Cordless drill comparison - DeWalt and Ryobi

[Carolina Breeze HVAC]

I bought a Hitachi for light duty sheet metal work, and the ONLY part thats left, is the light that came with the kit and the charger..total crap IMO... The Panasonics are incredible, but the OLDER Milwaukees are great...I am not sold on the new ones, since guess who bought them out? Ryobi.. Black and Decker makes the DeWalts....and the ones I have owned are ok...but not great.. Fav right now is a Bosch 18V that I cant kill....Ive used it for everything....smoked it one time and thought...NOW I know what it will take..but, its still running as good as new.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Panasonic batteries are very expensive. I have De Walt DW929/DW920 kit. Around the house they do adequate job but if I need another drill I'd go for impact drill. For some brand replacement battery costs a LOT! Tony

[BocesLib]

Makita's are real nice. Metal transmission in there too (at least my

14.4 does)

Only problem that I had was when using it to mix some cement it started to smoke up a little and the transmission was getting beatup.

Ok not the fault of the drill but let me tell you this thing mixed up a

5 gas pail of cement without much of a problem. In any case I got it repaired and will by a crap drill next time I am at a garage sale for this purpose.

All other jobs it never let me down at all.

Tom

[Dr. Hardcrab]

"Carolina Breeze HVAC" wrote

About 6 or 7 years ago, my wife bought me a Craftsman drill for Xmas. This was a 14.5 Volt ("Wow!!! Four-Teen Point FIVE!!!!") I think she paid over a hundred dollars ON SALE for it at the time. Well, most Craftsman power stuff is crap, but I still have the drill. Use it almost every day. I've dropped it from a ladder a couple of times (bet you will nevr let me use YOUR tools, huh?) and it still keeps trudging along. Both batteries still good too.

I guy that just started working for us has an entire kit in what looks like a big duffle bag. Has a circular saw, saws-all, flashlight, angle drill, reg drill, etc. I think it is about 10 pieces. Can't remember the brand but since it was a black and yellow bag, I'd say it's a DeWalt. He got it at an estate auction for $100. Looks like it had never been used.

[On My Way]

For the money the Ridgid is the best out there.I bought a 12V and it came with a right angle impact driver and 2 batteries with a Universal charger for $129.00 My Ryobi table saw caught on fire while ripping a

2 x 6. I bought it to do laminate flooring because it is light weight, but I figured it could have handled a rip like that. You would think Ryobi would have put thermal protection in it. So needless to say I will never buy another Ryobi product again

[Fred]

My Ryobi table saw caught on fire while ripping a

Which model do you have? I have the BT3000 with the sliding miter for over

14 years and I burn up my belts couple of times because the blade got dull or I was using the wrong blade. Other than that its a good saw, put it in my truck, take it anywhere, and lug it to the 3 floor for some projects. Try that with a contractor or a 400 plus pound cabinet saw. I have no problems ripping 2x6s although I would not rip too many 4x4s without giving it a good rest for the motor to cool down.

Just remember this sucker is under power. Keep your electrical cord extension short or provide the proper gauge extension. Use a thin kerf blade, rip or combination - cross cut blades is a no-no. Make sure your fence is parallel to the blade or you see smoke or worse have a kickback - happens with any saw.

I did over 2,000sf of laminates with it so far - its been good table saw and couldn't ask for more. Hardly ever use my miter saw except for floor moldings.

[On My Way]

Hi Fred I'm not sure of the model right now but I bought it last year and did about 1500sf of flooring with it. It works good for just what you said, light weight and small enough to fit in the van. This one has the sliding miter but it is a direct drive (basically a skillsaw upside down)

I bought a Ridgid TS2400 with rolling base because I needed to get a saw for this job that was starting a day later and did not have time to wait to get it fixed. I'm going to convert it to a router table.