Ok, enough of this drivel. All tools are NOT created equal. One 18V drill may be 10 times better than the other. Price usually does indicate the quality, durability, features, etc. Albeit some comparable models may differ in price by more than 100 bucks. For occasional around the house handyman tasks, i.e. hanging pictures, doors (hinges) etc, the cheaper thrift store models will suffice. If you are a little more adventuresome by building your own deck or shed, remodeling your basement etc, you may opt for a more expensive tool if you plan on completing the job before you burn up the cheap model. In other words don't try to use a 3 cylinder economy car to pull your houseboat. Yes both are vehicles that get you from here to there, but one is better designed to pull the boat. Same deal with the drills. When you step up again and decide to start your own handyman company and build decks and sheds for "others" then you need to get into a more "professional series" piece of equipment. The DeWalt cordless products fit that description. Next step down Craftsman Professional, Bosch High End. Then on Down to the Skill, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Craftsman, Rigid, Porter Cable. After that you get the home tinker stuff like the Chicago Electric, more Skill, Black and Decker. Yes I know DeWalt is Black and Decker but FYI Mercedes is Chrysler. So to sum it up for you, If you don't need a $300 dust collector drill sitting in your already cluttered garage, opt for a $39 Chicago. If you want a little more drill for only a little more money go with a Craftsman (regular series), The professional Series is quite a bit higher. The Firestorm, Skill etc are all in the same range and some come with some nifty little toys that you probably won't use, like a light, sander, etc.
ReRe "willshak" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.supernews.com... Harry wrote:
Long term does not mean anything. It is the amount of use that determines the life span of the tool. You can buy a cheap tool, use it a few times a year to cut a few pieces of wood, drill a few holes or drive a few screws, and it will probably last as long as the most expensive tool. My Ryobi 18v cordless is a few years old, and if I add up all the times it was actually running, it would probably only add up to a couple of hours. I probably pick it up no more than 10 or 12 times a year and use it for a couple of minutes of actual running time. If you are using a drill/driver for wood, it probably takes less than 5 seconds of running time to drill a hole or drive a screw. The biggest continuous job I did with my Ryobi drill was installing a vinyl picket fence on 3 sides around my inground pool two years ago. The fence consisted of 14 - 8' sections, screwed between 4x4 PT posts, and included 2x3 studs that I slid into the hollow plastic fence rails for added strength. Each 8' section required 4 hangers with 6 screws for each hanger (2 to hold the hanger to the 4x4 post and 2 screws on either side of the hanger to hold the rail), for a total of 24 screws per section. Including the hardware for two gates, that's probably around
360 screws. At 5 seconds per screw, that's about 1800 seconds, or 30 minutes of actual running time ( I did have to replace the battery at least a couple of times).