Milwaukee M18 Caulk and Adhesive Gun Review

Do you lay a lot of caulk or adhesive?  If so, this is the gun for you.  The Milwaukee M18 Caulk and Adhesive Gun which is a 10 oz. system.  Now most of the time I don’t lay a lot of caulk, but there are plenty of times throughout the year I do.  My three biggest times are during certain flooring applications, commercial windows and when I work with fire block systems.  This new system is going to be key for me and for once I am actually excited about certain jobs.

As usual, Milwaukee didn’t take any short cuts when designing this tool.  In fact, they went all out to create a powerful and practical caulk and adhesive gun.  First, they designed this tool with an all metal gear system which allows this tool to have a whooping 950 pounds of pushing force.  More than enough to push any material through the gun.  There are 6 speed settings, so as a user you can dial it down for smaller applications or  dial it up for larger applications where you just want to push material fast.  Besides the user having control over the speed settings, they can also dial it down even further with the variable speed trigger.  The tool has a flow rate of 0-21 IPM (inches per minute).  Now there are applications where you just care about quantity, but then there are those where you care what a bead looks like.  Milwaukee has you covered there with the Constant Flow Technology.  Basically this design eliminates the motor from oscillating and results in a steady dispensing of material, no matter what the viscosity level is.

Now if I am doing flooring or fire work, I really don’t care about drips.  However when I am doing large commercial windows, I don’t want to experience extra silicone around my work, I don’t want those annoying drips.  That is what’s great about this gun.  When you let go of the trigger, the material stops from expelling from the gun instantly thanks to Milwaukee’s Anti-Drip mechanism.  Now don’t get me wrong.  If you have it on speed 6 with the trigger fully pressed, then let go of the trigger and take the tip off your work, it does take half a second for it to stop because you were releasing so much material.  This really isn’t the guns fault, you are just moving so much material through the gun.  Overall the anti drip feature works flawlessly.

One item I really like about this tool is the rotating collar design.  As you are moving material from the tip and come to a corner, you don’t have to stop.  The collar will allow you to manually move in another direction.  This way you can keep the gun straight, your arm straight and have full control over your end work.

What’s that, you don’t use the 10 oz cartridges?  Well that’s ok.  This system also accepts the quart and sausage style containers.  Just remember this one comes with the 10 oz cartridge.  Now I haven’t pushed 200 10 oz tubes of material through this gun at one time, but according to Milwaukee you can push over 200 tubes of construction adhesive through this gun with one M18 compact battery which is pretty impressive.

One downside to this system is Milwaukee doesn’t have a tool or tool holder to punch the seals inside the caulk.  I have a metal rod I use to do this, but it would be nice to have the option of having it on the tool or at least a place to store mine.

Overall this is a great addition for anyone who ever deals with laying a lot of caulk or adhesives.  Not only does it provide a nice bead for those applications that can be seen, it also lays a lot of material where your goal is just quantity.  The system is very easy to use and dial down the speed that meets your application.  With 950 pounds of pushing force, I am not sure what this can’t push through.

Milwaukee M18 Cordless Caulk and Adhesive Gun Specifications

Includes

• M18™ Caulk Gun
• (1) M18™ Compact RED LITHIUM™ Battery
• (1) 30-Minute Charger
• (1) 10 oz Carriage
• (1) 10 oz Plunger Rod and Piston Assembly

 [pptgtool]yPoo6TPJ46o[/pptgtool]