One of the biggest drawbacks of 18-volt cordless drills is their large size, and this is probably the main reason why the smaller ultra compact lines have been growing so fast over these last few years. Well it appears that Bosch has taken these 'small' ideas to their 18-volt line and are offering new smaller drills across the entire 18V line. Even the drills you would expect to be big, like hammer drills, have also been slimmed down; but this also means the compact drills are even smaller.

Bosch claims the new Brute Tough drills are up to a half a pound lighter, and up to 15 percent more compact then the closest competitor at 4.7lbs for the DDH181-01 Drill/Driver and 4.9lbs for the HDH181-01Hammer Drill/Driver. This was probably true up until DeWalt announced their new line of 18V drills. None the less, we are happy to see the tools getting smaller, and we will just have to wait until we get both in our hand to see which is truly the smallest. And obviously there is more to these drills then size. Coptool.com has a few good photos of the size differences that I will link to at the bottom.

So we know they are small, but are these Brute Tough drills brute tough? When Bosch first started making drills, they would demonstrate their toughness by dropping their drills off of a ladder. I remember seeing these drills plummet to the concrete off of 10-12 foot ladders. Now Bosch has taken these toughness test to the next next next level; at a recent press event at Bosch HQ a couple of these new drills were tossed from a helicopter at over 500-feet, they hit the grass and survived. Their all metal gear train and clutch have proven to be strong.

These new drills also come with Bosch's brand new Lithium-Ion High Capacity (HC) batteries. They offer up to 50 percent longer run-times, and cold weather performance that is truly amazing. How amazing? How about a battery that operates in temperatures down to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Another nice feature is the addition of a built-in fuel gauge.

The only problem we have with Bosch's new line up is their selection. They have so many options that it could be hard for you to choose. Just be aware that the models with numbers 181- come with the new HC batteries, the models with numbers 180- use the older batteries. Models ending in ***-01 come with (2) FatPack batteries, models ending with ***-02 come with (2) SlimPack batteries, and models ending with ***-03 come with (1) FatPack and (1) SlimPack battery.

[:cicn:] HDH181-01 [:cicn:] DDH181-01 [:cicn:] DDS181-01

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When is a Stabila level not a Stabila level? When it is a Masterforce level that is made in Germany by Stabila. That's right, the Menards hardware store line of Masterforce levels are actually made by Stabila. The Masterforce levels look like they are an old model of level that Stabila no longer sells under their own name, but if you go to any large jobsite, you would be sure to see these same level in Stabila yellow.

There are a couple of advantages to purchasing a Masterforce level over a Stabila, the first is the obvious price reduction, the second is a no-name level that does not scream 'steal me'. However there might be a disadvantage as well; there is no indication (at least on the Menards website) what the warranty is on these levels.

If you are interested in saving a few bucks and you have a Menards in your area, you might want to check these out and see what the warranty is. Menards has the levels in sizes from 16-inches all the way up to 96-inches, they even have many sizes available with a magnetic option.

Manards

Tools are cool and lasers are cool, so we can pretty much assume that tools with lasers on them are double cool. So when Johnson Level sent over their 40-0921 self-leveling cross-line laser, even though I have used other cross-line lasers, I knew I would have fun testing it out. So after getting the kit out of the box, the obvious next step was to take it to the jobsite and put it to work.

The Johnson 40-0921 comes in at a price of around $100 which puts it in the price range and class of a DIY laser; you do lose a few features at this lower price, but this kit also has a lot to offer. The 40-0921 Kit comes with the self-leveling cross-line laser, 3 AAA batteries, an extendable tripod, tinted viewing glasses, and a hard carrying case. The same laser can be purchased by itself without the tripod or glasses for a little less, and it comes with a soft case.

If you don't own a laser distance measurer yet, you have no idea what you are missing; and with Bosch's introduction of the GLM 80, the reasons are growing more and more with every new release. I still use my old Bosch DLR165 at work all the time even though it doesn't have an inch only measurement, and I would be lost without it.

The new GLM 80 has so many improvements over the previous models that don't know where to begin. Probably the most exciting feature would have to be the built in two-axis tilt sensor that allows to laser to do indirect measurements while requiring you to only take one measurement. This feature goes beyond the Pythagorean theorem of other lasers and takes us into trigonometry. Thankfully for us we don't have to remember any of formula involved. All of the other measurement modes are also covered, like area, volume, continuous, minimum, maximum, multi-surface area and multiple indirect measurements and the laser has a maximum measuring distance of 80 meters (262 feet). The same tilt sensor also automatically rotates the back-lit display of the measurer so that it is always right-side up. By using the R 60 attachment, the GLM 80 can be mounted inside and used as a digital level.

Another major change on the GLM 80 is its use of a chargeable lithium-ion battery. The battery can achieve up to 25,000 measurements with a single charge, and can be charged with an included micro-usb charger. Because the micro-usb port is standard, you should be able to use vehicle chargers from certain phones to charge the measurer.

The GLM 80 and the R 60 attachment will be available August 1st and can be purchased separately or as a package. There is no word on pricing, but if previous models are any indication I would guess it will be the area of $200