Makita has teased that “more” is coming to their 18V cordless power tool platform, with a framing nailer as the featured image.
Makita USA usually announces a new round of cordless power tools every Fall, but seemed to skip that in 2023, giving rise to concerns they didn’t have much planned for 2024.
The new cordless framing nailer is a little reassuring – I see it as a sign of life for the brand’s USA presence and continued support for their aging 18V cordless power tool line.
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Makita’s 18V system is powered by older tech batteries, with 18650-sized Li-ion cells.
Makita, following advancements by other professional cordless power tool brands, launched their XGT 18V form factor 36V platform with 18650 and 21700-sized batteries, and a new higher performing batteries was announced overseas (but not here yet), Their main competitors recently introduced pouch cell 18V-class batteries.
Will there be an XGT cordless framing nailer? Will other nailers available overseas finally launch in the USA?
Will the 18V line get a pouch battery? Higher performance cells? A cordless air compressor? Table saw?
I’m waiting for Makita USA to shake things up. They had company-wide layoffs a few months ago and recently had a change in leadership.
So what else is in store for 2024? The official word is… “a bunch of new tools.” Very exciting.
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While there’s ZERO details about the framing nailer or the other “bunch of new tools” Makita USA says they’ll be launching, they issued a lengthy press release about their return to sponsoring snowmobile racing.
They laid off more than 200 people a few months ago across the company, citing the company’s “financial condition,” and their corporate office reported a loss in North America for the 6-month period ending 9/30/23.
The Makita USA layoffs affected service technicians, warehouse jobs, design and marketing jobs, sales jobs, territory managers, customer service representatives, retail sales reps, and other positions. Is Snocross sponsorship really the best use of their marketing budget right now?
Rog
Cmon Makita, even Ryobi is doing tabless batteries in 2024…
Jason
I’m out of the loop – what is a tabless battery?
Wayne R.
This isn’t bad:
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/05/teslas-new-tabless-batteries-unlock-new-levels-of-performance/
dave
Makita BL4040F and BL4050F batteries are high output batteries, they were released recently depending on which country you live in.
John
It’s all over Instagram already. Plenty of demonstrations shown today. No need to speculate much. It looks to work quite well. It appears most like the Hitachi/Metabo HPT form factor and look.
Big Richard
Yup – https://www.reddit.com/r/Makita/s/FVHQV9Mn8m
Doresoom
They’ve filed a storm of patents recently for framing nailers. Here’s one of the newest ones showing a gas piston design: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20230364763A1/en
Previously they had filed patents on a flywheel design. I’m glad they decided against that one.
Big Richard
Somewhat surprisingly DeWalt is sticking with the flywheel on their new gen framing nailers.
eddie sky
I have an earlier DeWalt framing cordless and I hope it can toenail or 45degree without needing a hammer to follow up? 90degree is fine with 3.5″ but any other angle and … 1/4″ to 1/2″ from head down sticks out.
Big Richard
The demos at WOC showed it toenailing pretty effectively. Not sure what size nail they were shooting though.
Josh Walters
Did dewalt announce a new generation nailer? I’d be curious how much it improved, I actually prefer it over my milwaukee for some tasks, but overall gas piston seems superior
Big Richard
Yes, they have new framing nailers. The 30deg DCN930 and 21deg DCN920.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20V-30-Electric-Cordless-Framing-Nailer-Tool-Only-DCN930B/328702288
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20V-21-Electric-Cordless-Framing-Nailer-Tool-Only-DCN920B/328691945
Bobcat
Judging by the photo it’s flywheel design which is more reliable gas piston design very rarely do you get year use at them before you have to get the tank refilled and even 6 months it doesn’t sink as deep the flywheel design 3 to 5 years before you have to service
Josh Walters
Nah when you look at the other side you see the gas spring, looks/sounds alot like the milwaukee.
https://www.tiktok.com/@mattbangswood/video/7327373902856883486
Bobcat
Yeah in tictok video it looks like gas springs but in the picture they show here looks like flywheel design
Michael F
I am extremely disappointed with Makita’s insistence on using influencers on social media to “release” new tools. It just feels…disrespectful somehow, as if they assume the buyer of Makita tools is some mindless social media follower and not an informed tool buyer. I would much prefer they send old-fashioned press kits to blogs like this than go the “influencer” route.
Perry
I think it’s fairly smart, most of the guys I see on jobsites are looking at their social media during beak times. Not as many readers these days as there used to be
Munklepunk
What’s the difference between a tool news blogger and a tool news social media site?
Michael F
The difference is the content quality. I’m specifically talking about influencers primarily on YouTube Shorts and TikTok. You can’t do a review in 60 seconds or less.
TomD
You can do a good review in 60s, if you take hours to prepare and hours to edit it down.
But then you’re releasing days later than everyone else and get lost in the noise.
And remember that tool advertising is much much much more about the brand than the tool. They don’t really care to sell you on the particular tool, they want to get you sold on the brand. They know that once you enlist in the Red Army or whatever that it’ll be much easier to keep you.
A secondary force is trying to get enough buzz that tool purchasers for large companies (retailers) think it’s worth putting the line in the store.
Tom Linehan
I agree, I’ve been a makita fun for 40 years, still have my first corded 71/4″ saw, I did make it my concrete saw though, I probably own 10 makita saws, from 6″ to 16″
PETE
Who is Makita? Haven’t heard of them in 10 years lol. (This is sarcasm- a jab at their lack of innovation and ability to stay relevant and up to date)
John
Yet somehow their tools last a long damn time. I prefer the Toyota approach.
Eliot Truelove
Me too. I don’t have the luxury of buying new batteries and tools every year.
Besides, this rhetoric about 18650 batteries being old tech without looking at the robustness of the batteries circuit boards (or lack thereof) is like saying cars with only 10 gallons of gas are worse than those with 15 or 20, ignoring fuel efficiency, range, suspension, emissions, etc.
You are allowed to have either a small transit van or a massive transit van, a compact SUV or a work truck, or any combination, in your driveway. Different strokes for different folks. It’s the same way with tool brands and the range of tools within them.
A social media influencer named ToolPig who runs a massive crew in the midwest just posted a pic of four DeWalt batteries in a FB group saying:
“Just four of my 13 dead soldiers in yellow. I also have 13 from team red… interestingly I have not had a Makita battery die since 2014. I have over 70 in use.”
That’s saying something. Sure it’s an anecdote, and if it were a few batteries here or there when that’s the only platform he runs, maybe. But concurrent use with many brands and one is consistently reliable?
He’s also a Hilti partner, and runs Bosch, Metabo, and Festool products and exclusively uses Paslode nailers, so he’s not biased. For him though, team Red and Yellow have unacceptable failure rates in his mind and Makita is consistently the best overall, despite the duds.
Troy
I have to sort of disagree with the notion that 18650 cells are aging/older tech, at least in the domain of power tools.
18650 is just a form factor, not a chemistry. There are legitimate reasons why 21700 or 4680 cell form factors are superior in certain applications (like EVs or large-scale energy storage), but those largely have to do with active cooling efficiency, packaging efficiency, or pack/module manufacturing efficiencies that don’t really apply when you’re talking about maybe a dozen cells at most in a passively-cooled small tool battery. In that application, things like compact size, light weight, and low materials cost are much greater concerns for which to optimize.
For example, you can make a battery pack like a Milwaukee M12 that fits 3 18650 cells within a cylindrical format that you can grasp like a handle. I’m not sure you could do the same with 21700 cells unless you have larger hands.
IMO, it’s mostly features/electronics/BMS that distinguish aging power tool battery platforms from others. The older ones have maybe a push-button battery charge indicator with 3 or 4 bars. They charge to 100% and discharge to 0%, which shortens life. Newer platforms might have much more precise charge indicators, a BMS that keeps them within a healthier voltage range – that sort of thing. That’s all still irrelevant to cell form factor, though.
Stuart
Are the 18650 cells Makita is using in their 18V battery packs today any different from the ones they introduced 10 YEARS ago? https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/makita-18v-lxt-5-0ah-battery/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Not that I have seen or heard about.
Every other brand introduced 21700 batteries years ago, including Makita in their next-gen XGT lineup of 18V form factor tools. Is 18V LXT getting batteries with higher performing 21700 sized Li-ion cells? No.
Pouch cells? No.
Tabless? No
Makita’s 18V cordless power tool battery tech has remained – to my knowledge – unchanged since 2014 aside from their finally adding built-in fuel gauges.
Are 18650 cells still relevant? Yes. Has Makita leveraged any modern advancements such as tabless architecture?
18V X2 had an edge when it first came out, but it lost competitive advantages once other brands launched 15-cell batteries and 21700-sized batteries.
Milwaukee 9Ah HD came out in 2016.
Dewalt FlexVolt came out in 2016.
Milwaukee High Output came out in 2018.
Dewalt added a 15Ah battery in 2021.
Dewalt launched PowerStack in late 2021.
Milwaukee launched FORGE in 2023 with mixed battery tech, and will be launching more in 2024.
Bosch announced a tabless battery in 2023.
What new, modern, more advanced battery tech has Makita launched as part of their 18V platform since their 5Ah battery in 2014?
That was 10 years ago, which is eons in the world of cordless power tool developments.
DONAL RODGERS
They did bring out a 6ah 18v battery but that was expensive and unreliable .18650 Tabless batteries are not mass-produced yet. It doesn’t take a genius to know that if markita made 18 volt batteries with larger cells in it, the batteries would not physically fit on all their 18-volt tools. Once the tablets battery sales become more available, they probably will release them for the 18-volt tools and pouch cell batteries.
Stuart
18650-based 6Ah batteries from any brand are generally only suited for longer runtime with low-demand tools.
There’s the potential for Makita to launch better 18V batteries. But will they? What would that do to XGT sales?
Why hasn’t Makita brought certain XGT techs – such as cordless drill anti-kickback tech – to their 18V line yet?
CoBlue
>18650-based 6Ah batteries from any brand are generally only suited for longer runtime with low-demand tools.
This is largely true, with the rare exception of 3p 6Ah ( 3x 2.0 Ah) batteries. It’s not a great form factor, being nearly as bulky as a 2p 21700 battery without providing equivalent power.
The only one currently available that I’m aware of is the Kobalt 24v 6.0Ah battery.
Stuart
Sorry, yes – *10-cell* 18650-based 6Ah batteries built with 3Ah cells.
Dewalt also has a 15-cell FlexVolt battery.
The issue isn’t with 2Ah cells, just 18650 x 3Ah since they have higher internal resistance and far lower max continuous discharge ratings.
Steven
Where’s the CORDLESS TABLE SAW?!? I switched to a competitor brand because Makita refuses to make one!!
Eliot Truelove
With the upcoming changes to table saw tech coming from the Consumer Safety commission, I think Makita voluntarily getting out of the game shows they saw the writing on the wall.
They still produce table saws for Europe in the Buford Georgia plant, so they have the infrastructure still, they may hit the ground running with a modern table saw with a sawstop-like tech once everything is decided.
Joe
Too little, too late Makita. Don’t get me wrong, nearly half of my cordless tools are Makita (the rest are Milwaukee, Flex, Metabo and Festool), and I love the durability of them, but my Milwaukee framing nailer is perfect. Doubt Makita can surface in any way.