Cordless Drill

[EddieWalker]

I'm slowly converting everything to Makita. It's the only brand that has impressed me and done more then I was used to. I have quite a few DeWalt and Milwakee tools and consider them a decent value for the money. Hitachi is impressing me for tools, but I only have two of their tools.

All my cordless tools are Makita. I've been disapointed in the other brands adn reluctantly gave Makita a try. They all run off 18volt Lithium Ion batteries. I have four batteries and two chargers. I cut a cast iron bathtub in half with the cordless sawzall, but was going through batteries pretty quickly. The Lithium Ion's charge really quickly, so that's a huge factor.

I have two of their cordless drills. At full power, it will twist out of your hand. You absolutely have to have the handle on it with bigger bits or screws.

I just replaced my DeWalt 7.25 circular saw with the Makita model. The DeWalt lasted about five years, but the Makita is just a smoother tool that's a joy to cut with after using the DeWalt for all those years.

I found the best prices for the cordless kits, wether you get DeWalt, Makita, Milwakee or whatever, was on ebay. If you know what you want and do some searches, nobody can beat the prices on there.

Eddie

 

[Charlesaf3]

I'm with eddy. I have enough dewalt to fill a landfill, and its held up fine in construction use mostly. But I'm really impressed with the new Makita stuff, and find dewalts quality has gone downhill. I'll probably be replacing the dewalt with other stuff as it goes.

For homeowner grade, the RYOBI is pretty good. I use it in construction as a backup set, and for the price I've got few complaints about the stuff I've used (bought a big kit, and have never used some of it, like the saws, etc. I have 3 sawzalls, I'm never going to use the ryobi... ). Dpesn't have the same guts/strength as commercial, but works well if you treat it nicely.

 

[ragkar]

Speaking of the other half of your purchase - batteries - I strongly suggest that you settle for no less than Lion batteries (lithium ion rechargable).
Ni-cads are the least expensive of the rechargables but they are the worst in many ways i.e. 3% per day self discharge, 50-200 cycles, memory effect
NiMnh are more expensive but they also have 3% per day self discharge. And 200-500 recharge cycles
Lion are the most expensive and have about 1% per day self discharge, quick charging and over 1000 recharge cycles.
On the basis of battery life etc I went for the Milwaukee V28 series. There's a whole family of Milwaukee tools that use that battery.

 

[jinjimbob]

I have had a Dewalt 14.4 v drill 3/8th drill for almost 9 years now, the batteries just gave up. I used that drill more than any tool, worked well.

Got a Dewalt 18V 1/2" drill ($220) from Home Depot the other day (this one I think DC720KA) , came with a free 7.2 V power screwdriver (DW920K2). The drill has a white LED that is actually very useful to shine where you are drilling in dark places.
Not sure when I'll use the screw driver though. But it seems to get reviews.

I looked at the other brands, the ryobi, rigid, didn't look as good. I looked at that rigid lifetime warranty, seemed more hassle than its worth, mailing batteries and drills etc.

 

[CurlyDave]

Not sure when I'll use the screw driver though. But it seems to get reviews.

The biggest use I have for the little rechargable screwdrivers is changing all of the electric socket covers and switchplate covers in a house.

I take them off to paint, and renew them when I am going to sell a house.

 

[Skyco]

I've been delighted with the 18V Ryobi stuff for the money. Ryobi makes the Craftsman stuff too. It all used to be made here in SC but alas production has moved to China....

I used to be very happy with Makita then started having lots of battery trouble when they switched to NiMh technology from NiCad so I quit buying their stuff. I'm sure by now they have those problems ironed out though.

I ended up with 3 Makita drills after awhile since everytime I wanted to buy new batteries they'd have the drill, two batteries and a flashlight combo on sale for very little more than just two batteries.
One thing that impresses me with Ryobi 18V stuff is there batteries are very inexpensive compared to others, around $20.

 

[RollTideRam]

Well my other plans got rained out today, so I may waist some diesel fuel and go to town to look what kind of deals I can find. I started out with the 9.6v Makitas and then found the 14.4v Porter Cable. It lasted a long time before something snapped inside it. I did buy a cheap Kawasaki at Sam's club last year, but it did not have enough torque to run the jacks on my truck camper so I took it back. Thanks for all the input, JC

 

[RobJ]

Okay, now for something funny. I was out and needed a cordless drill in a bad way for a job and was hours from home. I went and bought a Ryobi (not the Ridged, but the elcheapo Ryobi) 18v drill set. I got two batteries, an 18v drill and a 18v caulk gun with another 2 batteries for under $100. At the time, I figured if they lasted through that one job I'd be happy. The darn cheap things not only had decent power (not as much as 18v DeWalt, but at a fraction of the cost) but the batteries seem to last almost as long as the DeWalt ones! I kept the caulk gun and have run hundreds and hundreds of tubes of caulk through it with no failures. Unbelievable! Each battery will last for right at a full case of caulk before it needs recharging. But, hey, it came with 2 batteries anyway.

I took this advice from some of my woodworking friends. All of my stuff are shop/hobby/farm type usage. I've probably owned a dozen in the past 10 years, none of the drills ever failed, just the batteries. The Ryobi 18v comes with 2, and replacements are $25 or so. Power is good. It's a great value.

For small stuff you cannot take my little Bosch PS20. nothing better for doing light screw work.....it's not a deck screw gun IMO.

 

[George2615]

Just to follow up on my previous post. I Just completed installing a metal roof on my son's house today. We used both my Ryobi and Milwaukee 1/2" drills to install all the screws. Both ran for 3 to 4 hours (mostly non stop) before running down to the point of battery changing. Chargers recharged the batteries in about an hour and a half while the spares batteries were in use. Only have the vent pipe boots to install and seal up now but both drills performed great.

 

[Bedlam]

my experience with the ryobi brand has been good also. I did have one switch go bad and locked and caught fire, but I now remove the batteries when I don't use and can remember.
I found that at the time two bats would cost me 60 dollars, and a new drill two batteries and also another charger was just under 100 dollars so I went with the new drill.
I did find that the second set of batteries in the single drill weren't any where near as the originals, and this brand was also the batteries that they sold separately .