Milwaukee Fuel Drill Stops repeatedly when drilling holes

[CountryBoy19]

Brand new Fuel tools from Santa (wife) to replace my dying Dewalt 18V stuff. Absolutely LOVING them up until today.

I have the 2804-20 Hammer drill/driver, supposedly capable of 1200 in-lb of torque.

I've been building a livestock barn and started hanging gates in the barn and corral today. Drilling 3/4" holes through 8" of treated railroad cross ties (gate posts). Due to risk of stones and stuff in the wood I don't want to use good wood bits so I'm using regular twist drills that are more easily sharpened if they hit a stone. I have a deep flute 3/8" that I run the pilot hole with to make it easier on the drill and easier to get a good straight hole. I then finish it up with a stubby 3/4 welded to an extension bc I didn't have a 3/4 long enough. I hung a few gates with my ancient Dewalt 18V a few weeks ago and aside from the abysmal battery life of the tired NiCad batteries it did well. Today, doing it with the Fuel drill for the first time, it powered through with the 3/8" just fine but when running the 3/4" it would shutoff as soon as it started biting into the wood. My first thought was batteries, nope, 1/2 charge, switched to a fully charged battery just to be sure and same problem. Cycling the trigger would get it going again but it would shutoff again as soon as it started to drill. It took about 5 minutes and 30ish trigger cycles for each hole because it would only eat about 1/4" of wood with each trigger press before shutting off again.

Each time it shut off the motor would make a shudder after stopping rotation. Often it wouldn't restart in the hole, I had to manually pull it out at least part way before it would start. Once running it would do fine with the drag/friction going in the hole (rail ties can be sticky drilling) but as soon as it would bite wood it would shut down again.

Do I have a defective drill?

The only thing I can think is some anti-torque thing to help prevent things like hole-saws and stuff from grabbing. Is that a thing on these new "smart" tools? If so it's very frustrating!

I took a video but don't know how to upload it.

 

[Nthill93]

Lights on the battery flashing?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Lights on the battery flashing?

No flashing lights.

 

[sparky 1971]

I've never had it happen that I can remember with my pistol grip drill, but my Hole Hawg and Super Hawg both will shut down when they think they are being worked too hard. As far as the drill/driver, I've had it bound up to the point I didn't think I could hold it any longer, but mine is several years old. Maybe Milwaukee got sued because some poor sap broke his wrist so they added another point of failure with a high torque shut down mode?

 

[Rabid Badger]

Try it without the pilot hole.

 

[Shiftless]

Are you sure your drill bit is as sharp as it can be? You said you can sharpen bits… dig out your drill doctor or whatever you use and sharpen the bit. Sharp cutting tools make a big difference.

 

[tarbellb]

That's a heavy pass with a 18v, BUT your drill should be hogging through.

Do you have it set on drill (vs screw)
Did you set the gear box to 1/ low

Yes the drills are "smart" enough now to shut down when overloaded. And my Fuel drills have, it's annoying, but the lights will flash a couple times.

Also a self drilling auger bit will eat this up with about any drill.

 

[CountryBoy19]

That's a heavy pass with a 18v, BUT your drill should be hogging through.

Do you have it set on drill (vs screw)
Did you set the gear box to 1/ low

Yes the drills are "smart" enough now to shut down when overloaded. And my Fuel drills have, it's annoying, but the lights will flash a couple times.

Also a self drilling auger bit will eat this up with about any drill.

I can't see 3/4 being a heavy pass for an 18V drill. Milwaukee shows this drill running a 2" (Maybe even larger?) forstner style bit on the product page for the drill.

Yes it's set to drill, yes gearbox set to 1 (but I did try it on both speeds to see if it changed anything).

I don't think the drill was overloaded. I was using it without the side handle and when capturing the video of the symptoms I did it one handed. It was not torquing the drill much, not anywhere near what I would consider the capability of the drill. It's definitely not anywhere near the 1200 in-lb capacity listed on their site, that would be about 150-200 lbs of force at the handle. What lights flash? I don't have the one-key drill so the only light on the drill is the work light and it was not flashing.

 

[acer66]

No flashing lights.

On my Dewalt drill that is a low battery warning.

 

[Nthill93]

I can't see 3/4 being a heavy pass for an 18V drill. Milwaukee shows this drill running a 2" (Maybe even larger?) forstner style bit on the product page for the drill.

Yes it's set to drill, yes gearbox set to 1 (but I did try it on both speeds to see if it changed anything).

I don't think the drill was overloaded. I was using it without the side handle and when capturing the video of the symptoms I did it one handed. It was not torquing the drill much, not anywhere near what I would consider the capability of the drill. It's definitely not anywhere near the 1200 in-lb capacity listed on their site, that would be about 150-200 lbs of force at the handle. What lights flash? I don't have the one-key drill so the only light on the drill is the work light and it was not flashing.

when you overload the drill the lights on the battery will all flash for a couple seconds. They’re almost like a diagnostic code. If you google it there’s a list of what sequence of lights means what.

 

[crasher98]

What size battery are you using? I ask because I had a situation not remotely in the same class/application as what you're doing, but your story still rang a bell: I was cutting aluminum gutter covers with my milwaukee 12V rotary tool (2460-20) and it kept cutting out like it was hot, and then taking an annoyingly long time to work again. I was using the little 12V batteries (48-11-2401), so finally fed up, I tried a 12V XC6.0 that I bought to use w/ my stubby impact. With the 'big' battery in it the rotary tool worked fine and didn't cut out once. On one hand it seems like 12V is 12V, but on the other hand that's not necessarily how it seems to work in practice - something I've seen mentioned on GJ a few times too I think.

 

[tarbellb]

Like others mention, its the battery indicator lights on the drill or battery that will flash when overloaded

Agreed that a 18vFuel should be able to make this hole. But its a heavy pass due to the depth you are going, a 3/4" twist bit is not the ideal bit style to use, plus at full plunge thats more surface area then a bigger forstner bit.

What size battery you running? Anything smaller then a 3.0 is not ideal either.


You could also have a bum drill, I had a similar issue with my 18vFuel circ saw. Warranty'd it.

 

[seber]

I would first suspect the battery. Do you have a second one?

 

[FMB4]

Drilling 3/4" holes through 8" of treated railroad cross ties (gate posts).

This is a job for corded.

 

[sparky 1971]

I can't see 3/4 being a heavy pass for an 18V drill. Milwaukee shows this drill running a 2" (Maybe even larger?) forstner style bit on the product page for the drill.

Yes it's set to drill, yes gearbox set to 1 (but I did try it on both speeds to see if it changed anything).

I don't think the drill was overloaded. I was using it without the side handle and when capturing the video of the symptoms I did it one handed. It was not torquing the drill much, not anywhere near what I would consider the capability of the drill. It's definitely not anywhere near the 1200 in-lb capacity listed on their site, that would be about 150-200 lbs of force at the handle. What lights flash? I don't have the one-key drill so the only light on the drill is the work light and it was not flashing.

I think you have a bad drill. It's possible, but not probable that it's the batteries since you have already tried two. Just take it back.

 

[CountryBoy19]

when you overload the drill the lights on the battery will all flash for a couple seconds. They’re almost like a diagnostic code. If you google it there’s a list of what sequence of lights means what.

Thanks for that info, good to know! I'm almost certain there were no lights. It was dark (no power in the barn yet) so I'm sure I would've noticed but I will be hanging more gates tomorrow so I will pay close attention.

Drilling 3/4" holes through 8" of treated railroad cross ties (gate posts).

This is a job for corded.

What's the point in owning a cordless drill advertised at 1200 in-lbs (that's 100 ft-lbs, or close to what I torque my lugnuts to) if it can't even come close to that? Seriously, my 15 year old Dewalt 18V does it just fine if it weren't for the awful batteries. If I can hold the drill with one hand on the grip and without bracing it against my body or using the 2nd handle there is no way it's coming close to the torque the drill is capable of.

I would first suspect the battery. Do you have a second one?

I have four 5.0 batteries, 2 that came in the kit and 2 that were purchased as a pair of extras (purchased with the tools). I tried 2 of them, 1 from the kit was originally on the drill and 1 of the extras that had been fully charged then used about 2 minutes on the grinder is the one I switched to. The problem persisted even after changing batteries.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Like others mention, its the battery indicator lights on the drill or battery that will flash when overloaded

Agreed that a 18vFuel should be able to make this hole. But its a heavy pass due to the depth you are going, a 3/4" twist bit is not the ideal bit style to use, plus at full plunge thats more surface area then a bigger forstner bit.

What size battery you running? Anything smaller then a 3.0 is not ideal either.


You could also have a bum drill, I had a similar issue with my 18vFuel circ saw. Warranty'd it.

The 3/4" bit is a stubby, maybe 3" long, with a reduced size shank welded on for an extension. The torque caused by friction on the sidewalls from a 3/4" bit that short should not be higher than a large forstner bit.

I have brand new XC5.0 batteries, all of them are the same.

 

[tarbellb]

ahh, I thought you were plunging a full length (6+") into the wood, still that drill should be able to handle that.


....your drill might be fkd

 

[Nosferatu]

Does the bit have any burnishing or brazing on it? Any kind of discoloration?

How do the chips look coming out of the hole?

 

[colintrax]

Are you sure it's in the right mode? These have an electric clutch and they ****. Setting off the clutch feels more like the drill is dying than anything else.

 

[jonshonda]

I have the same drill/batteries and have had issues similar to yours as well. I "think" the wrong clutch setting usually is the culprit but I cannot say for sure that is the issue 100% of the time. I just know it's frustrating.

I also agree that I don't think it produces the advertised power as at times it struggles when I don't think it should (aka not anywhere near ripping my wrists apart, if that is a good measure?)

Like for instance it will get held up drilling through something like 14ga sheet metal where the bit creates a bit of a bur before finishing. It just shuts down before reaching anywhere near the stated power level.

 

[Sumboodie]

This fall I put in about 300 mailboxes, with 6x6 posts. We used Dewalt 20v drills for all the holes. No issues.
Was below freezing too.

I'd imagine Milwaukee would have done just as well.

 

[CountryBoy19]

This fall I put in about 300 mailboxes, with 6x6 posts. We used Dewalt 20v drills for all the holes. No issues.
Was below freezing too.

I'd imagine Milwaukee would have done just as well.

You bored holes into the ground with an auger with them?

Yeah, my old Dewalt 18V would but this Milwaukee will not...

I have the same drill/batteries and have had issues similar to yours as well. I "think" the wrong clutch setting usually is the culprit but I cannot say for sure that is the issue 100% of the time. I just know it's frustrating.

I also agree that I don't think it produces the advertised power as at times it struggles when I don't think it should (aka not anywhere near ripping my wrists apart, if that is a good measure?)

Like for instance it will get held up drilling through something like 14ga sheet metal where the bit creates a bit of a bur before finishing. It just shuts down before reaching anywhere near the stated power level.

It was definitely in the right position. The little drill bit symbol on the selector ring was lined up with the arrow on the top.

Your post makes me think it's some "anti-grab" or "anti-kickback" feature...I could definitely understand needing that on a drill that supposedly produces 100 ft-lbs of torque. If that's the case the threshold for when it kicks in is set too low.

My other thought is because this is an electronic clutch and that's exactly what the drill does when it's on one of the clutch settings, somehow the selector ring is telling the ESC board that it's in a screw driving position instead of the drilling position so it's kicking off when it senses a rapid rise in torque as the bit begins to bite into the wood (or grab a metal burr in your case).

 

[jonshonda]

It was definitely in the right position. The little drill bit symbol on the selector ring was lined up with the arrow on the top.

Your post makes me think it's some "anti-grab" or "anti-kickback" feature...I could definitely understand needing that on a drill that supposedly produces 100 ft-lbs of torque. If that's the case the threshold for when it kicks in is set too low.

My other thought is because this is an electronic clutch and that's exactly what the drill does when it's on one of the clutch settings, somehow the selector ring is telling the ESC board that it's in a screw driving position instead of the drilling position so it's kicking off when it senses a rapid rise in torque as the bit begins to bite into the wood (or grab a metal burr in your case).

I agree that the clutch or "antibind" might be set lower then the drills max capacity even when in drill mode. It doesn't seem to have the power that my older nothing special Bosch drill had. I have that conversation with myself every time the drill kicks off, tell my self there is no way this drill should be this weak.

 

[Sumboodie]

You bored holes into the ground with an auger with them?

Yeah, my old Dewalt 18V would but this Milwaukee will not...



It was definitely in the right position. The little drill bit symbol on the selector ring was lined up with the arrow on the top.

Your post makes me think it's some "anti-grab" or "anti-kickback" feature...I could definitely understand needing that on a drill that supposedly produces 100 ft-lbs of torque. If that's the case the threshold for when it kicks in is set too low.

My other thought is because this is an electronic clutch and that's exactly what the drill does when it's on one of the clutch settings, somehow the selector ring is telling the ESC board that it's in a screw driving position instead of the drilling position so it's kicking off when it senses a rapid rise in torque as the bit begins to bite into the wood (or grab a metal burr in your case).

No, used an auger truck.

Bored holes in the posts for all the bolts.

 

[CallumRD1]

I can't speak to yours, but my 2804 M18 Fuel drill will gladly break your wrist if you're not paying attention. I used with a 2-1/4" hole saw in 5/16" thick cast iron yesterday and was reminded how powerful it is. I couldn't stop it spinning and it felt genuinely dangerous until I put the side handle on. It make short work of the hole.

 

[tarbellb]

New drill must have the "no lawsuit" feature built in...

 

[jonshonda]

I can't speak to yours, but my 2804 M18 Fuel drill will gladly break your wrist if you're not paying attention. I used with a 2-1/4" hole saw in 5/16" thick cast iron yesterday and was reminded how powerful it is. I couldn't stop it spinning and it felt genuinely dangerous until I put the side handle on. It make short work of the hole.

Interesting! I think mine might be a dud

 

[engineer2]

One of the YouTube tool testing guys had the same thing happen when he was rating hex impact drivers. The Milwaukee would cut out when it was overloaded. Release the trigger and try again. To me it sure would be annoying. It must be a feature, not a bug.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I called Milwaukee today and got a very helpful older gentleman that seemed somewhat knowledgeable. He said he thought there was possibly an anti-bind safety but couldn't find anything about it in the documentation. He said if it's a feature it should be in the documentation they have. He ultimately concluded that the drill must be defective and could be returned to the store if within 30 days of purchase or could be returned for warranty.

 

[pbon]

I had one that was bad — failed under any kind of load. Send it in. I just sent a 3 year old mid impact to Milwaukee, which put $150 worth of parts into it and sent it back. No charge.

I bought a CPO rebuilt multi tool that I did not use for about a year and then it failed when I did use it — could not take any load. Lost my money on that one. No more CPO rebuilts for me - that wiped out $100 worth of savings.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Interesting update: I hung more gates today, drilling holes both with a pilot hole and without (it's a real ****** to keep a stubby bit going straight through 9" deep holes). I also intentionally let the battery drain down until it shut off to see if the behavior was similar (definitely not the same behavior). The only things different from last time to today were the weather (~40° then and 5° today) and I added the side handle for extra stability today.

The ONLY time the drill stopped today was when the batteries were low. With charged batteries I couldn't make it stop even when I tried.

I don't think it was the reduced ambient temperature (40 degrees should NOT have that drill overheating by drilling 2 holes every 15 minutes or so). At this point I wonder if it wasn't some sort of anti-kickback or anti-bind feature and adding the side handle provided just enough stability to keep it running?

I have 1 more gate to hang but plenty of rail ties I can drill test holes in to see if I can reproduce the shutdown again. We shall see what happens...

I plan to keep this thread updated.

 

[Mr_B]

cold weather messes with battery or motor thermal sensing or something, I had same issues in cold and best thing in colder climate is older tech brushed .
Worth swapping out while in 30 day warranty and see if second one as bad .

 

[jonshonda]

cold weather messes with battery or motor thermal sensing or something, I had same issues in cold and best thing in colder climate is older tech brushed .
Worth swapping out while in 30 day warranty and see if second one as bad .

While I don't disagree with the cold weather theory, mine has done it while its 60-80deg.

 

[RTM]

Yeah, that will mess with your batteries. My camera batteries don’t function as well close to 0 as at 20. Knowing That low temp would have changed lots of opinions I imagine.

 

[Mr_B]

^
it is just theory, perhaps partly related to some thermal sensors/motor/battery slightly out of tolerance !
I had one that a total **** first thing on a cold day and play up most times when very cold, swap to older brushed motor and it be fine.
If I was OP I probably exchange it and if new one as bad possibly try a dewalt and switch brand if it better.
Too much electronics in the newer brushless which in certain scenarios becomes a pain in the **** ...

 

[tarbellb]

I got to use my brand new M12 Fuel(2503) hammer+drill yesterday.

What a joke, they have put so many sensors and safety features in it has rendered these drills damn near useless. I got the 4 blinking lights trying to drive 5/16" lag bolts into pine.

I know its the microchips, because my 1st and 2nd gen M12 Fuel drills dont pull this ****.

Im worried the tool companies have focused too much on safety and features rather then straight performance SMH.

 

[Plastikosmd]

Drilling 3/4" holes through 8" of treated railroad cross ties (gate posts).

This is a job for corded.

Hardly
My m18 had no trouble with 3/4” auger style though telephone poles, full pass. With the 5ah I would get about 6 holes iirc. I posted pics previously. Definitely needed accessory handle or it would break your wrist or knock me off ladder.
8” would be nothing.
I have only gotten hesitation like that over drilling on metal trailer frames or something, say 3/8 stepping up to 3/4 and bit hanging up on backside of frame

 

[f121]

I got to use my brand new M12 Fuel(2503) hammer+drill yesterday.

What a joke, they have put so many sensors and safety features in it has rendered these drills damn near useless. I got the 4 blinking lights trying to drive 5/16" lag bolts into pine.

I know its the microchips, because my 1st and 2nd gen M12 Fuel drills dont pull this ****.

Im worried the tool companies have focused too much on safety and features rather then straight performance SMH.

Most of the safety here is protecting your batteries from over discharge and protecting the brushless motor from burning out.

But I agree, it's annoying for the user. I was watching a review of the new brushless makita chainsaw and it kept cutting out when the guy pushed too hard...so I'm sticking with my old brushed one that keeps going when you lean on it.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Just want to update, vendor sent it back to Milwaukee for me (they didn't swap it out even though I was within the 30 day window). I got it back after about 2 months and the repair bill stated the rotor was worn (not sure how that could be, I had barely used it). They replaced the rotor, stator, and PCBA. I will run some test holes and see how it does.