Cordless Drill Voltage Why so many?

[Grandpa]

[Jim K]

A lot of the various voltages are curtesy "Tim the Tool Man" marketing

-- "More Power". Before too l>What is the adavantage of the 18 or 19.2 volt drill over the 14.4 or 12

[Rich Stern]

I like 9.6v for assembly work in the shop. I like 14.4v for carpentry. Yes, higher voltage (more power) is nice, but the tradeoff is the weight of the tool.

Most important for your deck building is two battery packs and a one hour charger.

Rich S.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Every tool has its place. At work, a couple of guys bought 18V drills and use them to change some name plates in aluminum tooling. I'm talking 12-32 screws. After two uses, they are forbidden to use them and must use the 3.6 volt B & D screwdriver that has yet to strip the threads. Ed

[Blair]

Of my three cordless drills, a Dewalt, a Porter Cable and Metabo, the only one that stands up to repetetive work is the Metabo 15.4. It is not the size of the battery, it is how the drill is geared. A 450 hp Kenworth can tow in excess of 100,000 pounds, could you do that with a 750 hp race car? But if the truth be known, I agree with Leon, for a deck I would use a corded 120v drill. Why would you lay a beating on a cordless drill when you are that close to a power source.

Blair

[jm]

I don't understand why they were "forbidden?"

[Swingman]

FWIW ... anyone interested in getting a below par cordless tool battery "rebuilt" and operating better than when it was new, definitely give Primecell a try:

just sent them my second DeWally 18v. The first one I sent them came back with noticeably more power, and a _much_ longer life before re-charging.

It will end up costing the retail price of one battery to upgrade two ... well worth the $$, IMO.

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

They didn't say what planet they rated it on.

Barry

[Larry Jaques]

Didn't the phrase "strip the threads" catch your eye there? The bozos using them evidently forgot they had clutches and the management evidently wanted to slow the work down and make it more threadsafe. ;)

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 03:12:39 GMT, "jm" pixelated:

------------------------------ REAL men don't need free plans ------------------------------

REAL websites

[Metroman]

Basically the higher the voltage the more power and the longer it will last on a single charge. Keeping that in mind I have yet to find anything that beats good ole corded drills.

[jm]

Thanks. I don't know why a cordless is better in a shop where the electricity is right there. Maybe someone else can enlighten me. But I do see Norm Abram using one in his shop AND HE IS THE MAN.

[Gfretwell]

They are just more portable if you are moving around a large piece driving screws. You are not tripping over the cord. I very seldom actually drill with my cordless. It always has a bit driver adapter in it. I use a more powerful corded drill for drilling the hole and I run in the screw with the cordless. Sometimes I will even have 3 drills out.

[jm]

Corded doesn't have a clutch? Why wouldn't they build that in?

[Gfretwell]

Good question. Drills are meant to drill and cordless machines are really screwdrivers, I guess. I can't imagine a cordless that would be able to shoot holes for Tapcons and have a battery you would want to carry. If I am doing light duty drilling or shooting screws I grab a cordless. If I want to drill some serious holes I plug into the grid.

[Leon]

I have never seen one with a clutch. Not a feature because it would probably take sales from the drills that are the most profitable. The cordless drills are basically free in a kit and you buy the 2 batteries and charger. 3 years ago I bought a new drill kit because the kit with 2 batteries was 3 or 4 dollars more than 2 batteries by themselves. The batteries poop out and you buy more batteries. Not totally unlike cheap printers that come with the tiny and expensive ink refills .

[Michael Daly]

I've seen a couple - Ryobi comes to mind - low end drill, though.

Mike

[Renata]

I had the same idea but in a moment of laziness (and having only a couple holes that needed to be made) I grabbed the 18v Milwaukee cordless and drilled into brick without a problem. Smallish hole (~1/4 - 3/8") and nice sharp bit, but I was nevertheless surprised - thought it would take more effort. No hassle at all. Cordless today seem to handle well beyond light duty hole drilling. Now, if you've got a bunch of holes to drill (into masonry), then I'd certainly take the time to set up a corded hammer drill.

Renata

--snip--

[CW]