A new drill!

[jonni_c]

Looking for recommendations for a new drill!.

I currently have an old B&D cordless with a 7.5V Battery (Pretty lame right?). This may seem like a daft question but are there more powerful drills and less powerful drills? e.g. is a mains drill likely to be more powerful than a battery drill simply because it always has an optimal amount of power?

I'm considering a mains drill basically because I don't have my workshop built yet and I'm not able to leave a charger plugged in around the house all the time - but if there are any decent cordless drills I'll consider them too. I'm not after pro stuff like Dewalt (bit too expensive) but I don't fancy any crap either. Use will be general DIY with different attachments used.

TIA

Jonni

[Set Square]

Virtually *any* mains drill will be more powerful than a battery job. Try to get one with a 2-speed mechanical gearbox and a decent size (1/2") chuck. Have a look at Bosch's d-i-y (as opposed to professional) range if you want reasonable quality without paying the earth. Argos used to sell them - haven't looked lately.

[Michael Mcneil]

My rebadged possibly NuTool imitation Makita from a market stall cost me about £75 -I can't remember. It's a little heavy but I can't speak its praise highly enough.

It is a 24 volt, 1 hour charge, two battery affair that I use almost every day professionally. It is as good as an ordinary electric drill with the hammer action. I can drill out about 5 motice latches for internal doors on one battery and still have some power to rehang them.

They are fairly easy to come by as the type is pretty much available everywhere. Maplins perhaps. Screwfix certainly.

If you have a socket spare for an electric drill you have one for the charger, no?

But for about £30 you can get a mains SDS. If it has reverse and can be used with or without hammer action, I'd get one of them if I were you.

[Michael Mcneil]

This can't be right can it?

21.6V Cordless Drill with 109pc Accessory Kit · 1 hour fast charge drill · Hammer action · 16 torque settings · Variable speed · Soft grip · Supplied with the ultimate 109pc accessory kit

Cordless Drill with 109pc Accessory Kit 1 14.99 14.99

[Woody]

You don't say where you live? NuTool have a factory outlet at their UK base at the top end of the A1(M) Doncaster by-pass, junc A638 Wakefield Road (huge - you can't miss it) and they are CHEAP.

Otherwise NuTool are also sold by Makro if you have or know anyone who has a card. I bought a 30V rechargeable with two batteries, a one-hour charger, some drill bits and all in a case for less than £40. It is two speed mechanical, adjustable torque setting, a variable trigger, a spot spirit level, and an LCD battery state meter all built in. It is a bit on the heavy side for day to day jobs and it only runs at (IMSMC) 1500rpm max, but it can sure drill a hole in brick darned quick!

NuTool also do some good 24V central-handle (as against pistol-grip) rechargeables that Makro do for less than £20.

You pays your money and you takes you choice, but if you only want occassional d-i-y use then they are as good as many and better than some.

NuTool I note are now available in B&Q under their own PD brand.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 9 May 2004 16:26:57 +0000 (UTC), in uk.d-i-y "Michael Mcneil" strung together this:

The price or the drill? I doubt it will last long. ISTR CPC doing something similar for around £20 a bit back.

[Stuart]

The price or the drill ?? :-) Stuart

[Andy Hall]

Given these criteria, I would look at the Bosch DIY (green) range, which are a good compromise between professional products like Bosch blue, Makita and DeWalt, and the junk end of the market like Ferm and NuTool.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Lurch]

On Sun, 09 May 2004 19:26:08 +0100, in uk.d-i-y Stuart strung together this:

Yes, it sounded right in my head though!

[Graeme]

Hmm, got me thinking. I've just been on the Maplin web-site and am confused. N43BF (Maplin's code) seems to be for a £14.99 battery which is for the N13AX drill. However the drill is listed as discontinued. This is very, very misleading.

[Ian Stirling]

The site is a bit poorly thought out. If you are browsing, it shows the minimum price in a category, along with a picture, along with "from xxx" This is reasonable for some categories, but when you get to categories of a tool and its accessories, it shows the price of the cheapest of the accessories. More a case of misdesign, rather than intentional misleading I think.

[John Stumbles]

Seconded. I had a play with a mate's Bosch green cordless 2-drill set and was most impressed by how smoothly they ran. Assuming the charger's not a cooker I'd have one myself if I needed a good cordless.

[IMM]

Maplins are selling Makita rip-offs?

[IMM]

I would give Bosch a wide berth and look at the Wickes range. A pro and DIY range with 2 and 3 yr guarantees and all good quality and no rip-off prices.

[Tim Nicholson]

The image looks suspiciously like a PPPro 24v jobby that B&Q did a few months ago for £29.99. The first one I bought (as a replacement for a

20 year old Black and Decker 9.6v drill), the gearbox (speed changer) switch on the top broke after 1/2 hrs use. They replaced it - no questions asked. The second one, the chuck failed after 2 hrs. They replaced that. When I took the third one back (on the same day - for the same reason as #1) they refused to change it for another, claiming a 'faulty' batch. I was refunded, and given £10.00 compensation for my trouble. I don't think they sell this product any more. I then bought a Bosch 18v drill with 2 batteries etc and a decent case etc for £120 or so. It's a superb piece of kit. If you're interested, I'll get you the exact model number.

Incidentally, the guy responsible for power tools in my local B&Q told me something interesting while I was there that day. If you can find a product on their website, then they should have it in stock, but not neccessarily on display. (they keep certain items in their 'select and collect' area cupboard, but don't display them i.e. they only display the cheap, high margin kit - not the decent tools). That's not to say that *some* of the stuff they display isn't good, but rather that they don't display the stuff that those in the know might be tempted to pinch if it was on a shelf. Probably apocryphal, but he reckoned that a £400 or so *boxed * DeWalt Mitre saw had been lifted from their store within 2 hrs of being put on display. The only proviso he did make was that if the product you wanted was a 'B&Q Warehouse only' product, it would take them another day to have it delivered to their store.

Tim

[IMM]

B&Q and B&Q Warehouse are not quite the same thing. A B&Q W would probably have all the drill in stock.

[Tim Nicholson]

Sorry - perhaps I should have said that my local store *isn't* a warehouse, but they can still get any 'warehouse only' product on a next day basis - at the same 'warehouse only' price. I should also probably mention that I've never had cause to test this, so I can't be certain that it would work if you ever tried it!

Tim

[Andy Hall]

My experience with B&Q in situations like this has been similarly good. Second replacement, refund and compensation with very little or no prompting. £10-15 on their part to do this takes the sting out of the wasted time and while not covering the actual cost of the time lost is a good gesture that encourages me to buy there again.

The other thing that they do is to put some of the more expensive stuff high up on the racks in the tools area, so it's worth scanning around there if interested in a particular item.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[John Stumbles]

So that's another recommendation for Bosch then ;-)

[John Stumbles]

Just noticed Toolstation has a 7.2V deWalt at £50. Can't go far wrong there, I'd think.