Milwaukee Hammer Drill or regular cordless....

[Sam]

Okay, I'm sort of clueless here....but I need a drill to just do some general tasks around the house. Nothing large at least yet, but I might as well just buy one drill and keep it for the rest of my life (or at least 20 years).

After looking around the web I'd sort of decided to buy the Milwaukee

0622-24 18 Volt 1/2" Lok-Tor Driver/Drill Kit but then I realized that for $10 more I could get the 0624 which appears to be identical except for the "hammer" feature.

I don't think I have any reason for a hammer drill, but is it true that the drill will be the same besides the hammer option?

Any thoughts?

Thanks Sam

[Subw00er]

A hammer drill is not what you are looking for, it provides a impact force to the bit while drillling to help get through tough materials, namely concrete/bricks. The Milwaukee are suppposed to be great tools. I have several cordless Dewalt drills and am very happy with all of them. Get at least a 14V and you cant go wrong. The XRP series is great, stronger with faster charging battery but it is heavier and can wear on the arm if you use it a lot and are not used to the weight. The basic 14V cordless version is a great drill and I use that primarily, even though I have the XPR stuff. I do put the XPR battery in it though, they are interchangeable with the standard

14.4V packs.

[LegMan]

While the drill itself may last, the availability of batteries for it almost certainly would not! Only the corded version would meet your 20+ years of life criteria.

The hammer mechanism will add significant weight to an already heavy "cordless" drill in addition to more complexity.

That being said, Milwaukee has always had a pretty good reputation for quality, though I don't know if that carries through to the cordless arena.

If I may suggest, get yourself one of the "midrange" cordless drills for general use (the Ryobi 14.4v kit comes to mind) and, should you require it, and your budget allows, a 1/2" corded hammer-drill for those tough jobs (the Milwaukee 1/2" pistol grip "Magnum" hammer-drill is the one I've used... and recommend).

HTH,

LegMan (remove 999 for eMail)

[ws]

I got that same set last Summer. Used it to redo my deck, and have lots of other future plans for it as well. Haven't used the hammer-drill option yet, but I have no problem just having it in case I ever need it (have had some thoughts on projects though ...). I had the same thought as you - buy one set that'll last me until forever. Yes, the batteries will go eventually, but they can be replaced by Milwaukee, or else (and there are threads in the REC on this) I can have them redone by aftermarket battery refurbishers.

The Milwaukee set, "Big Red", is fantastic. TONS of torque. Yeah, they're on the heavy side, but I don't mind. I use my little Ryobi 12V when I'm doing lots of overhead work.

You'll like this set. Amazon had the best price I could find last Summer, by the way. Even used their price-match service and got another ~$30 off. Don't remember who the other retailer was though ... sorry.

ws

[Paul Gilbert]

If this was a question about "do I buy a cabinet grade table saw or a contractors" I would weigh in with buy the good stuff now rather than upgrade later. Not so with "disposable tools". Go to Harbor Freight or something similar on the web and buy a $39.95 12V drill. When you really need something bigger buy it then. By then the battery on the old one will have failed and new ones cost $40.00. As to a hammer, I have a DeWalt 18V hammer and the hammer part is worthless. I needed to punch some anchor bolts into concrete so I went to Harbor and bought a $39.95 "real" hammer drill (120 VAC). I punched 15 holes in less time than it took to do one with the DeWalt. Paul Gilbert in New Orleans