Cordless Drill

Lidl have one for 30 quid this Monday. Li-ion battery and fast charger. Likely perfectly ok for DIY.

Its a fair point for casual users of one tool. For those that have used many different ones you can read somewhat more into anecdotal reports.

For example, I was "satisfied" with my first cordless - a 7.2V Richmond two speed drill from Argos. It gave me freedom from a cord, and a decent screwdriving and removing capability I had not had prior to that (my mains drill had no reverse for example) it was light and easy to use. Looking back however I would not want to go back to it as my only drill. It had a single battery, and a 15 hour charger, no hammer action. The gears were plastic (it still has a click each rotation in one gear where it shed a cog tooth as a spade bit jammed).

My next was a B&D Proline 9.6V one. Variable speed with reverse and twin speed, metal gears etc, and a 1hr charger with spare batt. A far more competent and useful tool. Much better quality feel, and battery life, far more useful torque etc. It was great for many tasks but struggled with 4" screws into softwood and its hammer action was quite feeble. However I never use it these days since its batteries are now knackered, and it in reality it pales into insignificance compared to my Makita 18V combi, that runs rings round it in every conceivable way.

Having used the Makita it puts the earlier tools (and all those I have used since that belong to friends etc) very much into perspective - they are a world apart. (and to be fair there is a quite a gulf between the low end Makitas with 1.3Ah NiCd and the Marathon motored posher versions).

Yup that is true - although my 18V Makita is quite heavy, its well balanced and smaller than a mains drill. I find that its my go to tool for all jobs except those that need the SDS. While I have several "normal" corded mains drills, they never get used these days. I am however tempted to add a 10.8V Li-Ion drill/driver and ID kit to my setup for when doing lighter assembly work and the smaller lighter tool would be welcome.

The tool may be usable - but the batteries are going to be crap. Someone bought be a B&Q cordless jigsaw once - probably at a similar price point. One 24" cut in 1/2" ply was about its limit on a full charge (with the speed falling off contentiously through the cut!), after that is was a 15 hour wait for a recharge on the bundled toy charger.

Noticed in B&Q earlier a kit that looked to be a decent deal.

Pretty sure it was:

but with an impact driver as well. Something like 170 quid IIRC.

Didn't pay much attention at the time but might be worth a look for the OP?

Darren

Yes - thanks - that is the one I think I am going to go for.

Thanks to all for positive comments.

My first experience with power screwing was with bits in a mains drill. I w as really grateful for the work it saved me. Then the silverline 9.6v with

gawd. I got a cheap cordless circular for cutting things down to get them h ome, its nothing like that bad.

NT

I have one - sort of fine as a casual wood drill and screwdriver, and I use it a lot. The battery is a bit of a pain (Holding charge and takes a while to charge), and the chuck sometimes needs a second go to get the bit centre, but fine.

To the OP - I'd probably be looking at a hammer in my next cordless. Having used a 14V (£200!) Bosch recently. By no means heavy duty - but it does 6mm into masonry very nicely.

My feeling is that hammer is next to useless. Perhaps it's the materials I come across - you can either drill normal bricks with just a decent masonry drill, or you need SDS for everything else.

Yup same here... I had bought an impact driver (the clomp it with a hammer mechanical version - not the modern take), which I very rarely found a use for, however I did work out I could stick the bits in the end of Mum's B&D in low gear ;-)

I should hope not - that jigsaw was comically bad! I did not expect it to be particularly good, but I did expect it to actually be ussable...

If you have not tried them, get some of the Bosch multi material drill bits. They are excellent for masonry in cordless tools.

I find once you get up to the 14V and above tools, the hammer can be quite effective (especially with a Bosch MM drill bit).

I remember being quite surprised finding that I could drill the render on my last place with my 18V cordless, and a MM drill bit with relative ease, even though in the past I had given up on trying to use "normal" hammer drills on it, since it seemed to be totally impervious to them. (Bosch mains drill, normal 5mm masonry bit - 15 mins per hole!)

The uspide of hammer is just that you've got it built in to the tool you've got with you, when you didnt take the sds. So if youre only working on you r own home, not overly useful, but otherwise it is.

Also masonry bits used without hammering sometimes suffer a short life. Ham mer extends their life as well as speeding the job up.

NT

Makita 18V Lithium-ion Combi Drill with 2 Batteries

I also am interested in this exact model - - it seems good for the £102 price. Has anyone got the same model? Any comments on it? Is it OK as screwdriver as well?

Note that's with 1.3A batteries, not 3A.

/ I also am interested in this exact model - - it seems good for the ? ?102 price. Has anyone got the same model? Any comments on it? /Q

Batteries are not interchangeable with other Makita cordless tools. Check o ut the charge time also... Istr it was long....

Jim K

I've never understood why 'site' radios use a battery, I'd have thought it would be ideal to combine a charger into the radio, to avoid having another battery and to avoid needing a charger *and* a radio ...

I've never understood why 'site' radios exist, a fiver gets you an old radio.

NT