Milwaukee or DeWalt Hand Drill?

[dpb]

What's the weight/size relative to 18V (say)? Seems like pretty soon we'll need a cart to carry the batteries around. The 18V is enough to lug around as it is...

[Oren]

I hope I have better luck than my trying to get a couple of saw blades sharpened :-/

One place I called to sharpen saw blades, don't sharpen saw blades.

I was looking while there, never intending to buy. Never got my hands on the tool, besides 36v for a home DIY? Not me...

I had been really wanting a 1/2" corded drill for a long, long time (year+). Needed to stir wall joint compound, 5 gallon paint and still use outside related to landscape (coring drip lines for trees).

Finally late one night; I stop at the orange store. I picked out a corded Milwaukee 1/2" heavy duty hammer drill - reduced to $132.00.

I ask the guy to get me one from the shelf. They don't have it. I needed a drill. So I asked how much for the display model and he don't even know if he can sell it. Being late at night the supervisor/manger is likely tired, so I said tell him I will give him $75.00 (no box / manual / key chuck, etc.) I bought a chuck and enjoy my $85.00 drill. Got all the documents I'll need off the web site.

-- Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

[KC]

(snip)

I know what you're saying, and I hope you're right. But there's been too many cases to show that things go the other way. For example Black & Decker buying Dewalt, then using B&D parts in Dewalt products. Their quality has never been the same. And Delta buying Porter Cable and ruining the line for many years. I just shudder when I think of Milwalkee & Ryobi as sister companies under the same upper management, especially when cost cutting time comes.

KC

[Oren]

Wal-Mart shopping carts $200.00! Check Craigslist...

-- Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

[patrick mitchel]

I went to the dewalt website and it shows a 36v 1/2" drill for 6.9 lb weight. It also shows a 18v drill 1/2" for 6.1 lb. The a123 cells are rated at 3.3 volts I think whereas the nimh cells in the 18v are 1.2v per cell. Pat

[Tom Quackenbush]

All of those links result in errors for me. I can see the specs for the Panasonic drill, but not the Milwaukee or Dewalt. I see that the Panasonic is using a NIMH battery pack, but I don't know about the other two. I suspect that they might be NiCd.

I'm wondering if you might be comparing NiMH battery powered drills with NiCd battery powered drills - that would be something of an apples/oranges comparison.

R, Tom Q.

[dpb]

I don't know much of the history of B&D/DeWalt, but Delta didn't buy Porter Cable.

Rockwell bought both Delta and Porter Cable clear back in the 60s and sold all the tool manufacturing including Delta and P-C to Pentair in about 1980. What happened in 2000 or thereabouts was the merging of corporate offices of companies that have actually had consolidated ownership for over 40 years.

[Chris Lewis]

According to Rudy :

There's a reason for that. The Ryobi is not nearly as robust as top end drills, and I very much doubt that those batteries have equivalent capacities or lifetimes.

I understand that Ryobi periodically changes their battery interfacing, so, if you have to buy more, you may find that the new ones won't fit.

If you look around, you can find "aftermarket" Dewalt compatible batteries for much less than the Dewalt price. As I recall, I found one place selling 1.7AH 12V dewalt-compatibles for about $20 apiece, and they had higher capacity ones (at a higher price).

[Chris Lewis]

According to patrick mitchel :

I've hefted a 36v Dewalt. It's not that much more than a 12v Dewalt (that's not a light beastie either).

NiCd batteries weigh a lot, and Lithiums are quite a bit lighter. By going to lithiums in the 36v, it's a _lot_ lighter than the same voltage in NiCd. The Dewalt 36v pack is probably lighter than some

12-18v NiCd packs.

Aside from way-overkill, the problem I have with the Dewalt 36v is that the pack is so large, and will get in the way a lot more often.

[dean]

Just about every workman I've ever seen using them has got a DeWalt. I have the 18V and its great.

[dpb]

...

I didn't notice this previously...perhaps you're thinking of the period in roughly the 70s or so when a line of P-C branded consumer- grade tools were introduced that were, in fact, pretty much what one would expect from the name? Actually, that was during the Rockwell ownership period and had a goodly amount to do w/ the decision to rid themselves of the whole tool manufacturing portion of their business resulting in the sale to Pentair.

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, Look at new seires of Bosch.

[Rudy]

They are lasting most of the day on the job right now

Theyre claiming "The One" (18V) standard system will be kept around for quite a while.. We'll see..at 20 bucks, if they were going to make the change, I'd buy a 6 pack..still cheaper than 2 deWalts

[The Ranger]

[snip]

[snip]

[snip]

Which is another point: weight. It sounds like there's little difference in quality still (which is good).

My Makita was heavier than any of my corded drills and awkward, to the point that it often compromised me in tight spots (that 10" handle often didn't fit where I needed it without some effort) combined with how long I could hold it over my head. There's nothing quite like the surprise of having something yanked out of your hand while it's over your head...

I don't have a lot of jobs that require overhead work anymore (thankfully) but I'd rather not end up with a drill-imprinted logo across my forehead because it weighs as much as an anvil either. Which of my two choices is "lighter?" The Milwaukee or DeWalt?

Again, thanks for all the suggestions. It's been excellent reading.

The Ranger

[Chris Lewis]

According to The Ranger :

When it comes down to it, if the drills have the same battery technology (eg: NiCD), they're going to have about the same "tiredness" factor given the same quality class and voltage. Large NiCD battery packs are heavy.

So from the perspective of drilling overhead, a Milwaulkee is going to tire you out as much as the Dewalt. It might be a pound or two more or less, but it's _still_ heavy.

So, you're either going to want to minimize the battery size (is a 12v enough?) or go to something with a lighter battery technology (eg: Panasonic with lithium).

A 12v "higher end" drill (eg: Milwaulkee, Makita, Dewalt) is plenty for most non-professional/homeowner situations, up to and including for example, 3/4" auger bits thru framing lumber or screwing down 2x deck lumber with 3" #10s (have two batteries and a 1hour or better charger). The 9.6v ones are reasonable for lighter duty (eg: driving cabinet hinge screws, small holes).

Non-famous-branded gear (even at 18v or higher), or especially gear with 12hr chargers are generally very light duty, and some not even that.

[David Combs]

Stupid idea?

Would it be smart for the manufacturer to have a model that has the battery fit in a backpack, with a 5' cord to the device?

(Where the battery could optionally either latch onto the device itself, or work from the backpack.)

David

[Jim Yanik]

[e-mail] (David Combs) wrote in news:f37g3d$1kj$ [e-mail]:

IIRC,one manufacturer already did that;Hitachi,The pack fit on a web-belt.

[Jim Yanik]

[e-mail] (David Combs) wrote in news:f37g3d$1kj$ [e-mail]:

To add more,cordless drills today are designed to balance with a battery pack attached,so a belt-mounted pack would lose that balance.

[Chris Friesen]

Easy answer...change the balance of the drill. Putting the motor in the grip would allow for a much more compact unit.

Chris

[Jim Yanik]

Chris Friesen wrote in news: [e-mail]:

sounds like the current right-angle drill/drivers. Makita,DeWalt,Milwaukee and a couple others sell them. But no belt battery pack with a cord to the drill.