Got an email from Screwfix today, they're selling a 32.4V Combi Drill Ferm for £32.40. Seems like good value to me. Has anybody got one of these, are they OK or not worth the money?
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19 years ago
Screwfix 32.4v drill
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- posted
19 years ago
What volts at only a pound each... must be good! ;-)
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- posted
19 years ago
Did you get one in the end ? Is it any good ? I was tempted by this email too.
-- Pete
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- posted
19 years ago
my neighbour bought one (he has to have every tool), he's been using it all day and says it's well worth the money but IMO it's way too heavy
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19 years ago
It's not SDS, so a waste of time. May as well buy a proper SDS drill, you will not look back.
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- posted
19 years ago
Slow and heavy but very good value for money. As a battery is about £20 get two drills. I have already bought a spare battery as mine only came with one, or I'd be buying another.
The battery needs to be run flat a couple of times before it is in peak condition and don't rely on the state of charge indicator or you may be stuck when it drops off pdq.
How on earth can they make them and give B&Q such a good deal? Or are they loss leaders or what?
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- posted
19 years ago
A battery operated sds cost a fortune but B&Q were selling a mains version relatively cheaply. Buy two of the first and one of these latter
-if B&Q are still offering them, for half the price of a battery sds.
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- posted
19 years ago
I believe Argos were selling a battery SDS for around £60. Wickes sell one, a Kress, quite reasonably, although this a is pro model.
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- posted
19 years ago
This is pure and simple bogus marketing.
They believe that people will be attracted by the battery voltage numbers and at a suitably low price believe this kind of product to be super value for money.
A drill has to be looked at as a complete product - the motor, speed control and especially the batteries are critical.
If the number of batteries are doubled to increase the voltage it means that either the weight has to be doubled and will make the tool unwieldy or the size of the cells halved, in which case there is no increase in power or battery life.
In a recent cordless tool review, a Panasonic 15.6v drill came out way ahead of 18v and even 24v competitors, so really the battery voltage has little to do with what can be achieved.
Whether something like this at £32 is going to be good value for money depends on what you want to do with it. Considering that batteries are the lion's share of the cost, it means that there is precious little left to spend on the mechanics and control.
At this price point and close to it, I think you would be better off getting a mains drill.
.andy
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- posted
19 years ago
A battery SDS is a total waste of money for anyone other than a pro who may be able to justify it for specialised jobs.
To be any good it needs a power output of around 500 watts to match even an el cheapo mains one - and just how long do you think a battery will last under those conditions?
A cordless drill needs to be reasonably light to make sense - few DIYers will be far from a power supply so can use a mains one where serious drilling power is needed. IHMO, this sets the top limit at about 18 volts
- 12 will be quite enough if a quality tool and battery.
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- posted
19 years ago
Soorry to sound higgor'nt but what's SDS?
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- posted
19 years ago
Unless you halve the size of the cells of course.
In their quest for ever increasing voltage, because they feel that customers will associate it with penile length, it would not be impossible for the marketeers to do this.
.andy
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19 years ago
That would cause ructions. I have this vision of a far east factory geared up to produce nothing but rubbish sub-C cells at a price no one would believe. Can't be more than about 10p each.
Seems so. Perhaps they could just make drills with vast batteries full of space, but only 12 volts? Bit like 19" width Hi-Fi equipment...
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19 years ago
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote | > In their quest for ever increasing voltage, because they | > feel that customers will associate it with penile length, | > it would not be impossible for the marketeers to do this. | Seems so. Perhaps they could just make drills with vast | batteries full of space, but only 12 volts? Bit like 19" | width Hi-Fi equipment...
Or use a 6V battery and a voltage multiplier circuit - that would give them an apparently large Ah capacity for the size of case, and a high voltage marketing spec.
Owain
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- posted
19 years ago
The Ah of most of these cheapo ones will be the same - given they all use the same cells. Watt/hour or somesuch would be a better measurement.
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- posted
19 years ago
A google of this group will get you loads of discussions on the topic.
In summary, it is a highly effective hammer drill system that often uses a pneumatic compressor to deliver the hammer action. The drills all have a standard sized shank that is splined, these lock into a matching chuck. The hammer action hits the end of the bit itself rather than the chuck.
The result is a hammer action that delivers many hundreds of times the energy per blow. Hence you can drill straight through hard masonry like it is hardly even there, in circumstances when an ordinary hammer drill would make a lot of noise while making an every wider and not deeper hole.
The better models also have a rotation stop mode where they can be used as a lightweight breaker with a chisel bit. Ideal for chasing walls etc.
See here for selection of decent examples of the species:
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19 years ago
You're absolutely correct, but, while there have been many mentions of SDS drills, I didn't find anything that indicated the meaning of SDS, hence I put the question here. Thanks for the excellent explanation. :-)
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19 years ago
Have mains powered SDS, need something more general purpose (and cordless) as the SDS drill is large and I can't be bothered plugging it in all the time.
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- posted
19 years ago
If you already have a mains SDS, go for a relatively lightweight cordless
- a heavy one, as I'd say a 24 volt must be - doesn't make any sense.
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- posted
19 years ago
OK.
Then a much better purchase would be to spend a bit more and get a Makita 14.4v cordless drill such as the 6228.
This is quite light weight (1.5kg), and will do any of the jobs for which the SDS is too large and inconvenient,.
The £32 superspecial weighs 4kg - the weight of a chunky SDS - so not that convenient.
If you look at Screwfix's web page on it, they are selling it as £1 per volt (refer to my previous point). Then they have discounted it by 50%. This is a story in itself. Clearly they were not successful in selling it at £79.99 so it begs the question as to what's wrong with it. Either they are overstocked or haven't sold enough or they have come back.
I suppose if you don't mind writing off £30 it could be interesting, but apart from that this does not sound like a good deal.........
.andy
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