Cordless Drill

[K7NUT]

ridgid lifetime warrnty on the batterys hands down best warranty out there!!!

+1

If it wasn't for the fact that I have an entire fleet of Yellow(DeFault as the Makita guys say), I would buy Ridgid aswell!
There good stuff and theres a HD in almost every town!?

 

[tdi-rick]

[snip]
Back when Ni-MH was the battery of choice I'd have chosen a Panasonic nearly level with Hilti. I like the balance of both equally.
[snip]

I do carpentry work for a living and have had the Panasonic EY6432 15.6 volt for about 6-8 years. A great tool, never a problem. I really doubt if anyone could tell the difference between 15 volts and 18. The drill has great balance and feel, much better than Dewalt, etc. The batteries are expensive but last forever. I would definitely buy another one.

Thanks, forgot about Panasonic, their drills were brilliant years ago, they were all dear old Dad would use till he went with Hitachi.

In corded hammer drills all we would have was Hilti, still have a TE22 but bloody Hilti don't stock parts for them anymore, (I need a power supply filter for it, basically a capacitor across the active and neutral)
Hilti try and make you upgrade (they'll discount me 40% on a new drill if I trade the old girl in. A$780 or so after the discount) but it means that all your old SDS bits are redundant as the newer SDS+ chuck won't take them :bang:

 

[demographic]

I'll chime in with some other thoughts....

I don't have any recommendations other than what everyone else has said.

I do have a little Hitachi impact and driver/drill kit and it works well (Li-Ion). I will say Hitachi does make a couple different models of drills in the 18V Li-Ion series. They have one that is 18V 1.5Ah and does not have replaceable brushes. They also have one that is more expensive gives you 2.5Ah batteries and I believe has replaceable brushes (or so it appears to.)

Also on the "batteries cost me a fortune" thing:

Some place like this:
http://www.batteryspace.com/
has basic Li-Ion/Nimh batteries that most of these units use. IE: my Hitachi impact driver unit uses 16850 Li-Ion cells 1.5Ah...I can get 2.4Ah cells $8 a pop (I need 3). So for half the price of a new battery I can rebuild one with 50%+ more run time.

Just a thought since everyone on here seems like a tinkerer..

I have the 14.4 volt Hitachi with 3 amp hour Lithium Ion bnatteries and thats got the replacable brushes which you get at without removing the rear case, like some Makitas in that respect.
Its early days to say how well it lasts but its certainly got enough power.

 

[trimmmed]

go by the makita 18 volt drill/impact kit and you will never use another drill again. Thats what i did and i use it every day for work.

This is true! That is one nice kit. I don't have it but one of the guys I work with does and it rules, period.

 

[AUSSIE1]

Twenty years ago I bought a 12V Ryobi when they had the hold on the rare earth magnet. Batteries, as usual are ####ed, but now has a cord attached so it can be run of the 4WD and here it lives.

I have the Dewalt 3 spd hammer I bought in from the States and yeah, the batteries are now ####ed.

I must pull apart one of these batteries to see what they run. I did rebuild the Ryobi batteries with sub C's, but they didn't last long so I haven't decided whether I will rebuild the Dewalt's as yet. I'm wanting a second drill, so I'm yet to decide which way I will go. I could buy the lithium charger with battery and buy a different brand of drill or buy the Dewalt less hammer so batteries could interchange between drills.

For corded, amongst others, I have a Wolf (made in England) that can get down to below 300 rpm that'l rip your bloody arms off (Captain Matchbox! ) Can't get exact specs of it as a mate has it to drill holes in his truck chassis along side a mag drill.

 

[MCW]

Twenty years ago I bought a 12V Ryobi when they had the hold on the rare earth magnet. Batteries, as usual are ####ed, but now has a cord attached so it can be run of the 4WD and here it lives.

Yeah I used to run one of my Bosch 12v drills off an ATV battery for drilling holes in fence posts on a dairy I used to work on

 

[AUSSIE1]

Yeah I used to run one of my Bosch 12v drills off an ATV battery for drilling holes in fence posts on a dairy I used to work on

Just too good a drill to go to waste Matt.

 

[tdi-rick]

[snip]
For corded, amongst others, I have a Wolf (made in England) that can get down to below 300 rpm that'l rip your bloody arms off (Captain Matchbox! ) Can't get exact specs of it as a mate has it to drill holes in his truck chassis along side a mag drill.

SNAP !

Have to get mine repaired though, lent it to the spray contractors a few years back when one of the the fella's tried to clean up a stump and ripped the front end out of the their truck.
They needed something to drill holes to try and rebolt the spring hangers back in and somehow they fecked it

 

[Moss Man]

Like an old friend used to say, "be careful what you ask for, you might get it."

That being said, there have been more than adequate responses here to cover my original question but yet I am more confused than before because of all the opinions. I do have a much better understanding of what is out there though and that is the main thing....being informed before the decision.

The Makita interests me.

The Milwaukee brand might be out of reach pricewise.

There is a Home Dumpit down the road if I go Rigid.

The size and weight distribution of the Panasonic interest me.

I should have added that I want a sawzall to go with the drill so the same batteries can be used on both.

 

[tdi-rick]

[snip]
I should have added that I want a sawzall to go with the drill so the same batteries can be used on both.

You do realise there will be another four pages of recommendations to cover this option now ?

 

[gmax]

I've had a Panasonic 12V for 6 years that only gets used occasionally (about once a month), I'm surprised both batteries are still good, If I need more power I use my Metabo 1/2" corded drill.

 

[stubnail67]

oh yeah

oh yeah i forgot to mention besides the great warranty on ridgid as long as ya got your receit home depot will take it back no questions asked for 90 days if you dont like anything about it in the usa anyways!Ive already saved 250 so far on them replacing 5 batterys on 3 different kits and they will give me batterys for life i love it man!ya could always get the combo ryobi has for 159 its a nice lil home owners kit as good as craftsman cordless and the batterys on them are only 59 bucks for 2 and have a 2 year warranty but they give ya a hard time after a year or so thats why i dig the ridgids!

 

[Jbevs]

I have a DeWalt cordless 1/2", corded 3/8", and 1/4 impact. Cordless are 14.4v. I recommend watching tooliday.com for a while if you have time. I got my 14.4 drill for I think $90 a few months back reconditioned. They had the 18v reconditioned on sale for near the same price a few weeks later.

I really like Hilti stuff (hammer drill, screwgun, cordless drill, shotgun) but it has a hefty price tag. Milwaukee 18v Li-on was on sale for $200 for the drill and impact. That is a GREAT deal. The makita Li-on are real nice, impressed the hell out of me. The best part is the weight. They are real light. You have more than enough to go on here. Just wanted to add my $.02. Maybe check out Festool.:jawdrop:

 

[rxe]

festool, crazy nice stuff. but I think of them as power tools for the shop, not something to kick about at a jobsite too much. Did a bunch of marine joinery and furniture, the shop had lot's of festool stuff.

You're right, you generally don't take nice stuff like Festool out of the shop. I have a friend who is a proper carpenter, and the only Festool stuff he takes out of the shop is the 15 year old kit with raddled bearings - still preferable to anything else.

An example of the Festool cordless. Say you're screwing down some floorboards and you're using a DeWalt. You set the clutch, and start screwing. Everytime you hit the torque limit, it goes "gnaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr" until you take your finger off the trigger. Functional, but annoying, because you know it will wear out and break. The Festool clutch is electronic. When you hit the torque setting, it just stops the motor. Saves the battery, is quiet, and nothing to wear out. Little details.

 

[AUSSIE1]

You're right, you generally don't take nice stuff like Festool out of the shop. I have a friend who is a proper carpenter, and the only Festool stuff he takes out of the shop is the 15 year old kit with raddled bearings - still preferable to anything else.

An example of the Festool cordless. Say you're screwing down some floorboards and you're using a DeWalt. You set the clutch, and start screwing. Everytime you hit the torque limit, it goes "gnaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr" until you take your finger off the trigger. Functional, but annoying, because you know it will wear out and break. The Festool clutch is electronic. When you hit the torque setting, it just stops the motor. Saves the battery, is quiet, and nothing to wear out. Little details.

This is where it can become confusing when the finger can be pointed at some and not others!

Only the Dewalt...............or basically every other drill?

 

[CentaurG2]

I have had 18v Dewalt stuff for years and it has been excellent. Hammerdrill, flashlight, sawsall, and ½" small impact gun. No complaints at all. Batteries last about a year with heavy use and you can recycle them at HD. If you shop around, sometimes you can find the kit that includes the hammerdrill, flashlight, sawsall and circular saw, 2 batts and a charger for a lot less money than individual stuff. I find the two battery charger to be a worthwhile option and the small ½” impact gun (with a set of torx sticks) is the best thing ever for light tire rotation. Not enough guts for heavy trucks or tractors but for the cars and pickups, it is sweet.

 

[rxe]

Only the Dewalt...............or basically every other drill?

Probably every other drill. I've only used DeWalt and Festool.

 

[Wizz]

i have a dewalt, 3-speed, 1/2" cordless. it has been great. i think it has something like 450in/pds of torque. the batteries only lasted about a yr, but i sent them off and had them rebuilt. so far the rebuilt batteries seem to last longer on a charge. the person that rebuilt them told me that factory dewalt batteries were not as good as most. he rebuilt them with panasonic batteries. after some serious reading on the battery rebuilding thing, i think he was shooting straight with me.
i would def opt for Li batteries, given the choice.

I'm not brand loyal, but I must say I am extremely pleased with my 18V 1/2" DeWalt that I got just over 5 years ago. I weld and fabricate a lot of things and I've put that drill through the ringer, mainly drilling steel...run-out is still good and it shows no signs of slowing. My 18V DeWalt sawzall has been nails as well. As others mentioned the XRP Ni-Cad batteries were the only weak point due to their overall lifetime (or lack of), but the newer Li-Ion DeWalt batteries should remedy that...DeWalt was late in the game when it came to Li-Ion batts. The Swiss made Bosch drills are always nice, just not a great 'written' warranty w/only 1 year...but I heard they take care of customer issues even after the fact. I would also look at Rigid due to their warranty, heard a lot of good things about them...I would just make sure their warranty is easy to cash-in and hassle free, I have read some reviews that users were not overly impressed w/Rigid's quality (not bad, just not great). I also heard Mikita's Li-Ion lineup is very nice. .02

 

[JustinM]

I'll add in my vote for Ridgid too.

My shop consists of mostly Bosch & Dewalt tools, but Ridgid is slowly winning me over with both a solidly built tool and the fact that it warranties everything. (as others have said, you have to register your tools within like 3 months, but its well worth the hassle).

 

[Moss Man]

I ordered this one from my friend at Ace today;
DC759KA 18V 1/2" (13mm) Cordless Compact Drill/Driver Kit | DEWALT Tools

But I eyed this one over;
DCD760KL 18V 1/2" (13mm) Cordless Compact Li-Ion Drill/Driver Kit | DEWALT Tools

I went with the NI Cad DC759KA, I couldn't find a bad review on it and it was 60 bucks cheaper than the Lithium Ion DCD760KL which I believe has a little less torque.

I went with the Compact, I have a Milwaukee Hole Shooter for the big jobs already.

It isn't too late to change my mind, the order can be changed as late as wednesday morning.........
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1287632

I think she's perty darned sexy;