Pro Tool Reviews: We recently wrapped up voting for the 2026 Pro Tool Innovation Awards, and there were tons of entries across 15 different tool categories. If you’re wondering which DeWalt products were winners, look no further! We’re going over 7 PTIA-winning DeWalt tools that you can find at The Home Depot to explore their innovative features and stand-out designs.
2 comments:
Before I went deep into the article I was wondering why DeWalt only, so I went to the overall Pro Tool Awards and realized that in general Milwaukee’s tools have more awards. They also have another article talking only about Makita tools that won. To be fair, DeWalt did get a lot of awards in the woodworking territory, but if I were to briefly count which brand got the most awards in general, it might be Milwaukee. It also makes more sense once I noticed the article says it is in partnership with The Home Depot, so the single-brand framing is part of the point. This article, or really the rabbit hole I ended up in, made me learn more about tools that I was originally not that familiar with. Before working in the shop I did not have much chance to work with tools long enough to know the difference between brands, but now working in the shop gives me the chance to use them for a longer time.
A lot of these tools I had not even necessarily known that dewalt even made, namely the cordless chainsaw, and a duplex nailer, which I didn’t know anyone made! I do like using duplex nails for setting up jigs for either mass producing platforms, or for jigging out a frame to weld, because they are so much easier to pull out than staples, and I find that it's usually less likely to split my smaller jig blocks than if I screw through them into the table. It does sometimes lose precision when trying to nail it in with a hammer though, so I can see getting the benefit of a dedicated nailer tool being extremely helpful!
Aside from that, even though theatre scenic structures are temporary it's not often that we can employ duplex nails, because they can be a snagging issue, and can’t be used in spots where they will be visible to the audience. So I don’t know that buying a $500 dedicated tool would really pay off in any significant way. It’s a niche enough that if I didn’t have to spend the money for it and I knew it wasn’t going to be annoying to find a specific spot in a tool room, then sure it would be handy to have around, but given the cost, and how often I would actually expect to be able to use it, it doesn’t really feel it would be worth it for me (also… another oscillating multi-tool!)
Post a Comment