RFI: Electric Drills, Cordless & Otherwise

[Shellback]

A good buddy of mine is a carpenter and swears by Makita so that's what I went with.

I've been very happy with this set: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Aray]

Stay away from Hitachi, the tools are pretty good, but the batteries fail quickly.

[Hambo]

IME, if you're going to use a hammer drill a lot, say in concrete, you need something with a cord and a lot more ass than a cordless.

For work at home, I can live without a driver.

As someone mentioned for home use, the second tool to get is the sawzall. Great for limbs, cutting down small trees, and really works great cutting roots (just have spare blades).

[rob_s]

[QUOTE=Hambo;810646]IME, if you're going to use a hammer drill a lot, say in concrete, you need something with a cord and a lot more ass than a cordless.[\quote]
Since getting my cordless hammer drill I have used my corded one once, and that was to drill through 8-10” of concrete. I’ve used the cordless to, among other things, put plywood over the windows of my CMU house twice with zero complaints.

The combination of lion batteries and brushless motors are making corded tools all but obsolete.

For work at home, I can live without a driver.

Sure, but why would you? At a bare minimum, I’d get two drills. I’ve even had projects where I had both drills and both drivers I. Play, all with different bits, and it saved me hours. Unless you live in a tiny house or are barely making enough money to feed yourself, there’s no reason not to get both. Literally every single person I’ve convinced to add a driver to their drill has thanked me afterwards and wondered why they didn’t buy one earlier.

[rob_s]

I think it’s already been mentioned, but just in case anyone doesn’t already know this...

When comparing any of the current crop of tools, 18 and 20v are the same thing. Dewalt and others that chose to go with 20v “max” are strictly making a marketing move, hoping that consumers want MOAR, but the real world power is exactly the same.

Which isn’t to say that any of the 20v-marketed tools are bad, it’s just to be clear that they aren’t better strictly based on the number stamped on the side.

More here
https://cordlessdrillzone.com/drill-...more-powerful/

[Nephrology]

Don't have anything bad to say about the M18 line from Milwaukee. Used them quite a bit at my last job and my current job, so I ended up buying a couple of my own. They're sold at Home Depot, which I almost never buy tools from.

Decent tools get sold all the time on craigslist and that's where I was able to find one of the older Dewalt impacts.

I have the Milwaukee drill/driver combo. Very happy with it to date, but not a contractor or even close.

[mmc45414]

IME, if you're going to use a hammer drill a lot, say in concrete, you need something with a cord and a lot more ass than a cordless.

I think the key here is the size drill. At a prior job we mostly predrilled for Tapcon screws, and the Dewalt I splurged on was fine, even into some tough structural concreate.

For work at home, I can live without a driver.

Sure, but why would you? At a bare minimum, I’d get two drills. I’ve even had projects where I had both drills and both drivers... it saved me hours.

I think this is where I would buy a cheap drill/driver set instead of one nice tool (like I did), especially after I used the cheap driver as hard as I did and it held up fine. Of course sometimes I know I am a bottom feeder, at one point I owned two motorcycles, a snowmobile, an ATV and a cabin cruiser that in total cost what my neighbor spent on one Harley. Boy, that cabin cruiser sure was a shitty decision, but we had fun on it.

As someone mentioned for home use, the second tool to get is the sawzall. Great for limbs, cutting down small trees, and really works great cutting roots (just have spare blades).

That may have been me, and I bought it on a lark (because without a battery it was less than $40 and I have a nice corded tool) and am already glad I have it. The sabre saw is also nice, for what you do with those you least want to be fighting a cord. All good reasons for home use to just cheap out and roll with it, IMO.

[blues]

Absolutely love the reciprocating saw for managing brush and limbs on my property. It was a revelation when I picked one up as an afterthought a few years ago.

Picked up a set of DeWalt blades for various cutting tasks, as well as a set of "The Ugly" Skil blades for taking down small trees and limbs.

The Skil blades are awesome and aggressive for wood. I haven't needed to use the DeWalt blades as yet.

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW4856...ing+saw+blades

https://www.amazon.com/94100-05-Prun...cutting+blades

[SD]

IME, if you're going to use a hammer drill a lot, say in concrete, you need something with a cord and a lot more ass than a cordless.

For work at home, I can live without a driver.

As someone mentioned for home use, the second tool to get is the sawzall. Great for limbs, cutting down small trees, and really works great cutting roots (just have spare blades).

Very true info. , this past summer I installed 13 critter screens over my foundation vent openings. Drilling into the hard brick would really cause the cordless drill to heat up [8 holes ea. screen]. Picked up a cheap corded hammer drill and it definitely had more power. Went through a lot of 4-pack Tapcon bits but it had to be cheaper then what the 2 possums did damage wise nesting inside neighbors crawl space.
Attachment 32346

[rob_s]

Amazon has a Dewalt 20v 5-tool combo set as a Deal of the Day today for $350.

Attachment 32414

FWIW, as was recently explained to me on a woodworking forum, the "XR" line from dewalt is now what they consider to be their "pro grade" and the non-XR "Max" line are the ones intended for home use.

Probably doesn't matter much to most people, but something I thought I'd throw out there since I just learned the distinction myself.