Black Saturday

[Carlos]

I ventured into Lowe's yesterday to get some supplies, and ran across a couple of bright yellow boxes in the clearance section. A crushed box and missing battery charger meant a 50% off deal to upgrade my ancient 12v tools to the new Xtreme series, and they still threw in the free flashlight deal they have going on. I already have too many chargers. Looks like the eBay price for my old stuff will pay for all the new stuff. It's Christmas.

The new Precision Drive feature is simply amazing. It drives small screws safely and slowly, then just stops completely. Release the trigger and press again to impact set them, but gently. I think the 12v tool will replace my 20v impact as my most-used tool in the entire house. Also very happy to have the battery level indicators, my old 12v kit didn't have that. And the tools got smaller, lighter, faster, slower, and more powerful. The minimum speed with the brushless drive on low gear is ridiculously slow and controllable.

[durango dude]

I stopped by lowes and decided to try out the 20v craftsman drill/driver for $45. It was cheaper than buying batteries. It does feel pretty solid. Time will tell.

[capncarl]

HD has their 2 pack of Avanti Pro 10” 60 carbide teeth blades, $19 something. Arguably not the best blade on the market, but for less than $10 ea. they are a good buy. They are really pretty good blades, and for that price you can have a good stash on hand and not have to wait until they are dull to change out.

[WoodcraftBen]

The battery level indicator is nice for sure. I like to use my spare tool batteries as backup power for charging small things like cell phones in case of power outages or other emergencies. Since you don't want to keep them charged all the way while they're sitting around, it's nice to be able to see where they're at so that I can store them with peace of mind that I don't ruin them.