Ok, so I went to the Home Depot full of intent to purchase a drill today. I need one for a few products. However when I got there I was astounded by the selection. 18V, 12V, 14.4V. Various speeds, and brands. What to go with? I found a Black & Decker for $39. Variable speed etc etc. Good idea?
Consumer grade crap. If you plan on using/ keeping it, buy quality. Also, it's a good idea to try a real tool supply house. Home depot buys only price, and that's what you get, cheap. Even though they might look the same, quality will not be. For quality, I like Bosch. I have a few that will outlive me.
Relevant enough, I'm buying a drill soon. My research lead me to Makita's 18V lithium line. Thumbs up, down?
I'm glad you've asked this question, as I'm going to buy a new one tonight. Personally, I'll never buy anything with the name "Dewalt" on it again. If dead Dewalt batteries were made of gold, I'd be a wealthy, wealthy man. Dunno if it's just the HD "schmoe" grade drills or all around.
The Hitachi 18V is a bullet proof drill and has enough power to snap your wrist. Not cheap though. The Makita Lithium drills are great, but not as heavy duty as the Hitachi. We have two Hitachi drills and one of the Makitas. Love them both and wouldn't trade for any Dewalt.
That said for home use, I would buy something cheap. The batteries will crap out long before the drill probably will. Hitachi, Makita and Dewalt charge a ridiculous amount of money for replacement batterys. $90 and up for most of them and sitting kills them faster than using them daily.
Ryobi stuff is pretty good for home use. Replacement batteries are pretty cheap too. $35 last I looked. They have a One system that uses the same battery for all their tools. I bought one of their sets with the drill, saw, flashlight, charger and two batteries for around $80.00 I use it as a back up drill on my work truck and use the saw for cutting aluminum. For the price they are hard to beat. For professional use, don't waste you time with them.
I have a Milwaukee, with a power cord on it...works great, and I never have to worry about dead batteries. 
I love my Porter Cable drill. Check em out at Lowes.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_36099-79992-PC418C-2_0_?productId=1244431&Ntt=porter&Ntk=i_products&Ns=p_product_price|0&pl=1¤tURL=/pl__0__s?Ntk=i_products$rpp=15$No=15$Ntt=porter$Ns=p_product_price|0$identifier=
this is a relatively new product line for Porter, and its been getting good reviews as a non-professional tool.
The drill is rated at 440lbs torque, so its got more than enough bite for me. The saws both come with crumby blades, but when I changed the recip's blade It was night and day. Many a tree had been trimmed after that torndao...
You didn't say anything about what you want to do with this drill. That has a whole lot of bearing on the answer or answers.
For example, are you interested in drilling 4" holes in frames of houses for running pipes? You need a big corded drill. Lots of power are your objective. A very strong keyed chuck for maximum bit holding power are also crucial. This drill would be big, expensive, sloppy and powerful.
Or are you more interested in being able to drill pilot holes for little sheet metal screws? In that case, a light weight drill that doesn't require forearms like Popeye makes more sense. A nice convenient keyless chuck would also work well.
Or are you going to be driving lots of wood screws on a deck somewhere out on a construction site? Now you need the impact capability of a hammer drill. And cordless would likely be important.
So, what are your drilling objectives?
foxtrapper wrote: You didn't say anything about what you want to do with this drill. That has a whole lot of bearing on the answer or answers. For example, are you interested in drilling 4" holes in frames of houses for running pipes? You need a big corded drill. Lots of power are your objective. A very strong keyed chuck for maximum bit holding power are also crucial. This drill would be big, expensive, sloppy and powerful. Or are you more interested in being able to drill pilot holes for little sheet metal screws? In that case, a light weight drill that doesn't require forearms like Popeye makes more sense. A nice convenient keyless chuck would also work well. Or are you going to be driving lots of wood screws on a deck somewhere out on a construction site? Now you need the impact capability of a hammer drill. And cordless would likely be important. So, what are your drilling objectives?
Good point. Not to steal the OP's thunder, but I'm screwing about 30-50 screws a day, generally into really soft wood. I don't need 8 gazillion metric berkeley tons of power, just a battery that's going to last more than 2 years.
I have a small collection. I have two 9.6V Makitas that are now approaching 10 and 20 years old. My friend has one that is older than that and still uses it every day. I have two of the HF 18V drills. I would say they were OK for light use. I burned the switch up in one of them removing deck bolts on my car hauler trailer. For the twenty bucks it cost, it was worth it for the battery and charger, so I'm OK with that. The other one came with a flashlight too that is handy. I have a small Ryobi that is OK as a screwdriver in the house when I'm building a computer or something small like that. I have a corded Makita hammer drill that I use when it postively has to get done, and some air drills that are handy.
So, just small projects around the house? Any of the cheap ones will probably do you. More voltage is better as it should have more torque. The HF 18V ones have more power than the switch can handle, but for twenty bucks if you're careful with it, it should do you fine. Professional? Go with a professional drill like the Makita or one of the ones suggested above (Dewalt, Bosch, Hitachi.) I stopped buying Black & Decker after I bought a $100 Moto-tool and they stopped carrying a 2 cent collet a year later, rendering it worthless. And that collet was deliberately made a different size than any other collet out there, so none of the others (Dremmel, etc.) will fit. That wasn't the first time B&D did that to me, but it was the last. Isn't Dewalt upscale B&D?
FWIW, I'm sold on Lithium Ion. It last forever, and is lighter to boot. It's pricey, and I don't have it in my personal stash, but if I was doing this stuff for a living my entire collection would be Lithium.
DILYSI Dave wrote: FWIW, I'm sold on Lithium Ion. It last forever, and is lighter to boot. It's pricey, and I don't have it in my personal stash, but if I was doing this stuff for a living my entire collection would be Lithium.
Any thoughts on Dremels?
I have an 18v Craftsman, and a old skewl plug in craftsman. Bith have far exceeded my expectations. I have done drywall with both, built a deck with both, used them over and over as makeshift polishers/grinders with a wire cup, so on and so forth. More expensive than Black and Decker, less expensive than Milwaukee. For the buck, theyve been very reliable.
poopshovel wrote: I'm glad you've asked this question, as I'm going to buy a new one tonight. Personally, I'll never buy anything with the name "Dewalt" on it again. If dead Dewalt batteries were made of gold, I'd be a wealthy, wealthy man. Dunno if it's just the HD "schmoe" grade drills or all around.
I bought my Dewalt from Lowes that I'm still thrilled with it. It replaced a Ryobi that I bought from HD that was a piece of crap. The drill was fine the batteroies were crap.
My real power tools have cords. The toys have batteries. If I'm drilling anything more serious than plaster and cheap pine 2x4 studs, I get the corded drill. POOWWWEEEEER!
Don't get me started on battery-powered Sawzalls. They make no sense.
I need a bit of a jack-of-all-trade drills. The current projects I have on tap are replacing a Miata soft top (which requires drilling out some pop rivets) and hanging some pictures and mirrors in dry wall. I have no current plans for any really heavy projects.
Dr. Hess wrote: I have a small collection. I have two 9.6V Makitas that are now approaching 10 and 20 years old. My friend has one that is older than that and still uses it every day.
I did everything you're not supposed to do to my Makita, and it lasted me 15 years. I only use them occasionally now, and my cheap B&D does the job fine.
Osterkraut wrote: Relevant enough, I'm buying a drill soon. My research lead me to Makita's 18V lithium line. Thumbs up, down?
2 thumbs way up. The kit (driver and drill) is great. I have used it for over a year now with no issues. I also purchased a spare battery (with more storage) That way one is always in the charger ready to go. Only charges in 15 minutes.
Keith wrote: Don't get me started on battery-powered Sawzalls. They make no sense.
I'll get you started, as I love mine. It's my second most used power tool, behind the battery drill.
A fresh battery lasts about 1/2-3/4 hour. With the big 16" blade, I happily trim trees and have been known to chop them down. It'll bring down a 6-10" tree in just a few minutes. And I don't have to carry a gas can, or oil, or adjust and sharpen my chain.
So what's not to love?
Around the house (or shed or barn), with a smaller blade, it goes right through deck boards and studs and such, making quick work of installing a sink in a counter or cutting out a window opening. Not as fast as my real Skill brand corded saw, but it's still plenty fast, and I'm not dragging a power cord around.
So, what's not to love?
I too am amused at the profusion of toy tools with battery packs. A cordless drill/driver does come in handy from time to time however. I've got a cheapie B & D that does the job. I do hear good things about the Makita product also.
This is lke a "what car" question, but with far fewer answers. Only you can say what you need.
Look in your wallet. That will be your guide. I swear by Milwalkee, Makita, and Craftsman. I also own B&D, Ryobi, FireStorm, Skil, and no-name Chinaman.
I especially like Craftsman C3 19.2v cordless, because with just one battery size, I have a 6 1/2" saw, planer, sawzall, flourecent and incandecent flashlights, regular, drywall, and angle drills, belt and detail sanders, jigsaw, boom box and vacuum cleaner, all in one bag, with half a dozen batteries, and a couple of chargers. They even make a few more tools that I don't have.. yet .
~Milwaukee 1/2" with keyless chuck~
I've had lots of drills......this is my favourite.
zomby woof wrote:Dr. Hess wrote: I have a small collection. I have two 9.6V Makitas that are now approaching 10 and 20 years old. My friend has one that is older than that and still uses it every day.I did everything you're not supposed to do to my Makita, and it lasted me 15 years. I only use them occasionally now, and my cheap B&D does the job fine.
We had two of these at work back in 1986 and used them extensively. They were still in use five years later when the business closed.
Oh.. one more thing.. at the end of the day, you're gonna have more $ tied up in blades and bits than the tools themselves. Don't scrimp here.. get the best you can. Your arms and tools will thank you for it.
I have a Craftsman Corded Drill with a hammer function. Best investment ever. Someday, you will need to hang something into brick or cinderblock, anchor something to cement, or latch something to concrete. Nothing but a hammer drill and proper bits will do. My next drill will be an industrial-grade version, but so far this one has lasted 15 years of abuse without a hiccup. I love it.
As for cordless, I use pretty basic Black and Decker products with the 18v battery. I would recommend picking up an impact driver in addition to the drill. This has an impact function and is physically a bit smaller. It is nice for torquing long screws into decks, turning lag bolts into trees, and extracting really stuck screws from old barns. I liked my sister's Dewalt Combo Pack (pro contractor BTW, not a girly girl)
I think all of the brands at HD and Lowe's are probable pretty similar, so go with what's on sale and put the savings into REALLY GOOD drill bits. At the end of the day, the drill is just a fancy electric motor. It's the bit that does all of the work. Yes, that one bit for $12 will do a much better job than the same size bit from the set of 100 for $5 you got at Harbor Freight. And drill concrete with masonry bits, steel with bits rated for steel, etc.
You'll need to log in to post.
