Best DIY tool:
- Site (Makita) from Screwfix for =A340
Best 1-drill for all:
- =A338 - Makita 6337/6347 body with 13mm chuck on Ebay, made in USA
- =A322 - Buy 14.4V multi-charger (DC1414F if I recall)
- =A335 - Buy 2x 1.3Ah NiCD for DIYer or 1x 2.6Ah NiMH if regular use
Irregular DIYers are better with 2x NiCD because one can be recharging whilst the other is used and NiCD has a slow self-discharge rate compared to NiMH (which discharge extremely rapidly).
There is another drill above the 6337, can't recall what it is with a side handle. The 13mm chuck is handy for a "takes anything" although you could get a 6280 and just change the chuck to a larger one. The
13mm chuck however has a nice ratchet action and doesn't suffer slippage like the normal cordless chucks. The 6337/6347 are however heavy above your head.
Battery quality varies significantly re 1) matching cell voltage 2) granularity as I recall etc of the internal chemicals. The branded companies can use a simple trick to extract more value - not necessarily buy the best sanyo/panasonic cells but just match the voltage through the packs so charge/discharge is linear across all cells which maximises life considerably. Not unusual to find people having put 8yrs on the original Makita batteries.
There was a =A399 Dewalt on Ebay which had a good chuck but also higher RPM than most drills, that high RPM under load can be better for punching through when other drills are losing RPM.