Milwaukee Fuel Saw died- ideas?

[tyyost]

Today I had to cut some lumber for a project around the house. I got out my Milwaukee cordless circular saw, fresh 6.0 battery, and went outside and made six or seven cuts in the 2 x 6. When I was finished I left the saw on the tailgate of the truck, went inside to install them. About half an hour later, I need to make a couple quick cuts and a piece of plywood. Went outside, got the saw and it would not cut. The battery was good, I tested it in a drill, and while the saw didn’t spin, the led cut light came on. I bought the drill in 2015 so warranty is out.

my gut says it’s the switch, and I may have to fire the compressor up to blow around it before I do any other diagnostic. I had a quite older drill give up in a similar fashion this summer. No power, but led lights up. Because it was older I didn’t hesitate in splitting the case and doing some basic troubleshooting on the switch, which appeared to work. However when I reassembled the drill it still did not function, so I chalked it up as a good excuse to go buy a GEN three hammer drill. I’m not interested in replacing this saw, it’s in great shape, and has been well cared for, unlike the drill which had seen better days.

Those of you that have replaced the switch in the Milwaukee cordless, you show the same condition with the LED work light on, but no power to the tool? I don’t have any service centers relatively close, but I think my local electrical supply is a repair center at their main warehouse. Otherwise, given I’d want to repair it, I think I would just take it in. Ideas welcome.

 

[Odd-job]

Am following this thread, but unfortunately am not very helpful. Have a string trimmer with a similar situation. Thinking my safety switch is the culprit. Have been meaning to open it up and check the switch's continuity with a multimeter. Thinking maybe I'll bypass the switch if its bad.

 

[Jlarson]

Our one big fuel bandsaw started doing that the other day, I think the repair place put a switch in it under warranty.

 

[Ton ton]

We have a Milwaukee fuel circular saw that kicks out when you cut cured wood.

 

[seber]

Not long ago I bought a crate of non functioning fuel tools. Every one of them had a bad stator control ring. I thought great, I'll just buy a bunch of rings and fix them. Uh, no. Not available by themselves and the total cost of the required parts exceeded the cost of a new tool. Tossed the whole lot in the trash.

 

[zendriver]

Not long ago I bought a crate of non functioning fuel tools. Every one of them had a bad stator control ring. I thought great, I'll just buy a bunch of rings and fix them. Uh, no. Not available by themselves and the total cost of the required parts exceeded the cost of a new tool. Tossed the whole lot in the trash.

Interesting this was always the #2 gripe of Harbor Freight tools - availability of spare repair parts.

Presumably all of the "brand names" would have spares readily available for the Next 50 years, because they were often still available for something made in 1972.

Maybe they were the first to represent the new business model - use it hard until it breaks and then get a new one.

 

[speed bump]

We go through a lot of fuel drills at work. Not sure why but we probably go through at least one a quarter. Generally I just hand them to our salesman and he takes care of it. Occasionally we have something old enough to make it out of warranty and they used to repair them for $100 but anymore they just quote us a new one.

 

[tyyost]

So to bump this up and bring it full circle, I replaced the switch over the winter of 22’. Getting one was harder than changing it out, but all was good. Well, good until today. I don’t use this saw a ton, house projects, and haven’t been doing many lately so occasional use at best.

Today, I was doing a small redecking job at a family members, cutting a dozen or so 5/4 deck boards and it died out, checked the battery and it was dying so I swapped it out and nothing. Shook it, tapped it, and it wants to start but won’t. So, GJ collective, what should I do now? Besides Pull it apart and give it a once over I’m at a loss. I bought it in May if 2015 so it doesn’t owe me much but really?

I was so annoyed I looked at DeWalt models but the saws foot looks cheap and feels like a lesser version of what I have. Thinking of trying the rear handle 7 1/4 as a replacement if I don’t buy another 6 1/2.

 

[dnschmidt]

My view, is that if a cordless tool lasts eight years that's about three years longer than I expected it to last. If you're going to buy a circular saw, and I have every battery platform known to the human race, Makita has this item down. Milwaukee for drills and Sawzalls and Makita for circular saws with Metabo for grinders. If you're interested in a rear handle the Metabo-HPT (Hitachi) gets very good reviews for the price and is very light compared to the competition. Milwaukee's rear handle is so-so. Makita's dual battery rear handle saw is very good.

 

[danski0224]

I had a M18 SDS drill fail the same way, don't know the model number off the top of my head, drill is 1-1/8 SDS, not the small one.

The light came on, but the tool was otherwise not functional. That told me that it wasn't easy like a switch repair.

Hardly used, certainly NOT abused.

It wasn't the switch, but rather the motor or something in the motor. New motor was the fix.

Outside of warranty. No "deal", no "customer satisfaction" incentives. Just full price repair.

The repair was a little more than half of buying a new one, so I had it fixed. I don't remember if there would have been an estimate fee if I declined repair, and/or if the tool would have been returned in pieces.

Turnaround time (excluding shipping time) was only a few days.

Sending it to Milwaukee service was less than the local tool repair place.

 

[Gerbob]

E-service issues. I sent a M18 Cordless Lithium-Ion 1/2" Compact Drill/Driver to their Western Canadian service centre as the gear case was not shifting. The quoted me Cdn$60.00 for repair and sent me the Fedex shipping information. It has been "in Repair" since late February 2023, after the usual telephone tree issues, I left a message April 16th and was contacted by the service centre on the 17th, the parts were in "back order" The drill was about 7-8 years old and well used, is it worthwhile to wait for Milwaukee to fix it. The promised 10-14 day turn around time is well past due.

 

[dnschmidt]

Drills are cheap so buy a new one. The chucks on the latest models are far better than they used back then. I can buy the whole drill for less than $135 USD https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB854SJ8/?tag=atomicindus08-20 and I spent $60 on a Rohm chuck to replace the POS the drill came with back in the day.

 

[alinc100]

If you want to jump to the teal side this is a pretty good way to jump: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-...ickid=zifQiRw4ZxyNTeG0Qm1x72PTUkAV8xw1w2tPX40

or this: https://www.cpooutlets.com/makita-x...5eDnDl004VzEcpusxhsZwFVVkW28v5GUaApNdEALw_wcB

 

[RedneckWelder]

One of the guys at work is heavily invested in M18 Milwaukee for both at work and in his fence and deck part time business (just him, no employees)

He has had a lot of trouble out of the circular saws (warranty three times so far) and some out of the sawzall (warranty twice) and he’s had to warranty a tool or two other times.

 

[tyyost]

If you want to jump to the teal side this is a pretty good way to jump: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-...ickid=zifQiRw4ZxyNTeG0Qm1x72PTUkAV8xw1w2tPX40

or this: https://www.cpooutlets.com/makita-x...5eDnDl004VzEcpusxhsZwFVVkW28v5GUaApNdEALw_wcB

Thanks for the link, for 299 there is deal to get that Makita saw and 4 5AH batteries!

I added it to my cart, that’s a better deal than recon for $150 and gets me a good saw at a great price. I had an early Makita LXT set (early brushed lithium Ion) with drill, impact driver, 6.5 saw and recip and sold it a few years ago when I went all red.

 

[Walkers]

Thanks for the link, for 299 there is deal to get that Makita saw and 4 5AH batteries!

I added it to my cart, that’s a better deal than recon for $150 and gets me a good saw at a great price. I had an early Makita LXT set (early brushed lithium Ion) with drill, impact driver, 6.5 saw and recip and sold it a few years ago when I went all red.

FWIW, I bought the 2 battery Makita saw and have used it a lot and am happy with it every time I use it. My brother has the 1 battery saw and he seems happy with it as well.

 

[rancherbill]

There's an Irish guy on Tiktok that repairs tools. He gets them all fixed but, he is not impressed with Milwaukee, he has great success with Makita.

 

[Jim greengo]

Use it for a trade in on a dewalt! Hahaha

 

[dutchgray]

My view, is that if a cordless tool lasts eight years that's about three years longer than I expected it to last. If you're going to buy a circular saw, and I have every battery platform known to the human race, Makita has this item down. Milwaukee for drills and Sawzalls and Makita for circular saws with Metabo for grinders. If you're interested in a rear handle the Metabo-HPT (Hitachi) gets very good reviews for the price and is very light compared to the competition. Milwaukee's rear handle is so-so. Makita's dual battery rear handle saw is very good.

You say that but my Makita drill driver from 2009 is still going strong, professional construction use, its been hot enough to start smoking the windings a few times, it isn't my only drill driver, I have smaller ones as well.

The Makita dual battery rear handle circular saws are really nice, got good power, easy to use, not overly heavy.

No one tool manufacturer does a great job at everything, there is always a lot of so so tools in the range.