What’s the one thing that you see in almost every mechanics garage? It is big and noisy? If you haven’t guessed it is the air compressor. A lot of shops that we deal with have been leaning away from air as much as possible to avoid the noise, cost and maintenance of running them. Traditional die grinders have always required air to power them. ACDelco has come along with 2 die grinders that use a 12V lithium battery. To my surprise for 12V they are quite powerful and required a lot of force to stall out. Another great feature of not having air is that they are portable. You can take them to the job. For example we gave a set to our local marina Port Barrington Motorsports. They put the tool in their tool bag so every time they go out to a boat they have it. From reaming out fiberglass to grinding down welds on shore stations the ACDelco die grinders saved them time and allowed the job to be done right on the spot.
The two models are the ARG1214 angle die grinder and the ARG1213 straight die grinder. Both tools put out a non variable 20,000 rpm. They weigh in at about 2.42 lbs each. They also come with a 1/4″ and 1/8″ Collet to fit a variety of accessories. The rubber over-mold does a great job of keeping the tools comfortable as you use them.
It was hard to track run time as they didn’t run one down on a single job. The included 2 batteries will give you pretty much an all day runtime if you have one charging while the other is in use. Charge time is speedy at around 15-20 minutes. Port Barrington has been using an ACDelco ARD12113 12V driver for quite a while now. It is one of their most used tools. The tool is unrecognizable because it has been beat so much. It still works as good as new and the 12V batteries are holding their charge just fine. This is a testament to ACDelco and how tough the tools really are. They are designed for the hard working mechanic and in our field tests hold up to the test of time. Check out ACDelco
Great writeup Dan, i would love to see milwaukee release a die grinder. I cant wait until Nascar go’s cordless! The new impactfrom Milwaukee is even beating out some pneumatic guns! Keep up the great work!
To my (limited) knowledge… There aren’t any other 12v die grinders on the market… right?
Great review guys i hope they will sale them in Canada . I would love to have those tools would be handy working in special fx looks alot better then the Milwaukee 12v die grinder who i think is more like a dremel
Amazing how advanced 12volt tools have come
Are they variable speed?