sort of automotive work, the impact wrench is a must-have tool. Even if you only occasionally remove a tire, there is a stark difference between using a breaker bar or tire iron and a pneumatic impact wrench. But with an impact wrench, you also have the obligatory air compressor, hose, and necessary room to make sure it all works. Not so, with Kobalt Tools’ new 18V 1/2″ Cordless Impact Wrench. Of course, the real issue is, now that they’ve severed the cord and gone to the 18V Lithium-ion battery, is the tool sufficiently powerful to truly take off lug nuts? Can it replace, for real, not just for “most purposes” the air powered impact wrench? That’s what we set out to prove or disprove. And like most experiments, we had a lot of fun, and learned more than we expected.

Milwaukee Diagonal Pliers 48-22-4106 Review
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Milwaukee Diagonal Pliers 48-22-4106 Review

by Ben Parker

As an electrician, diagonal pliers are definitely a tool I use a lot in the field. This is especially true with commercial work where you have to cut a lot of cable and wire. Milwaukee’s Diagonal Pliers (48-22-4106) made a clean cut every single time I went to use them. This week we’re working on a remodel job on a commercial building built in the 1930’s. While some walls have been torn down and rebuilt, there are still some that are the original concrete block. On these I have had to put conduit and electrical boxes. Normally, this would be easy, but the wall was literally riddled with nails and screws. I found that these pliers were able to cut through the nails and screws with little to no difficulty. It sort of became my go-to tool for getting through the nitty gritty of clearing my area.

Milwaukee 6 IN 1 Long Nose Pliers 48-22-3068 Review
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Milwaukee 6 IN 1 Long Nose Pliers 48-22-3068 Review

by Ben Parker

Having just taken a look at Milwaukee’s 6 IN 1 Combination Pliers, we weren’t too thrown off guard by the 6 IN 1 Long Nose Pliers, which are a different tool, but similar in many ways. If anything, the 6 IN 1 Long Nose Pliers feel like they are meant for things that are a bit more heavy duty. These pliers are 1/4″ thicker than the combination pliers, which is good since they can be used to pull nails. We found that the design – particularly, the head of the tool which is squared off – does a pretty decent job at pulling nails out of wood. This really is a good tool if you are an electrician and need something heavy duty in the field. I really enjoy having it in my tool pouch at work and have recommended to other electricians to go buy one as well.

Makita EK7301 14" Gas Power Cutter Concrete Saw Preview
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Makita EK7301 14-inch Gas Power Cutter Concrete Saw

by Clint DeBoer

I don’t know about you, but whenever I get to slice through concrete I get a Tim Allen-style rush that makes me giddy with adrenaline. Of course, I don’t do it 8 hours per day, day in and day out. For those who do, they might appreciate the new Makita EK7301 14″ Power Cutter. The new EK7301 gas power cutter was developed to blend the best aspects of both convenience and performance. It improves upon previous Makita offers by including faster starting, more power, and better fuel economy.

Makita RT0700CX3 1-1/4 HP Compact Router Kit Preview
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Makita RT0700CX3 1-1/4 HP Compact Router Kit Preview

by Clint DeBoer

Makita is on a roll this week, releasing several new tools to the market. This time it’s the new RT0700C 1-1/4 HP Compact Router. The new Compact Router is also available in a kit (RT0700CX3), which is the only way to buy a router like this as it comes with a plunge, tilt and an offset base for a wide range of routing applications. Compact routers serve a great need in the woodworking and carpentry business – proving a very portable and controllable way to do simple bevels, laminate jobs, etc that would be a bit more of a pain with a full-sized tool. Now, we don’t recommend compact routers for anything heavy-duty – the added weight and bulk of a serious router is always going to outperform when you’re doing some serious projects.

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