HF Drill Master drills

[Jimmy9190]

I dropped my Hitachi cordless drill off an 8 foot ladder onto my concrete garage floor the other day. The chuck was ruined and the motor shaft was bent, but it still ran (sort of) but has since quit altogether. I tried to fix it but no luck. A new Hitachi or Makita name brand drill is not in the budget right now. But I have a coupon at HF I can get the drill in the link below for $14.99, which is half price.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93440

For what I will use it for around the house it looks like it would be OK. My days of needing a good everyday use, professional quality drill are long gone. Anyone else here own or know anything about these purty blue Drill Master drills? Even if it is only $15.00 I still don't want to waste money if it is junk...

Any help is always appreciated.

 

[BigCahuna]

As long as your not going into business with it, it should be good for a once in a while job around the house.,,

 

[jcwit]

More than likely will work OK for occasional use around the home. Also consider how many years you'll be using it. I'm now 66 yrs young and it has made a huge difference on how expensive a tool I buy. Its just looking at it from a practical standpoint.

 

[SecondMonkey]

Those are GREAT drills! I have FIVE of them. I expected the first one to be carp but then went back and got more. It's got enough torque to easily drive 4" deck screws. The only problem is the battery it comes with is 1992 NiCd technology, and doesn't last all that long, but still long enough to get most jobs done.

I WAS going to buy an extra battery for the first drill, until I realized a battery is $11.99 and a whole drill+battery is $14.99.

Honestly I want another one but I've already got like 10 drills. Maybe I've got some kind of addiction?

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the info. The battery on my Hitachi didn't last very long either. I think for $15.00 for using around the house this drill will do just fine. I got another HF sales flyer today with a coupon for a 10-pack of 1/8" drill bits for only $1.99 too so I can replace all my broken 1/8th inch bits.

I did find a few other reviews online for the drill too, most people liked it and said it did well enough for home use.

Thanks again.

 

[ksJoe]

SecondMonkey,

How many recharge cycles have gone through? Have any of batteries died?

A low capacity I could live with, but a short life would annoy me...

 

[SecondMonkey]

Quite a lot of cycles. I have four batteries total, I also have the matching 18v sawzall and circular saw. (which put a lot more stress on the batteries than the drill does)

One of the batteries is mostly dead after not many cycles. The other three seem to be lasting well. I plan on rebuilding them with NiMh batteries, which can hold about 4x the stock capacity and hundreds of cycles for sure.

The other thing is I charge them with a universal 7.2v-18v NiCd/NiMh charger with an automatic cutoff that I use for all my tools. The charger that comes with the battery is also very 1992.

PS - I just used the drill in question (through several batteries and recharges) to punch a 4" hole in a cinderblock wall by drilling about 100 little holes in a circle. It worked great....though a hammer drill would have been better...

 

[65cuda]

I don't have a real good opinion of Drill Master, but the son in law has one that he has had for a few years. He has said though that the battery is starting to be weak. I'd probably would go to the Chicago level of HF tools if possible.

 

[kkreit01]

I had one of their $10 - 15 cordless drills, and it was complete junk. The battery would never hold a charge. It was always dead. Never again for me. I've had one of their orange (Chicago?) electric drills, and it has done fine whenever I needed it.

 

[djb]

The tool is good (great for the price), but the battery+charger is horrible. The charger cooks the battery, leading to quickly decreasing capacity and a high self-discharge rate. Which means that you leave the battery in the charger, finishing it off.

If you have the discipline to pull the battery from the charger after it has charged, everything is fine. But who remembers to pull the battery out a few hours later? A partial solution is to plug it into the H-F $4 timer set to turn on for 15 minutes a day, but then it won't be recharged on a busy weekend.

 

[SecondMonkey]

Originally Posted By: djb
The tool is good (great for the price), but the battery+charger is horrible. The charger cooks the battery, leading to quickly decreasing capacity and a high self-discharge rate. Which means that you leave the battery in the charger, finishing it off.

If you have the discipline to pull the battery from the charger after it has charged, everything is fine. But who remembers to pull the battery out a few hours later? A partial solution is to plug it into the H-F $4 timer set to turn on for 15 minutes a day, but then it won't be recharged on a busy weekend.


This is why I use an automatic NiCd/NiMh multi voltage charger for all my rechargeable tools. It only cost like $25. I wouldn't even consider using that battery cooker that comes from HF.

Also, these HF battery packs are extremely easy to rebuild. Just unscrew the plastic case, and inside is 15 standard "sub C" NiCd batteries. You can get new ones that are much higher capacity and quality on ebay.



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[Jimmy9190]

Well I picked up the drill for $15.00 yesterday, along with a few other things I needed from HF. I used it around the house on a few simple honey-do's and it did just fine. I just had to drill a hole in something to test it so I drilled a 3/8" hole in a 2x4 and the drill works just as well as any other drill I have owned.

Will have to use it some to see how it holds up over time but so far it's a good drill and a great drill for only $15.00. If anyone buys one though, the directions say the first charge on the battery takes 7 hours, that may be too long. I charged mine for a little under 7 hours and when I took it off the charger it was pretty hot and had charged to just over 20 volts. I think maybe 5 hours is enough on a new battery and I bet 3 hours will do on a battery in use.

So far though this is a good drill, especially for the price.

 

[65cuda]

For $15. it is hard to lose on the deal. However it would probably be the first one I would reach for if I decided to loan one out.