For the average backyard mechanic the Aircat or even the Harbor Freight gun (except for its weight, noise and bulkiness) will be fine. Most professional techs or high end enthsuiasts want/need better.
Do a search on the comparrison of the two. The Aircats are notorious for losing performance quickly. There was a guy on the Pirate4X4 forum that did a big write up on the Aircats basically saying they were the best thing since sliced bread then within 6 months he came back and said they were...
I doubt their motors or switches are made in the US. If they are not then they definitely do not meet the "all or virtually all" requirement dictated by the FTC, so if they are stating "Made In USA" they are at risk of a big fine, just ask Black and Decker.
The slight increase in power of a MG725 over the IR Titanium tool does not justify the difference in weight and bulkiness. Also you need to consider air consumption, depending on your air supply the IR using less air may outperform the higher consumption MG725.
Is your company okay with you posting details of an accident report online? I'm sure the lawyers would be cringing if there is any chance of a liability case.
Wow, $1600 that seems steep, where did you buy your wood? I 'm sure the drawer slides were not cheap either, I've bought these slides from wwhardware befoe and they were pretty decent for the $...
The box turned out well. If I were to suggest an area to improve it would be in the material and construction of the drawers. I would recommend maple or poplar for the drawer sides and then use dovetail or box joints to join the corners this combo of material and joinery will make for extremely...
I may be wrong but it seemed like recently there was a lot of threads started where the person was raving about some Harbor Freight tool and they had a very low post count. Almost like there was a organized effort by HF promote their products.
Edit. yes I know I should talk with only 15...
For about the same money as he spent on repair, he could have had a brand new tool with similar specs from IR. http://www.mytoolstore.com/ir/irindex.html#ratchets