Okay, I'm re-posting this last message to start a properly "named" thread for other's interesting.



So I rented the Milwaukee from a local Sunbelt. Unfortunately, this is not so good of an experience. The bad part was the drill had such extreme run-out on the chuck that it was unusable. I made a short video here so that I have documented results when I ask for my rental money back:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5ylJp48sRIM

I'm using a long bit just so that Sunbelt can see, but I measured a runout of 10 thou right at the chuck. In addition, the slide had a lot of play which allowed the drill bit to wiggle and drill at an angle. The unit was so beat up. I'm sure that many people dropped this on concrete and into the back of trucks and such. The weight of the motor caused the slide to drop down all the time (putting pressure on the bit) which made it very difficult to mount bits properly.

I'm glad I rented it though because it really showed that this unit is just too large to be practical on material (surface area required for metal plate and base plus motor). That being said, I measured a distance of 5" from the chuck center-point to the base, so you could mount up to a 10" hole saw if you really wanted to. It is heavy, but lifting it up onto a work surface is doable. However, because the motor constantly dropped down, I had to hold the feed handle at the same time a trying to lift the unit so that the bit/motor wouldn't drop down. Ugh.

I have a local place that has a small magnetic drill that I will try next (although it's a single speed).

I did do a drill test and this unit has excellent power. The couple of Forstner bits I had went though the wood like butter at mid RPM (probably 200 rpm), but this Milwaukee is just too physically large. lol.