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Worx Maker X Review – WX988

June 28, 2021 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

When I found out about the Worx maker X line of multitools I was extremely excited.  Worx giving me a free set to review may have just pushed me over the edge!

They sent me the WX988 maker combo kit which comes with the rotary tool and soldering iron and uses the same battery pack all the Worx tools use.

Which is fantastic as I already have a whole bunch of Worx tools and really like them!

Maybe I love Worx tools a little too much…

Included in the kit is the usual battery and quick battery charger – I already have about 5 of these and they are massive but a smaller one is available if you want to consider making this a travel tool.

There’s the instructions of course.  Worx always give a really good set of instructions.

And a lovely little tool kit of rotary bits for the rotary tool.  There’s polishers, cutters, diamond burs and even some sanding tools and grinders – nice little start kit with most stuff the average crafter would need. 

I’m already fairly stocked on bits though.

The kit of bits that comes with

The main drive thingy itself, battery just pops in nice and simple and really light and really small even with the battery so potentially good for an everyday carry or camping gear.  There’s a good 1.2 metre long cable on here and it looks like its braided too so should last even if you accidentally nick it with your tool.

The Rotary Tool

The rotary tool uses a 3 pin din style connector that’s keyed so you can’t plug it in incorrectly.

The keyed connector so you cant plug it in wrong

Much like similar tools out there has a button you can lock the spindle on to change the tool and a little chuck and collet.  It looks like it fits the fairly standard 3.2mm or 1/8th bits that most tools take and indeed that’s what it comes with, nice.

Sadly it doesn’t fit my Dremel collets due to the inside diameter of the tub but the thread however is the same as a Dremel so you could use a mini Jacobs chuck or switch out the collar.

Bits only need to be hand tightened but there is a flat on the chuck and a little spanner included to give it some extra grip if you need it.

The rotary tool and spanner

It says in the manual it does 5000 to 35000 rpm which is again what you expect for this type of tool and the speed is controlled from this little knob here.  

It’s a shame it doesn’t have a speed control or even an on/off control on the tool itself as you would normally be holding something in one hand and with the tool in the other.  This is probably a feature I would pay more for if they had it available.

The power button releases the hounds! No it turns the thing on and off obviously.

The “Main Drive Thingy“

Oh and its torquey, jumps in my hand and not surprising there’s a nice brushless motor inside that’s pretty powerful for its size.

Its light and its comfortable to hold too.

I also suspect this won’t be as powerful as my foredom by a long shot but….its not meant to compare with a tool like that and my big foredom is not easy to take those outside.

Oh I can just imagine now, child playing on the tramapoline and the wife bringing me a pimms while I do some carving in the garden on a hot sunny day…..

So thats exactly what I did; took it out to the garden to do some of the most relaxing power carving I’ve ever done!

Power carving a Colin the Caterpillar Face in the Garden

Not content with some wood carving I tried some diamond burrs and did a little rock carving! 🙂

A little carved rock

Soldering Iron & Wood Burner

Now before I get carried away lets give the soldering iron a go.

Its not just a soldering iron I might add – it comes with some adapters that turn it into a little wood burning tool and comes with a few different shapes of nibs.  Sadly they seem to use a different thread size to the standard weller bits but still this is pretty nifty.

The Woodburning Tips

The soldering iron tip it comes with is pretty good but it doesn’t seem to fit my standard Antex, weller or TS100 bits and Worx don’t seem to do a spare currently.  Hopefully this is something they will do as without them, this thing is only going to last as long as the tip.

Oh comes with a little stand too, that’s nice.

Turning it on it does need another push of the button on the tool itself which is a nice little safety feature.

And oh that heats up pretty fast, it has a small display like many modern irons showing the temp and it can adjust it anywhere from 200 to 480 degrees C

The Iron Heating Up

It also comes with what looks like a silicon sheath for extra protection so I’ve popped that on.  Bit fiddly to do but worth it as you can hold the iron for a lot longer.

Heat up time there was about 25 seconds to get to 200 degrees which wasn’t as fast as advertised but certainly that’s plenty fast.  It took just under 60 seconds to get to the full 480 degrees c.

It cools down from 480c in about 10 minutes so it can be cold enough to touch the end again.

Swapping the bits out is as simple as unscrewing the bit, being careful with the heating element there and sliding one of the attachments on with the tip screwed in.

Nice.

So I can imagine if you don’t already have a soldering iron, maybe you have a small desk as your maker area this could be a really really nice system but where it really shines is taking it on the go.  You could take it camping or just out in the garden or really anywhere you like.

So it’s a nice day, lets take this thing outside!

Here’s a little soldering project that I’ve been putting off for ages – suddenly the motivation to finish it while I sit in the sun with the birds chirping away its not so bad.  It’s a plug that needs adding to this transformer so I can test out some LED panels.

Soldering in the Garden

Could do with a smaller tip but this is pretty good.

Summary

So my final thoughts on this tool system? Would I take it tomb raiding with me?

Yes – I would take it on an adventure to find the lost ark

Some of the downsides are the incompatibility with other tools or lack of spares but this is no biggy, the rotary tool will accept any 3mm bit you can think of and it wouldn’t stop me buying one if I needed to.  If I had a choice though, I might give the soldering iron a miss just because of the lack of replacement tips at this time but at the same time it makes a good emergency or site soldering iron.

However, for what it is – I absolutely love it and while it’s no replacement for a top of the line soldering iron or my foredom it’s not trying to be and it works really well.  I love that I could put a more powerful battery on and carve away for hours and I love that I don’t have to clean up my mess by carving outside.

My Foredom Rotary Tool

Thanks you Worx for sending me this, I think during the summer especially its going to get a lot of use!

The Worx Maker X – Just Awesome

The Maker X system is out now on amazon and I’ve popped some affiliate links in this video description so please check them out.  If you do end up buying one I get a tiny cut of the sale and you don’t pay any more – win win!

https://amzn.to/3w06oKB

If you have any questions for me or Worx on the product please pop them in the comments below or on my video and as always I’ll try to get round to answering every comment.

Filed Under: Reviews, Woodworking, YouTube Videos Tagged With: maker, maker x, makerx, makerx rotary tool kit, review, reviewer, reviews, the woodgineer, wood burning tool, woodgineer, worx, worx 20v, worx makerx, worx makerx combo kit, worx makerx tool kit, worx power share, worx power tools reviews, worx review, worx tools, worx tools maker, worx tools maker x, worx tools review

Bosch IXO Special Edition Screwdriver Review

June 24, 2018 by The Woodgineer Leave a Comment

Ladies and gentlemen put your best dress or suit on and get ready for some DIY with glamour! This is my review of the Bosch IXO limited edition lithium ion screwdriver made with Swarovski crystal embellishments. DIY will never be unglamorous again!

First of all let me start by saying I am in no way affiliated with Bosch in any way, they haven’t sponsored me and well…probably never will now!

Sometime….last year I won this bosch IXO screwdriver in their prize draw and it’s pretty much been sitting in a box ever since. 

I’ve tried to sell it but never got any reasonable offers so thought its about time  I just break it out of the box and use it.

Which was also a great opportunity to do an unboxing and review.

Now I’ve always been a big fan of Bosch tools.  I have a Bosch router, a jigsaw and a hammer drill and never had any complaints with any of them in and I’ve been using them for years.

But when I saw this lovely little tool I honestly did not know what to think….

It retails for just under £300 on Amazon compared to the normal £30 you would pay for their regular old IXO.

And it is basically their £30 IXO cordless lithium ion screwdriver but with one big difference….

It is embedded with Swarovski crystals!

Well it certainly is….sparkly!

I’ve no idea what Bosch had in mind when they designed this but it was a limited edition so I’ll give them some slack.

There are apparently 700 swartschy crystals embedded – I would count them but I have a dinner party to attend and its bring and assemble your own dining room table.

So the screwdriver itself feels good in my hand, certainly bosch did put a great deal of thought into ergonomics when they designed this and it feels pretty lightweight.  The specs say about 300 grams although I’m not sure if that includes the weight of the crystals of course..

This special edition was made I’m told to mark the 10 millioth IXO screwdriver sold so Bosch have had plenty of time to review and refine the design.

Also in the box is the usual manual, charger and a 10 piece bit set which is pretty nicely tucked into the charger.  Oh and it even comes with spare crystals just in case some fall out!

The bits can be inserted quickly enough and oh….there is a small LED light fantastic….if your working in dark corners of course.

It comes with a reasonable bit set as you would expect and of course a charger which apparently can charge thing in about 5 hours.

Battery life in most of the reviews I’ve seen says about 4 hours but I did a more realistic test as with a load perminantly on.  It lasted for about an hour which I think is OK for what you need it for.

So it looks like there is a range of attachments you can get for the IXO and…oh my….I’m not sure why I wasted money on all these other tools now I really needed to get these…

A BBQ fan thingy, a wine bottle opener, A salt and pepper grinder…

I think I found out what’s going to be on this years xmas list!

Well there isn’t really much to be said about that other than its significantly more convenient than using a normal screwdriver or my cordless drill.

The torque probably is fine for general DIY stuff but any significant resistance and it stops.  Of course this could be really useful if your careless with your tools and only want limited torque when assembling stuff.

It also only spins at around 200rpm so no variable control like your normal drill/driver but this is fine.

The specs say its about 55w and when you consider a my cordless 24V drill is 300w and my impact driver 550w this is never going to replace them obviously but for general screwing as per its intended purpose fine.

I feel I now need to wear a tie upon going into the workshop so I tried to gift it to my lovely wife.  But she told me to go away (actually not the exact words she used)

It looks like I’m stuck with it.

So any good review you have to ask the question would I buy one of these?

And honestly the IXO driver, yes.  Its small enough to sit near my assembly bench as an extra screwdriver to aid in general assembly work and definitely good enough for basic DIY jobs around the house such as cobbling together some Ikea furniture.

Would I buy the sparkly crystal embedded version for £300?

What do you think?

No.  The answer is no…

You can buy some of the items mentioned in the video here.  Note that as an amazon affiliate I will take a small share of the profits but the product wont cost any extra.

The latest IXO screwdriver https://amzn.to/3yog04d

The spice grinder attachement https://amzn.to/34dTc9L

The bottle opener https://amzn.to/3vhEBpH

The BBQ fan thingy https://amzn.to/33XPOzF

Filed Under: Reviews, YouTube Videos Tagged With: blingupyoutools, bosch ixo, cordless screwdriver, diy glam, glamorous diy, power tools, sparkly, swarovski, swarovski crystals

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I’m sad to say I’ve reached the end of the tot I’m sad to say I’ve reached the end of the totally fantastic @cabmech automata tinkering global workshop but have finally “finished” this little tribute to @badlipreading seagulls! (stop it now) 
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