Recommend a drill?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hrm. Starting feel convinced to buy another driver, and cordless at that.
 
The OP mentioned corded. There is nothing wrong with corded drills. I don't own cordless as I want it to work the minute I need to use it and I'm not keeping a battery in a charger 24/7 when I might use a drill 8 months from now.
 
I use the Home Depot Makita set like Trav linked, I think I paid more when I bought mine a few years ago. Last December I was going to buy one of the $99 combo specials to upgrade to brushless for the same price as a couple new batteries. I was about to pay for it when I noticed that the cashier was breaking the security tape on the sealed box to look inside. I kind of got upset and told her they could keep it. I was at the same store recently and bought the 3/8" subcompact bare tool impact wrench since they had recently dropped the price to the same as Amazon.

A couple more suggestions are the new line of USA assembled Craftsman drills and drivers at Lowes or a Kobalt set from Lowes, I am pretty sure that Kobalt has the cheapest replacement batteries on the market.

I almost forgot about the Hyper Tough drills and drivers that Wal Mart is selling now. My girlfriend has one. They have less power than pretty much any other 20v name brand tool, but they are smaller and cheap. The motors appear to be smaller in diameter than most, making the whole tool slimmer. Their battery prices and better chargers are a little high though.
 
I just remembered why I chose Makita for my work tools that I use every day. That was because they felt better in my medium size hands than the other brands I was considering. I have a 12v Bosch combo at home and the tools are fine for small projects, but I don't like how fat the handles are made because they use a stick type battery.

One other bad thing about the Hyper Tough drills is the trickle charger that they come with. I bought the Hyper Tough 20v pole saw to use on my girlfriend's horse trails, then spent another $25 for the upgraded single port charger. The saw worked well enough that I went back and bought the 40v chainsaw which comes with 2 larger 20v batteries (I think they are 2.5ah vs. 1.5ah for the drill) and a dual port charger. After that I picked up the matching 40v blower for my gf which also came with two of the larger batteries and another dual port charger, which add up to half of the price of the tool if you bought them individually.

I don't think I would recommend the HT drill or driver for more than occasional use unless you were also interested in some of the 40v outdoor power tools, because of the cost of additional batteries and a decent charger. You would be money ahead to start off with a more powerful tool with better batteries and charger in that case. I did see a HT drill, driver and light combo listed on walmart's website for the same $49 that the individual tools cost in the store. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-20v-Lithium-ion-3-tool-Kit/637868288 It only comes with one battery and the trickle charger though.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
The OP mentioned corded. There is nothing wrong with corded drills. I don't own cordless as I want it to work the minute I need to use it and I'm not keeping a battery in a charger 24/7 when I might use a drill 8 months from now.


That was more true back in the Ni-Cd era. Today, you can charge a Li-Ion battery and still have a useful amount of charge in it for 6+ months later, won't need to recharge it before each use because they have low self-discharge, unless you have a big job ahead and even then since the battery hasn't discharged much, it wouldn't need to charge long to top it off, and of course you might have more than one battery.

I have corded and cordless and hardly ever use the corded these days. Why drag out an extension cord and fight with it if you don't have to, especially if it's cold and stiff.

Well I use my corded drill press often but not a corded hand drill except hammer drilling into brick/concrete/etc. Since I don't use my corded tools often, they will last a long time as backups should I ever need them which is great because they're old, well made tools (most made in USA) that would cost a lot to replace these days for something equivalent.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Dave9
Originally Posted by skyactiv
The OP mentioned corded. There is nothing wrong with corded drills. I don't own cordless as I want it to work the minute I need to use it and I'm not keeping a battery in a charger 24/7 when I might use a drill 8 months from now.


That was more true back in the Ni-Cd era. Today, you can charge a Li-Ion battery and still have a useful amount of charge in it for 6+ months later, won't need to recharge it before each use because they have low self-discharge, unless you have a big job ahead and even then since the battery hasn't discharged much, it wouldn't need to charge long to top it off, and of course you might have more than one battery.

I have corded and cordless and hardly ever use the corded these days. Why drag out an extension cord and fight with it if you don't have to, especially if it's cold and stiff.

Well I use my corded drill press often but not a corded hand drill except hammer drilling into brick/concrete/etc. Since I don't use my corded tools often, they will last a long time as backups should I ever need them which is great because they're old, well made tools (most made in USA) that would cost a lot to replace these days for something equivalent.


I remember buying my first battery drill when I needed to drill out some screws holding in my license plate on the street. No way a corded drill would work because it was several hundred feet from an outlet on the street. Haven't had any need for a corded drill since. I used to buy those $40 black friday specials at homedepot every year or so just to get the battery that came with the drill as the nicads would only last a couple years before dying. Now I kinda stopped doing that as the lithium ones haven't died on me yet. I still have several drills left, I'd probably have 5+ if it weren't for drills that disappeared when I loaned them to people or got stolen. Still having a few drills makes it handy, I leave one in the car and have a few at home. Also handy when doing screws, one can have a drill bit, the other the Philips bit so you don't have to switch back and forth.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
The OP mentioned corded. There is nothing wrong with corded drills. I don't own cordless as I want it to work the minute I need to use it and I'm not keeping a battery in a charger 24/7 when I might use a drill 8 months from now.


I appreciate thought, but I'm finding myself swayed. My lithium 12V drill pretty much always works when I pull it out, even if it hasn't been used for six months. From what I understand, these batteries can be stuck into a charger and left indefinitely. So a user could buy two batteries (some kits come with two!), leave one on the charger, one in the tool. When it starts running down, swap batteries.

I had been thinking of getting a corded drill as mine was not a problem in driving screws. Old and slow it was. But a newer drill would be apt to overdrive on me if I wasn't careful. I might as well buy the proper tool if I'm going to buy one.

Edit: The Ryobi kit is $199 at the moment. I could use a sawzall on my current project (it's what needed the driver in the first place); had been thinking of a cheapo corded HF sawzall for that.
 
Last edited:
My first choice is Ridgid, second Milwaukee, third Porter Cabke, fourth Ryobi, never a Makita. I own and use PC I have 2, Ryobi I have 3 plus reciprocating saw, circular saw, router, Makita, and have used Milwaukee. The gears stripped in the Makita, I have 3.
 
I'd recommend picking up an impact driver, a pack of the 2 common size socket adapters, and some small set of driver bits.

I never understood the purpose of those things until I had one, and now I don't know how I ever managed without one. I have a Milwaukee 12v, Ryobi 18v, and Dewalt 20v. The Dewalt is my favorite; just has the best balance and feel in my hand.
 
Originally Posted by Lenny5160
I'd recommend picking up an impact driver, a pack of the 2 common size socket adapters, and some small set of driver bits.


The 3 common sizes of socket adapters. Whoops.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Good little home set, check HD often many times you find this for $99. You cant beat Makita, I have some batteries over 11 years old and never a fail, one never broke either.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-...h-Batteries-Charger-Bag-CT225R/205995895

Went with this. Felt best in hand. Ryobi wasn't bad but did not feel as good; Rigid felt a bit blocky. Wasn't until I got home that i realized it was the brushed model; not sure if it really matters.
 
Bought my first Makita cordless over 20 years ago. A 9.6v drill. Their best at the time.

Still have it.

Along with a Makita 14.4v drill, 14.4v driver, 18v drill, 18v driver, and various other 18v Makita cordless tools.

My recommendation: buy a little bigger than you think you need and get a first rate drill. Makita is my choice. Milwaukee is excellent. So is Dewalt. So is Hitachi.

You'll have it for a long, long time, so you're amortizing the initial bite of slightly higher cost over hundreds of jobs in the future.

You won't regret it.
 
Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by Trav
Good little home set, check HD often many times you find this for $99. You cant beat Makita, I have some batteries over 11 years old and never a fail, one never broke either.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-...h-Batteries-Charger-Bag-CT225R/205995895

Went with this. Felt best in hand. Ryobi wasn't bad but did not feel as good; Rigid felt a bit blocky. Wasn't until I got home that i realized it was the brushed model; not sure if it really matters.


I wouldn't give it being a brush motor a second thought, I have tools from them that are 12 years old and more with the original brushes in them and I use them more than most DIY guys would. I have one model that is brush and one the replacement model in brushless, on paper the brushless is better but in real world use to be honest I cant tell much of a difference and certainly not enough to give one up and go buy the other (did that already and wasted my money on that one drill).
Enjoy the tools, you will love them.

Edit: the one on the left is 11 yrs old and brush motor, it never fails. I am totally satisfied with it, it does what I need it to do. I did clean it up a bit to picture it against the new 1/2" one but it holds up well, no cracks or damage. Original brushes and battery too.

[Linked Image]
 
Last edited:
Thanks Trav. I'll rest easier with those words. Time to go charge them, have a few projects for the weekend.

I have to admit, the 1/2" impact is kinda tempting, might put that on a Christmas list.
 
That is the best tool investments I have made in a long time, I use it all the time, more than any other and it isn't much bigger than the one you just bought as you can see. Lug nuts, CV axle nuts, O2 sensors, engine mounts, tie rods, caliper brackets, transmission bolts all sorts of stuff are no problem for this compact size tool and that is the point, it is small and light with good power.

Sure you can get big ones that are 3x more powerful on paper but the size is a very limiting factor on how useful it is going to be in confined spaces. I can tell you right now they are almost worthless for most automotive work on fasteners that do not have a 13-15" of access space plus the fastener length .
They are also heavy, 8lb is common and not fun to work with for longer times. If I need big power I use my air gun. Yours is 940 gram and the 1/2 is 1134 so its not that much different.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]
 
Last edited:
IMO cordless is King. Once you use cordless tools you'll prefer them and you'll be happier with your choice.

You'll find all sorts of excuses to use the tools on household projects.

Due to availabilty and choices of tools I went with DeWalt 20v.

Whatever you choose pick one brand that will have other tools that you can use the battery on. You can always find people that are trying to sell tools brand new from kits that they don't want to recoup some of their costs.

The new batteries last a long time. I've got batteries from 2011 that are still going strong.
 
Yeah I get the idea that smaller is better--less power is ok, when you need power, you need POWER. Most of the time, a small tool is sufficient and wears you out less.
 
You need to get past a lot of crap to get real world performance info. On paper 1150 ft.lb break away torque sounds great, its crap, reality is much less. The Makita is rated for 210 ft.lb but it goes a lot higher, it is underrated not overrated which is often the case. I can tell you this is 100% true, it really punches above its weight class.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top