Any good deals on 18V cordless drills this weekend?

My two trust B&D 12V cordless drills are getting a bit long in the tooth and don't have the bottle for really big jobs.

AIUI 18v drills have more 'oomph'. Is this true in all cases? A 1 hour charger you can also leave on to keep the battery topped up would be good. A spare battery would be nice also :-)

There are some remarkably cheap 18v drills e.g.

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|category_root|Garden+and+DIY|14418702/c_2/3|15701048|Power+tools|14418763/c_3/4|cat_14418763|Cordless+drills+and+screwdrivers|14418778.htm?_$ja=tsid:11527|cc:|prd:7112812|cat:garden+%26+diy+%3E+power+tools+%3E+cordless+drills+and+screwdriversbut this doesn't seem to have a second battery and takes 3-5 hours to charge. [My B&Ds take 3 hours to charge with dire warnings about leaving them charging for too long, and needing to run them down each time to avoid loss of performance.]

An alternative would be a power (240v) drill/screwdriver which had a ratchet torque setting - like the cordless drills which go 'bradadadadaada' like an impact driver when you hit the torque setting. My ancient B&D Quattro has a torque stall setting but this isn't as effective or controllable and the drill tends to stop short or slam the screws home. It also doesn't always work - I managed to smoke the drill when fitting M10 screws although it seems to have survived so far.

Given that it is a spending frenzy Bank Holiday weekend I thought I might look for a new driver before I put in all the screw bolts on my metal roof. These need to be just 'so tight' to avoid over compressing the rubber seal.

Do I have to go up to £90-£100 to get a decent drill/driver?

TIA

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts
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Well its generally true that an 18V will have more oomph than a 12V say. However you will also probably find a decent 14V will trounce a cheap and nasty 18V as a result of the difference in quality of battery.

30 or 15 min charger is even more useful! ;-)

and a couple of spare batts - one way to reduce battery life is to charge a hot one. So when you finish once batt, you want to swap to the next charged one, but leave the used one to cool for a bit before charging - having a third helps here.

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|category_root|Garden+and+DIY|14418702/c_2/3|15701048|Power+tools|14418763/c_3/4|cat_14418763|Cordless+drills+and+screwdrivers|14418778.htm?_$ja=tsid:11527|cc:|prd:7112812|cat:garden+%26+diy+%3E+power+tools+%3E+cordless+drills+and+screwdrivers>> but this doesn't seem to have a second battery and takes 3-5 hours to > charge.

So can be ruled out then...

Torque settings and impact drivers are very different things - even if they can sound slightly similar in action. A torque setting will "let go" at a pre defined torque and any further attempt to drive will result in the clicking of the torque limiter, but no real additional turning of the screw going on.

An impact driver will reach the impact torque cut in point and switch to angular impact mode - that then carries on driving the screw. There is no torque limiter on an ID usually - so if you keep driving, that screw will carry on turning until it goes right through and out the other side, or something snaps!

Proper torque limiters are repeatable (at least on decent ones). However for 2" screws and above, you can usually judge by hand easily enough.

This is on e of those cases where an impact driver is probably not the best thing then, ans a drill driver with torques limiter would be better.

Yes. To get what you describe. Shame they are no longer on special at £50, but:

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*only slight downside is relatively low capacity batts - but they are decent enough quality to enable you to wring useful work out of them)

Reply to
John Rumm

...before I put in all the screw bolts on my metal roof.

There is special tool/screw for this job - google TEK drivers and fixings.

They work in a very similar way to drywall screwdrivers, with a set- and-forget setting on the nose, that operates the clutch by position/ depth rather than by torque.

Probably more than you want to spend for a one off job, but hiring might be a possibility if you have a lot of fixings to do in one go.

Reply to
dom

Thanks for the info.

Just to note that I wasn't trying to describe an impact driver, just the noise a torque limiter made. Which is what my B&D Quattro doesn't do, unfortunately.

Screwfix also has

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looks nice but is out of stock on the web site.

Any idea what the Site drill originally retailed at? Screwfix doesn't give a 'before and after' price.

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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seems to do what you describe and only costs £5.

I agree that the specialist drivers such as

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too expensive for one job.

My main problem now is mail order and the bank holiday weekend.

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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> which looks nice but is out of stock on the web site.

I recall a few people being less than totally impressed with them. For example:

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(I think I got my 18V Makita not long after that, and its still going strong!)

Well at one point it was down to £49! Howver they did it it at about £179 or something like that for a while. Until recently there was some good deals to be had on similar spec 14.4V Makita packages - but I could not see any of those this time.

Reply to
John Rumm

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which looks nice but is out of stock on the web site.

The 'Site' stuff is made by Makita. The Erbauer stuff is made by - someone in China?

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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> which looks nice but is out of stock on the web site.

The Site with the 3 batteries is looking good. Just have to prepare a short business case.

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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>> which looks nice but is out of stock on the web site.

I ran Makita 1.3 a/hr batteries for over 3 years trade use, inc many decking jobs before I had to upgrade/replace.

Makita stuff is the mutts nuts IMO and their after sales service is brill.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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> (*only slight downside is relatively low capacity batts - but they are

Just turned up this morning :-)

I am now waiting for the first batery to charge so I can play with it.

One thing - there was a double ended screwdriver bit chucked in the case but with no bit of plastic in the case to clip it to, and nowhere on the drill to clip it.

Is this standard?

Instructions are refreshingly minimalist.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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>>>>> (*only slight downside is relatively low capacity batts - but they are

Ah, perhaps you have spotted a feature you need to get the blue Makita for! (on mine there is a little clip at the base of the drill near where the battery plugs in that will hold said bit during that brief period between now and when you either lose it or break the ends off it! ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

he could have had the blue Makita:-

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K

Reply to
Jim K

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While we're on the subject, I do find the Makita chuck a bit annoying. On my old Kress I can stick a 3mm drill bit in, hold the chuck and fast forward gently on the trigger. Somehow the bit is always locked in the central position. On the Mak I have to close the jaws to something just slightly bigger than 3 mm and then tighten manually to get the bit straight. I love it for the power but prefer the Kress for everything else.

Reply to
stuart noble

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>>>>>>>> (*only slight downside is relatively low capacity batts - but they are

Only thing my B&D drills have that this hasn't.

Lovely bit of kit, though - the speed control is the best I've come across so far. Still on my first battery as well :-)

I somehow can't see me using the hammer drill option though unless I am totally unable to get my SDS drill near the job. I don't recall ever using the hammer option on my B&D Firestorm either.

It is doing sterling work screwing the metal roof down. Four panels done and hopefully the other four tomorrow.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

Yes, I wondered about the wobbly bit first time I used a small one. There's a concavity along the sides of the jaws and small bits are held quite well in there.

Reply to
PeterC

The jaws are also quite a hard metal - so they tend to bite into some bits rather than centre them if you have them too far off!

Reply to
John Rumm

mind you. Perhaps you need to go further up the range to get the clip!

Reply to
John Rumm

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>>>>>>>>>>>

The test of a good speed control is can it give you a slow rotation (say

60 rpm) *and* deliver usable torque at the same time. ;-)

Stick a bosch multimaterial bit in it and they are surprisingly good for drilling hard stuff up ladders.

Jolly good!

Reply to
John Rumm

but better (30 mins) charger....

wouldn;t surprise me ;>)

CHeers Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

Site drill has 30 minute charger (according to the instruction sheet). Just goes to show that you can't trust the details posted by B&Q (or Screwfix) online. Screwfix also states that it has 2 batteries (Specifications) and 3 batteries (summary at top) on the same page.

The charger seems to indicate it will charge anything from about 7V upwards. It would be nice if there was an adaptor for my B&D 12V batteries :-)

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David WE Roberts

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