What cordless DIY drill

[Jim]

My B&D cordless drill (or at least the batteries) have given up the will to live and will now only tackle half a small hole before dying so I'm after a new drill

This will be purely a DIY tool and used very infrequently. I won't therefore be regularly changing and charging batteries so need something which I can leave a battery in the charger permanently so that I'm ready to go when the need arises.

Any suggestions on what type of drill/battery would most suit my needs preferably under £100

Cheers

Jim

[meow2222]

I dont know any that can be left on charge indefinitely. Next option is a quick charge, eg 1 hr for a full charge, 10 mins would then be enough for a small job. You can get that from anything from Titan to dewalt, so youre talking about =C2=A320 to =C2=A3100. For just occasional u= se, a Titan would normally be plenty good enough. ISTR screwfix clearing them out.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Surely that's incredibly expensive in electricity use? And do you really need something that has to be ready for use there and then? Like you wake up and say 'I'm going to drill a hole this second'?

Good quality batteries hold at least some of their charge for months. More so with current types. Cheap ones self discharge more quickly.

[Frank Erskine]

On Wed, 27 May 2009 23:14:29 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" had this to say:

Much better to use a hand drill in this case.

I'm sure a lot of DIY work could be done using hand tools rather than quite inefficient power tools - less damage to the environment, and even a bit more physical fitness to the DIYer.

[Dave]

Dave thinks of a DIYer using a tungsten carbide masonary drill in a brace and bit fashion :-)

Dave

[The Medway Handyman]

Remember the Rawltool? Bash, turn, bash, turn? Manual SDS really. very handy for doing a single hole.

[The Medway Handyman]

Li-Ion batteries will do what you want. Screwfix have three Li-Ion drill drivers under £100.

If you want a combi e.g drill/driver/hammer drill they start from £120.

[Frank Erskine]

On Wed, 27 May 2009 23:52:31 +0100, Dave had this to say:

In this case a Rawldrill (or was it the Rawltool?)(the kind you twist and hit with a hammer) would be quite suitable. Don't forget that around the 1930s these were quite typical for electricians wiring a whole house using conduit and needing perhaps ¾" holes through bricks.

Actually I think the Rawldrill was a sort of hand drill with hammer action. That would be entirely suitable for fixing things with Rawlplugs.

The whole idea of DIY is that you aren't working to a timescale; nor are you costing your time.

HTH -

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Oh, aye. In cheese-like brick, sure.

If I never see another Rawl-bastard-tool again, I'll be happy.

[The Medway Handyman]

Wimp :-)

[pete]

No, not really. Keeping something permanently on costs about £1 per Watt per year. Despite what some in the media would have you believe, chargers use leccy by the teaspoonful (i.e. not very much). Reckon on about a fiver a year, tops. Not "incredibly expensive" after all?

Go for an NiMH battery - not sure if shops are allowed to sell NiCds any more, but they lose charge quickly. Also keep the battery at room temperature, they lose the capacity quickly if they get cold (but regain it as they warm up again).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They were really the only DIY way for hard materials before SDS arrived.

Gave a certain satisfaction actually being able to make a hole in granite, etc, but otherwise I agree. Kids these days...;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Maybe not in electricity costs then - but I'd like to be sure the device was made for permanent connection. And I wouldn't leave something like this on 24/7 anyway as there's really no point.

[Mark]

Most* NiMH cells self-discharge as well. Li-ion batteries are better. I'm tempted with the Bosch PSR14.4 Li at about £80.

• You can get low self-discharge NiMH cells but I don't think any fitted to powertools are this type.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My most commonly used cordless is a Wicks Hi Torque which has decent 2 amp hr Ni-Cads - and it might not be used for weeks at a time. Never gone to use it and found the battery flat - and the spare battery (which will only get put back in the case fully charged) seems to self discharge very little indeed in practice.

[Mark]

My Bosch Nicads were unusable after 2 years light usage.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That suggests a poor charger - or *very* heavy use. Decent quality Ni-Cads charged properly should give a minimum of 500 cycles. The above drill is older than two years and the batteries still fine. It does have an intelligent charger which cuts off after they're charged, though.

I don't have any Bosch cordless tools so can't really comment on their quality - but I'd expect them to be ok.

[Old Git]

Used mine only last week and in concrete at that. I have very limited physical capabilities but was no problem. I needed to start a hole very precisely and was intending to make a start with it then use the cordless drill but it was going so well I carried on. I do have to agree on some levels though, as an apprentice electrician many moons back it was the only way and of course the apprentice always drew the short straw. Nothing worse than hammering away in a freezing cold shell of a building and missing with the hammer, certainly made the eyes water and my hands turn into some interesting shapes.

Anyone know of a source for the bits? More out of interest really.

[Mark]

I'd expect Bosch to be better than the 'budget' tools due to price (and brand reputation). The charger is intelligent. As I said before it had light use (at weekends only).

Me too. Hence my disappointment.

[Scott M]

Excepting that Li-Ion don't like to be left fully charged....