Best cordless drill?

I have a Panasonic which I dearly love. I sent the batteries to

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for rebuilding. Half the price of new batteries and they work great. When these crap out, I will do it again. drillingly yours, jo4hn

Reply to
jo4hn
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It seems to me that you could buy any of the main brands and be perfectly happy. They all are making good products, good battery life, good customer service. My support of this claim is that every brand is covered somewhere in here as being quality, and we all seem to be rather serious about our tool purchases.

I would suggest a simple method. Put on your favorite shirt, take SWMBO with you to the store, and ask her which one matches your eye color and shirt the best.

Hope that helps

Andrew

Reply to
Tattooed and Dusty

I recently bought a Festool CDD cordless drill, even though I already own two other cordless drill. They are currently 100 US dollars off and come with excentric and around-the-corner chucks. Really handy when you have to drill or screw in tight places like inside cabinets. It feels very solid, and is extremly short, about half the length of my DeWalt.

Reply to
mare

How's Rigid? Does it measure up?

Reply to
My M-14

Someone here had a sig that went something like "buy the best and cry once...". If I need something a half dozen times a year, I'll buy Harbor Fright for $8.99. If I need something a half dozen times an hour, I'll find the best in my price range and go there. I also have several shirts. mahalo, jo4hn

Reply to
jo4hn

Then tell her that since she's got such good taste, she should also pay for it.

Hell, it's worth a try isn't it?

Reply to
Upscale

Jo4hn, I don't disagree with this philosophy, sometimes though I start to question the endless obsessing over what brand is the best. I have a Bosch, before that I had a Dewalt, and a Black and Decker. They all worked fine, yes even the black and decker. I love my drill, would buy it again in a second, but I think that anyone spending a couple hundred dollars on a cordless would say the same thing. I guess to me it sometimes seems like we spend more time deciding which tool might be the best, than finding out for ourselves making things. I fall victim to this mentality as well, don't get me wrong. I have been thinking and debating what type of shoulder plane to purchase for a month or more.

Does that make any sense?

Andrew

Reply to
Tattooed and Dusty

Wow. A lot of replies!

When I was on market looking for cordless drill last year (again, last year in Feb), I went to WW show. Keep in mind that I like PC. I was looking for specifically 12V. When I looked at the PC newest model (just came out), I was very disappointed! The PC was so heavy that it almost would need two hands to use it! It was the first time it was all-metal gears.

So, I looked around. I liked the DeWalt "hammer" drill (yes, 12V!). Should have bought it!

Then I came out of WW show with a brand new Makita. For about $150, it came with two 12V batteries. The main reason I bought it was because it could stand well (without having to lay it down). I know it may be silly decision, but did it. Now, it has serve me well. It is well-balance, keyless, etc (and blue :D )

If I was to do it over again, I might would have bought the "hammer" cordless.

Chuck

Reply to
CNT

Mighty heavy.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

Yeh. But would the hammer match your eyes?

Dick

Reply to
Richard Cline

You have drilled this into me. I get the drill. What are you? A drill sergeant? STOP me!!

Reply to
Robatoy

Well everyone else has responded so why not one more: FWIW I have owned two 9.6 Makitas, both still going although the first one I gave away to a friend. Have used a 14.4 Dewalt for the last 8 years or so as my primary drill. Wore out the two original batteries, use it as a backup now but still going strong. Santa decided I deserved a new Makita 14.4 impact driver and it came with a coupon for a new

14.4 drill. (Hence the semi-retirement of the Dewalt) With all that said, I really like my Makitas,especially the impact driver, but if I were go>At the risk of starting a flame-war, anybody have suggestions for the
Reply to
Lenny

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Thanks for the tip! I took your advice and ordered the PC for $79, with 2 batteries, and choose the Best Value and got a third battery for free!

Reply to
Bruce Barnett

There's an up-side to heavy.

If you are driving a lot of screws, the heavier guns will be easier on the wrists, but a little harder on the biceps.

Reply to
Robatoy

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 22:01:27 -0400, the inscrutable Robatoy spake:

Try one of the Bosch Impactors (or other impact drill), Rob. The need to really hold that puppy into the screw head is gone and it will drive them with the weight of your arm and the drill. I set a

3" screw into a doug fir 4x4 at arms length/chest height. These are mazing little beasties. I'm SOLD on that technology for drilling as much as I was 35 years ago when I found pneumatic impact drivers for nuts and bolts.

IN fact, the next time I need to drive a bunch of screws into a project (a deck or sumpin'), I'm thinking of using my old 3/8" butterfly impact with a square-to-hex converter socket.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

This is precisely where I think most of the differing opinions on hand-held tools come from... I like DeWalt because my 18v is heavy and fits my hand well- but... I haul around steel bars day after day. A guy who works in an office 9 to 5 (not saying that such a person is not a better woodworker than I, FWIW) may like a different brand or model simply because the handle is better shaped to fit their hand. And at the end of the day, not having blisters from an ill-fitting tool is worth a whole lot to me- like I said in an earlier post, they're all probably pretty good.

That's not a silly reason if the tool works well for you. Silly is buying the one that costs $5 because you just don't *want* to wait until you can afford a real one. I've been guilty of that more than once, and it has always bit me in the end.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

Reply to
Prometheus

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>>>Thanks for the tip! I took your advice and ordered the PC for $79,

Excellent. Let us know how it works! I've been very happy with my PC691 D-handle router, and I'm seriously considering adding some more PC to my arsenal.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

Reply to
Prometheus

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:02:43 -0500, the inscrutable Prometheus spake:

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>>>>>>Thanks for the tip! I took your advice and ordered the PC for $79,

I'd like PC a whole lot better if it came in a color other than Keeter Gray (Grey, Jeff.)

--== May The Angst Be With You! ==-- -Yoda, on a bad day --

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Ending Your Web Page Angst.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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> (watch the word wrap)

I got a lot of milage out of the Ryobi I used to have (until the batteries went bad after a number of years). I know that Ryobi is not top shelf stuff, but it might do the job for you.

Around Christmas, some of the retailers around here (Menards) sell a Hitachi outfit for under 100.

del

Reply to
Del Cecchi

About 10 years ago or so, I was given a Makita 9.6V -- It has always been my favorite tool! (and I have a lot of them)

It came with two batteries. I keep one in the charger and the other in the drill. Even now, the batteries last a pretty long time. The drill has plenty of power for being a 9.6V, but the thing that makes me like it so much is the great control of the variable speed, very good clutch, and amazingly comfortable grip. Some of the other cordless drills I've used seem to blast away as soon as you slightly press the trigger. The Makita gives me very gradual power, so I can use it on small projects without ripping through them. Yet it has enough power to drive screws through just about anything, or even mix a bucket of paint. Keyless chuck is a must and the greatest thing!

So, anyway, if the latest Makita is anything like the 9.6V that I have, I'd stand behind it 100%. But honestly, I haven't worked with a new Makita -- I haven't had the need to. =-)

Buy something you really like -- it's an investment you'll have for a long time (unless you buy a crappy one).

I also recommend getting the magnetic hex extension shaft from DeWalt -- it's a great $5-$10 accessory for your drill that makes it a snap to change hex bits (screw drivers, pilot drill bits, etc.) and has an extending sleeve to hold screws in place as you drive them home.

X_HOBBES

Reply to
X_HOBBES

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