ToolGuyd

Tool Reviews, New Tool Previews, Best Tool Guides, Tool Deals, and More!

  • New Tools
  • Reviews
  • Guides
    • Best Cordless Power Tool Brand
    • Tool Brands: Who Owns What?
    • Best Cordless Drills (New for 2019!)
    • Dewalt UWO Explained
    • Best Multi-Bit Screwdrivers
    • Best Cordless Impact Drivers (2015)
    • Best Cordless Circular Saws
    • Best Tape Measure
    • Best Cordless Oscillating Tools
    • Best EDC Gear
    • Best Multimeter
    • Best Precision Screwdrivers
    • Best Modular Tool Boxes
    • Ultimate Tool Gift Guide
  • Hand Tools
    • Bit Holders & Drivers
    • EDC, Pocket, & Multitools
    • Electrical Tools
    • Flashlights & Worklights
    • Knives
    • Mechanics’ Tools
    • Pliers
    • Screwdrivers
    • Sockets & Drive Tools
    • Wrenches
    • All Hand Tools
  • Power Tools
    • Accessories
    • Cordless
    • Drills & Drivers
    • Oscillating Tools
    • Saws
    • Woodworking Tools
    • All Power Tools
  • Brands
    • Bosch
    • Craftsman
    • Dewalt
    • Makita
    • Milwaukee
    • Milwaukee NPS19 Tools
    • Ryobi
    • All Brands
  • USA-Made
  • Deals
ToolGuyd > Power Tools > Cordless > Discover Metabo 2016 – New 36V Cordless Platform and Hands-on With Lots of Tools!

Discover Metabo 2016 – New 36V Cordless Platform and Hands-on With Lots of Tools!

Sep 28, 2016 Benjamen 22 Comments

If you buy something through our links, ToolGuyd might earn an affiliate commission.

36v-metabo-9-inch-grinder-cutting-through-a-guard-rail-with-sparks

Last Tuesday (9/20/2016), Metabo flew me out Philadelphia for the Metabo Industrial Tool & Safety Symposium, or as we we told, the Discover Metabo event. At the event, I met many of the Metabo staff, learned about the company, and got my hands on some of their current and new tools in a hands-on environment.

Before we broke out into rotations to try the tools, Metabo gave a two hour presentation and awards ceremony. You want to hear about that, right? Nah, lets save that information for another post — on to the tools!

Advertisement

The Cordless Workshop

Metabo 18V and 36V Multi-Bay Charger

metabo-8-port-charger

My first rotation was in the Cordless Workshop. You can’t have a cordless workshop without batteries and a charger, so here’s Metabo’s heavy duty aluminum 8 port charger. It looks like a briefcase, but who can argue with the functionality. It can charge 8 batteries, simultaneously. Plus it can charge either 18 or 36V batteries.

In other words, there are 8 separate charging circuits inside the housing.

Cordless Tools

The first tool we had the opportunity to try out was Metabo’s cordless bandsaw. Following is a video I took of a distributor in my group cutting some square stock.

When it was my turn to give it a try, I was impressed with how smoothly it cut through the stock, and also how quickly it came to a stop after I released the trigger.

Here are some more interesting Metabo 18V tools:

Metabo 18V band file
Metabo 18V band file with electronic soft start and clutch
Metabo shop fan with up to 7 hours runtime
Metabo 18V shop fan with up to 7 hours runtime
metabo-18v-led-site-lamp
Metabo 18V LED site lamp

Nope, no flying-around LED drone yet!

Metabo 18V Drill with Thread Tapping Function

metabo-18v-drill-with-tapping-function

This 18V drill from Metabo has a thread-tapping function. When you slide the switch on top from drill to tap (the icon with the 3 diagonal lines), the drill disables the reversing switch.

In tapping mode, when you push the drill forward and pull the trigger, the chuck turns clockwise to tap the hole. Then, while still holding the trigger, pull the drill backward and the chuck automatically reverses direction to remove the tap from the hole.

It doesn’t seem like the tapping mode can be used to break chips; it’s probably best used with spiral taps and other taps meant for use with power tools.

Stuart’s Note: This is the new Metabo tool I am most excited about! I’ve had good experiences recently using a Dewalt drill to tap some aluminum extrusions, but it would be interesting to see if Metabo’s tapping drill can do a better or easier job.

At this point, somebody blasted an annoying siren to signal that we had to move onto the concrete tools rotation.

Concrete Tools

To start off the concrete tools segment, Metabo showed us their 5″ concrete grinder. For this demonstration, they attached a diamond wheel made for removing mastic from concrete. With a dust collection vacuum attached, there was no cloud of dust and very little debris.

Then they demonstrated what I can only describe as a concrete track saw. It is a masonry cutting/scoring tool that can be attached to their 5″ concrete grinder. It’s used for making cuts in concrete so you can chisel out trenches to run conduit or pipe.

metabo-rotary-hammers

Once all the demonstrations were done, we were able to test each of the above tools plus 7 different sized drills, from a D-handle rotary hammer to a 2″ SDS MAX combination hammer. For the drills, the HEPA vacuums had a drill-through nozzle attachment to capture most of the airborne dust and leave the hole clean enough for epoxy.

Somebody blasted the siren again, and it was onto the technology expansion rotation.

Technology

metabo-mechanical-disc-brake

In this rotation, they showed us some of the technology that makes their grinders stand out from the competition. Above you can see the pad for the mechanical disc brake. This brake will stop the wheel in 2 seconds or less when you release the trigger.

That’s a similar braking time to Milwaukee’s M18 Fuel braking grinder, which came out last year.

closeup-of-the-metabo-auto-balancer

Shown here is an autobalancer, ridiculously simple in design, with just 6 ball bearings in a sealed cage that rotates with the drive shaft.

It lives on the drive shaft and is said to reduced hand and arm vibrations by 50%. Not only that, Metabo has said that the autobalancer also increases the life of the cutting disc or grinding wheel.

They also showed us a live demonstration of their safety clutch. One person intentionally bound the cutting disc while the other was cutting. When the cutting disc on the Metabo grinder was bound, it didn’t kick back or ruin the blade.

Metalworking Tools

metabo-grinder-races

The first thing they showed us in this rotation was a race between the Metabo grinder and some of its competitors. The point of this demonstration was to show us that their tool would last longer, cut farther, and use up less of the cutting disc. The competitor on the right even stopped working halfway through the test.

Next they talked about their metal beveling tools (Metabo spells it with two ls). Think of these tools like a router for metal — they use carbide blades to create either a rounded-over a chamfered edge. These tools can cut the profile faster and cleaner than using an angle grinder.

closeup-of-metabo-metal-bevelling-tool-cutters

Here is a closeup view of the carbide blades on their cordless metal beveler. You can also see the black height adjustment dial around the base of the tool.

This first video shows the cordless beveling tool cutting a 1/8″ radius on a chunk of metal.

This second video shows one of their corded metal beveling tools being used to chamfer the edge of a thick sheet of metal. When you are welding thick sheets, you need to chamfer the edges for a place for the weld to go.

36V Cordless

metabo-36v-battery

The last rotation introduced us to the LiHD battery technology. We’ll have a separate post all about the new Metabo Li-ion battery technology, but here’s a quick intro.

The short of it is that Metabo uses specially-made Li-ion 20700 cells that are 33% larger than the 18650 cells most other manufacturers use, and they have also beefed up their interconnects so the batteries can deliver more power to the tool.

In the latest application of their LiHD technology, they put 20 cells together to form their new 36V battery. This battery opens up “new application areas for cordless machines,” such as their newest 9″ cordless angle grinder.

In our last video you’ll see the cordless 9″ angle grinder cut through a standard guardrail in about 30 seconds. I got a chance to try the 9″ grinder on a chunk of steel and the first thing I noticed was that, when you pull the trigger, it has so much power that it wants to jump out of your hands.

Wrap Up

I tried as many tools as I could in the time we had allotted. I was really impressed by the 9″ cordless angle grinder, but I think my favorite tools were the metal beveling tools. I knew that you could cut steel with carbide bits, but usually I’m thinking of a large tool holding those bits, such as a Bridgeport mill, not a hand-held tool, and certainly not a battery-powered one.

Metabo showed us at this event that they take their tool safety seriously. They have several innovations like their mechanical disc brake, safety clutch, and autobalancer that they feel make their tools safer and allow you to run them longer without fatigue.

They demonstrated a wide variety of specialty concrete and metal tools such as the cordless drill with tapping function, the concrete track saw, and metal beveling tools to give better results and help get the job done faster.

This was just an overview of the Discover Metabo event and there are still more technologies and tools he we hope to cover in the future. Is there any tool or technology from Metabo that you are especially excited about?

*I’d like to thank Metabo for flying me out to Philadelphia for their Symposium and their hospitality while I was there.

Related posts:

Ryobi Cordless Rotary Tool StationNew Ryobi 18V Flex-Shaft Rotary Tool

Sections: Cordless, Grinders & Sanders, New Tools, Rotary Tools, Videos, Work Lights Tags: angle grinders, Metabo 18V, Metabo 36VMore from: Metabo

« Reader Question: Panel Saw vs. Table Saw, Which to Choose?
Japanese-Made Hand Tools »

About Benjamen

Benjamen Johnson grew up watching his dad work as a contractor and woodworker. He became an electrical engineer and took an interest in woodworking. Check out Ben's projects at Electronsmith's 3D Prints or Instagram.

22 Comments

  1. Bolt says

    Sep 28, 2016 at 7:40 pm

    That looks like a serious fan.

    Reply
    • Stuart says

      Sep 28, 2016 at 8:11 pm

      I’m thinking the same thing. The tripod base also looks pretty awesome.

      Reply
  2. John says

    Sep 28, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    What would be nice is to see a table attachment for those electric bandsaws. A few thir party vendors make some for like In particular SWAG V3.0 Portaband Table or even Milwaukee’s own Milwaukee 48-08-0260 Portable Band Saw Table. Any word on similar accessories announced for Metabo?

    Reply
  3. Tim says

    Sep 28, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    Wow.

    9″ angle grinder… Wow.

    Reply
  4. Mike says

    Sep 28, 2016 at 9:34 pm

    Maybe I’m misunderstanding it, but isn’t the tap mode explicitly for breaking chips? Start and run the tap, pull back to reverse the tap and break chips free, then press forward and run the tap again. The auto-reverse mode seems overkill for simply removing the tap at the end of a run. Any reversible drill can do that with a button press.

    Reply
    • Blythe M says

      Sep 29, 2016 at 1:09 pm

      This

      Reply
    • Stuart says

      Sep 29, 2016 at 2:59 pm

      Sorry, that was my assumption.

      A hand tap is normally turned forward, and then a quarter turn back, sometimes more.

      With machine taps, you don’t need to do that – to back out the tap to break chips.

      Some push chips forward, others eject them out.

      Without seeing or using the tool, I have doubts that it’s meant to be used with hand taps in a near constant back and forth motion. How slow can it turn to where it can back out just a quarter turn?

      And with a drill, you won’t have the feel to know when to forward and reverse taps.

      Maybe I shouldn’t have made such a strong assumption, but I have strong doubts that, even if the tapping mode is for chip breaking, hand taps won’t be as suitable as ones meant for machine-turning, or at least those tolerant of it.

      I’d also be afraid of breaking smaller hand taps.

      Reply
    • Benjamen says

      Sep 29, 2016 at 3:13 pm

      I asked Stuart and now I understand what he meant, I agree that this is probably designed to use machine taps.

      I didn’t get a photo and I don’t remember the style of tap they had chucked, because I wandered over in the middle of the rep showing somebody else. But as they showed it they just went straight in and out — no backing up several times to break and clear chips.

      However in tapping mode the chuck does not turn very fast. It may be possible to run a hand tap pushing forward and pulling backward repeatedly, but like Stuart said in the above comment, you wouldn’t have a very good feel for when the tap is binding.

      Reply
  5. fred says

    Sep 28, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    Some interesting tools indeed.

    We had used a Bosch corded tapper-drill with auto-reverse – and a larger capacity one from Fein. The auto-reverse helps preventing tap breakage- because as you feel excess resistance – pulling back to back the tap out is a quick reflex – maybe a bit quicker than pushing a reverse switch. Anyway the Bosch tool seems to have been discontinued – maybe for lack of robust sales. A cordless Metabo might be a good option.

    The concrete “track saw” might also be nice. We had looked at some wall chase cutters from Metabo and others – but never bit the bullet to buy one – not having enough work to justify the cost – and just using other less elegant approaches.

    Reply
  6. Cody says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 1:00 am

    they also have a 18 volt oscillating tool

    Reply
  7. Nathan says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 8:58 am

    that’s what I thought tap mode is more for saving the tap when you pull back.

    either way nice setup. don’t know I’d need or want a 9 inch cordless grinder but I’m sure there are some that do

    like to see more on the fan also – look interesting. that charger looks ridiculous for all that and an AL box you know what it should do – power a cord line if you wanted it to.

    just sayin’. I bet it’s 500 or so dollars too.

    most intriguing is that metal beveling too. I’ve heard of people taking 3 something HP routers and putting mill like heads on them but never seen it done in practice. makes a lot of sense. OH and the concrete track saw attachment setup – could have used that recently.

    Reply
  8. KL says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 9:10 am

    So how much are replacement carbide inserts for the bevelers?

    Reply
  9. RKA says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 10:01 am

    I’ve been trying to find the shroud they used for that concrete “track” style grinder. It seems to be very expensive with limited availability. But it does seems like you could buy the bits an add it to an existing M grinder.

    Looking forward to a review of that drill with the tapping function!

    Reply
  10. Travis says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 10:04 am

    I am a little bummed that they didn’t show their cordless table saw. It was shown a year ago in upcoming tools brochures.

    Was there any mention of the cordless 18v or even 36v table saw?

    Reply
    • Benjamen says

      Sep 29, 2016 at 11:03 am

      When we went to their headquarters the next day somebody asked about testing the miter and table saw. They said they had a few table and miter saws on the premises, but we didn’t get to see them.

      Some of their slides showed the table saw, but that was it for mentions.

      Reply
      • Travis says

        Sep 29, 2016 at 11:12 am

        That is odd. I would have figured they would have been touting the 18v table saw as it looks great in the images I dug up. The miter saw is fantastic even with the recent onslaught of competition.

        Reply
  11. Mike says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    The 36volt battery looks a little to big and heavy to use for a long period of time e

    Reply
  12. RX9 says

    Sep 29, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    The autobalancer is a fantastic feature. It doesn’t shut out all vibration, but makes a real difference.

    Reply
  13. Pablo says

    Sep 30, 2016 at 12:39 am

    Glad to see Metabo is taking bloggers (and marketing in general) much more seriously. The missing piece to their awesome tools (at least in this country, they’re all over Europe) has always been getting the word out.

    Let’s hope they take a serious stab at distribution at the same time as well.

    Did you guys see the 2x18v adapter anywhere? It make a brief appearance when the 36v grinder first came out in their guardrail grinding video, but I haven’t seen it since.

    Reply
    • Benjamen says

      Sep 30, 2016 at 4:28 pm

      They talked about a 2x 18V 9″ grinder. I asked whether it was going to be a separate tool or an adapter. I was told it would be a separate tool.

      Reply
  14. Mark Batham says

    Feb 14, 2017 at 11:10 am

    Hi,

    I’m using Bosch 670W Angle Grinder, GWS 6-100 with 100 MM Disc Diameter, I am new to operating angle grinders, is there any safety manual for this?

    Reply
    • Stuart says

      Feb 14, 2017 at 9:46 pm

      If it’s the 6700, you can enter in the part number to download it from Bosch’s website:

      http://www.bosch-professional.com/eg/en/professional/service/user-manuals/user-manuals.html

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Travis Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest tool news.

ToolGuyd Forum

Recent Comments

  • John on Diablo AMPED Carbide Reciprocating Blade is “IMPOSSIBLY Durable”: “Carbide blades are awesome but I’d question their use in a sawzall. The most common premature failure I see in…”
  • Kent on Dewalt DWS779 Sliding Miter Saw Updates – Here’s What Changed: “Thanks – I’ll check it out.”
  • fred on Diablo AMPED Carbide Reciprocating Blade is “IMPOSSIBLY Durable”: “Lenox makes some curved blades as well – but not for pruning https://www.lenoxtools.com/pages/lenox-gold-power-arc-curved-reciprocating-saw-blades.aspx”
  • MichaelT on Diablo AMPED Carbide Reciprocating Blade is “IMPOSSIBLY Durable”: “I was just telling one of my kids to share original thoughts, but, me too.”
  • Aram on New Dewalt 12V 5Ah Battery Signals that More Cordless Power Tools are Coming Soon: “Offtopic, but Surebonder makes a cordless glue gun kit that uses DeWalt batteries (via adapter; you may find it listed…”
  • Leo Bauer on Diablo AMPED Carbide Reciprocating Blade is “IMPOSSIBLY Durable”: “I think this would work well, but plan on a couple. If you wanted to test a few, the Milwaukee…”

Recent Posts

  • New Dewalt 12V 5Ah Battery Signals that More Cordless Power Tools are Coming Soon
  • Diablo AMPED Carbide Reciprocating Blade is "IMPOSSIBLY Durable"
  • Spec Ops Tools Tape Measures
  • iQ Power Tools iQ228 Cyclone Tile Saw Cuts Dry with Built-in Dust Control
  • Kobalt has a 24V Cordless Vacuum w/ HEPA Filter & 3 Gal Tank
  • Dewalt DWS779 Sliding Miter Saw Updates - Here's What Changed
  • True or False? The World Needs this Komelon Tape Measure with Built-in Flashlight
  • Ryobi Launches New 18V Cordless Sliding Miter Saw, PBT01B
ToolGuyd New Tool Reviews Image

New Tool Reviews

Buying Guides

  • Best Cordless Drills
  • Best Cordless Impact Drivers
  • Best Cordless Multi-Tools
  • Cordless Power Tool Brands
  • Modular Tool Storage Systems
  • Ultimate Tool Gift & Upgrade Guide
ToolGuyd Knife Reviews Image

Knife Reviews

ToolGuyd Multi-Tool Reviews Image

Multi-Tool Reviews

ToolGuyd LED Flashlight and Worklight Reviews Image

LED Light Reviews

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Stores
  • Videos
  • Gear
  • AMZN Deal Finder
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclosure