Personal experience with the Rockwell 3RILL

[Robert Macy]

EXCELLENT!

The Ms. just bought me a 'birthday' gift, the 62 piece set with charging station and two batteries, as advertised on TV. Usually, the rule is "if it is advertised on TV, it is c***!" But, in this case, it was well worth the money. for me and the occasional use ANYWHERE around our home.

1. cordless and QUIET! absolutely no scream or whine.
2. workplace light, so you can see what you're doing. but, only comes on when you operate the tool.
3. light weight, easy on your hand. small battery disappears into handle and small profile can get up next to walls
4. powerful for what I needed - emergency: had to saw a board in two places by drilling multiple holes (8-10) then break it out, less than

60 seconds and the board was gone.

1. the bits supplied were sharp enough to CUT down through very effortlessly.
2. ...and the MAJOR item -- LIFETIME WARRANTY ON BATTERIES!!!

The battery recharge in 30 minutes made me nervous, from experience with old battery chemistry I KNOW that fast charge kills batteries, but with lifetime warranty? not my problem.

One tiny downside, that may gripe the professionals here, the quick disconnect tools with the hex base, do NOT positively lock rigidly along the drill's axis, just a bit wobbly at their tips. But, put the drill tip into a starter hole and with the sharpness of the tool I found it didn't matter. My estimate at the amount of wobbling between

1/64th to 1/32th inch, caught me off guard compared to my corded, chucked drill. But, again, the workaround is a good starter hole.

Anybody else try one of these?

[Jerry Ohio-2]

ONE OF THESE WHAT ?????????????????????????????????

Jerry

[krw]

Ever read a subject line?

[DerbyDad03]

Put the drill tip into a starter hole? I have to have a starter hole before I can drill a hole? No thanks!

What will happen when I use my 6" Phillips bit? Is it going to wobble so much that I can't keep it in the screw head?

[DerbyDad03]

Ok, so you used term "starter hole" twice in your OP, yet you never use a starter hole.

Then I asked about the "bit wobble" you mentioned and respond by supplying to torque specs. What does that have to with a wobbly bit?

[Robert Macy]

nothing, just forgot it in the original.

There is a big difference between 10mil wobble at a tip and having it 'jump' out of a phillips head screw.

Maybe the unit I have is 'out of spec', don't know.

Get one try it, return if not like it.

[DerbyDad03]

It depends on how far from the chuck the 10mil wobble is.

I know people who put those tiny #2 bits right into the chuck with no adaptor. Any wobble will probably never be noticed in the 1/2" of bit that sticks out of the chuck.

However, I always use either an extension like this:

or sometimes a 6" bit like this:

If the wobble is 10mil at the chuck, it's going to be a lot worse at the end of a 6" bit.

I assume you have not yet returned yours. Are you planning to? If so, let us know if the replacement also wobbles.

We'd appreciate it.

[Robert Macy]

e:

NOT AT THE CHUCK!!! at the tip

[hrhofmann]

ote:

10 MM at the tip is a lot more than I would tolerate!!!

[DerbyDad03]

ote:

No need to shout.

It appears that you misunderstood my point.

I was taking the location of the wobble to the farthest extremes just to make a point.

OK, I'll go along with you on this. The 10mil wobble is at the tip. Now tell us where the tip is.

Is the tip in your case 1/2" from the end of the chuck (i.e. at the tip one of those 3/4" #2 bits inserted with no adapter) or is the tip

6" out from the chuck, like when I use one of my 6" #2 bits or is it someplace in between?

Since we can be pretty sure that the bit itself is not causing the wobble, we have to assume that the chuck and/or the holding tabs on the chuck are. Therefore, the farther out the tip is from the chuck, the more wobble will be present at the tip. If we consider the 10mil wobble to be the diameter of a circle around the tip at some given distance from the chuck, then the farther out you move the tip, the larger the diameter will be (i.e. more wobble).

Since you've not told us where your tips are - in relation to the chuck - it's hard for us to gauge the amount of wobble.

[Robert Macy]

:

10 MILS !!!, not 10 MM !!!

or, ya just playin' wit' me? ok, you got me.

[Robert Macy]

:

From memory [without going and measuring] the drill bits are about 6 inches long with a 'quick disconnect' type hex shaft and detent cutout all the way around..

My guess is that it is not mechanically possible to grip a hex shaft perfectly, therefore I saw the effect. For example the wobble at the tip could be constant down the whole bit. However, once the drill cut into the surface, I didn't notice any difference between the hex attachment and the old chuck drill I used to use. ...except ...not sure if this is faulty memory or real, but the old chuck drill screamed and always stalled or ran too fast with poor variable speed control [Black & Decker, circa 80's] the old unit had wrong torque to cut, then when it cut it ran too fast. The Rockwell felt like there was more precision in the speed control. Pulling the trigger simply made it turn through whatever at a very controlled rate, rather than abruptly speeding up when load diminished. Definitely had a great control 'feeling' to it.

I hope other people try one and give their impression/observations.

Right now I'm ready to go tackle jobs I had been dreading -- working in a small closet-like confined space, where the old drill would scream mercilessly in your ears, or stall to a stop and then suddenly take off when it started cutting. The Rockwell was quiet and the speed control feels like just that, no matter the load it goes from stop, to slow turn, to faster turning, whatever as thought there is no load at all.

[DerbyDad03]

Well, since we are now compares apples to apples (i.e. 6" bits) we can make better comparisons.

I'll have to go home and check, bit I don't recall "wobble" in my hex shaft bits and I've got bits that are much longer than 6" - wood boring bits that I use on landscape timbers.

I'm not doubting you, just saying I need to verify.

It could be possible that there is such a vast difference between your old horrific drill and the Rockwell that you feel it is "Excellent!" in comparison. Even good enough to put up with wobbly bits.

Who knows...as long as you like it, that's really all that counts.

[Robert Macy]

Just thought of something. Perhaps, the shape of the 'chip' bit caused an optical illusion that made it appear to wobble. The twist bit didn't do that and it had hex mounting too