Finally... a new (affordable!) tool I like

Went to HD to pick up some sandpaper the other day to work on the kitchen remodel and cab refinish I am doing. The Milwaukee rep was there, and he told me that HD was going to start carrying a pretty full line of Milwaukee at some stores, and Hilti at others.

He showed asked me if I had seen the new little Milwaukee 12v Li drill/ driver. I immediately chuckled, thinking of the little Fisher/Price see through drill I bought my nephew when he was 5.

He was adamant. These are real tools, he proclaimed. In my head, I was still seeing the red plastic drill bit rotating as powered by two double a batteries.

He plucked the MW 12v off the shelf. It was small. It had only 100 lbs of torque. (Again with the Fisher/Price image...) He let me try it and I was pleasantly surprised at the power. It will honestly drive a 3" screw into soft wood without a pilot. He claimed it was sold as being capable of driving 130 or so without a charge, but his own personal experience put it at about 80+. Impressive. It was something like $159, so I figured for someone it might be a good deal.

Seeing I wasn't buying, he asked if I had ever tried the Ridgid 12V Li drill. I didn't even know they made one, and didn't care. Another demo. Same driving capacity claimed, but with 120 lbs of torque, and an LED headlight on it. It felt exactly like the MW in my hand. Nice, but I am not a tool collector. Even at $129, I didn't bite.

But... they have a promo on now. For $129, you get TWO drills, two batteries, the charger and a softside case. I bit. I often set up two drill when working to do a line of repetition like one drill to drill holes, one to drive.

Here's the skinny:

You get two batteries that charge one at a time in 30 minutes. There is no memory; they discharge each time they charge.

This has a nice, heavy duty chuck on it that doesn't require hex ended bits and drivers to work. All your bits will work as normal.

The drills AND batteries are covered in the lifetime warranty. If one drill goes down and hits the warranty slow roll, you still have the other to work with.

I am working on a kitchen refurb, one in which I am completely refinishing the cabinets inside and out. When I do this, I remove all hardware from doors, drawers and stiles, fill the holes, and dry fit all the components. Then I drill new holes as needed, fit the component hardware and component to my liking, and remove them once more.

Here's what I have so far.

The little drill has a bunch of power. Not my Makita cordless hammer drill power, but it's 1/3 the size. I was really surprised at how much power those little batteries will transmit to the motor.

In 30 year old >hard< white oak, I drilled 238 holes 1/8" (diameter) X

5/8" deep, drove about 175 #6 screws, and changed bits about 45 times. I keep the same drill (testing the actual use and battery time) and started with a full, fresh charge. All the the holes were drilled, screws driven, etc. on just one charge.

The battery was recharged in 25 minutes.

I thought the LED light was a silly joke. It is until you get the bit about 2" out of the chuck, and then it actually shines on the tip of the drill bit and material. This was really handy inside the base units when pulling the drawer hardware.

The batteries are in the handle, so it makes the drill a bit chunky in the hand, but not uncomfortable.

The trigger has a really short throw, so it is a bit twitchy compared to my bigger drills. It does speed increases and decreases accurately though, with no jumping around in speed.

I like the fact it uses all my bits. Even in the small bits, the chucks held tightly. On larger bits (I had to drill out a couple of screws completely using a 3/8" bit) it held it easily as well.

The compact size it really, really, easy to get used to. It slipped into the corners, around braces, and into my tool bags without any problems. This is nice.

The housing has rubber bumpers around the case at strategic drop points. This is a good idea as all the tools take a tumble now and then, but the guys that design them never seem to take that into consideration.

All in all, I think HD has a winner with this one. It actually seems to do what it says it will, and more. And two for one, too. What a pleasant surprise from the HD guys. I will be reattaching all doors, hardware and drawer slides and hardware in the next few days. Rest assured I will scream like a mashed cat if anything goes wrong.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41
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A few months back, I bough a package set of DeWalt 18v cordless tools. Originally, I was going to buy Milwaukee since I was already a satisfied Milwaukee owner with a corded and cordless drill. It turns out now that the entire line was sold and is being manufactured overseas. That made me go with the DeWalt brand. If I can support mostly local production and get when I need, then that's the way I like to go.

And, I'm really happy with the tools I got. They're powerful and work well. I considered going to one of the higher voltage packages in the DeWalt line, but the tools would have been just too heavy for my purposes.

Reply to
Upscale

Upscale,

Are the Dewalts made in the USA? I have an 18 volt Dewalt drill and saw that I bought about 8 years ago I just bought my second set of batteries last year and they have proved to be real workhorses in our home repair business.

Robert,

Nice score on the Milwaukee tools. I'll check them out today.

Reply to
cm

wrote

I never thought I'd say this, but, on that same "compact" note:

And should anyone find a need for a bit smaller, lithium ion powered "screw driver", for use when installing cabinet hardware, etc, (and the occasional small drilling job when mounting hardware) be sure to check out, of all things:

the 3.6v Skil iXO!

Amazingly long lasting little thing ... and under $40.

I was looking for something _real_ small, that I could put in an apron pocket/tool belt, when installing drawer slides, door knobs and pulls, contemplated buying two because of their size/price and the need to have one always charged, but thus far have not been able to run that cheap little critter's lithium ion battery down during a normal day's use.

Not in the same league with your larger Ryobi "compact", but neither are its requirements.

Reply to
Swingman

cm" wrote

The DeWalt 18v drill is the most ubiquitous cordless tool on any construction site I've been on in the last 7 or 8 years.

May be wrong, but I would have sworn Robert ended up with the Ryobi 12v iL?

Reply to
Swingman

Humm I thought he ended up with the Ridgid. I'll go back and reread.

Reply to
Leon

That is exactly the kind of tool that every electronic technician has on his bench or in his tool kit. Verrrry handy!

Reply to
Lee Michaels

Nope. Ridgid, the Home Depot "house" brand.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41
2 Ridgif 12 volt drills with lifetime warranty for $129.00?

That is a deal, thanks for posting Robert.

I'm confused however, the Milwaukee rep sold you on the Ridgid drill??? Perhaps Milwaukee is making the drill for Ridgid now.

Reply to
Leon

The rep for TSTI (or TSI) that was the holding company told me they are both his products, along with Ryobi USA and a couple of others, including a paint brush company.

He moved me over to Ridgid as he could see there was no sale on the Milwaukee products, most of which are now made overseas. That shift started well before their sale to the holding company.

But being a good sales rep, he sold me what he had in his line, making sure I didn't go to another brand he didn't represent. As a sidebar, the feel of the Ridgid and the Milwaukee are eerily similar.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...

... W/ Milwaukee, don't believe there really was much "shift"; they began building overseas w/ the introduction of new products. They still afaik, have all the same US production facilities they ever had.

I've two of the 18V hammer drills; one has a Eastern Europe tag, the other (actually the newer of the two), US.

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Reply to
dpb

DeWalt is a mixed bag or origin, one of the original "mutt" tools. Many of them are plainly marked with China or Taiwan as their place of origin. And remember, to be stamped "made in USA", they only need a certain amount of parts and labor with USA as their origin to be stamped as such.

My planer box said right on the box "assembled in Mexico from parts made in Taiwan, Mexico, Indonesia and other countries".

On the box.

I took apart my prized DW 18v drill when it quit working to see if there was something obviously wrong with it I could fix.

The case was made in Mexico, as was cast into the actual case. The motor was an old Johnson motor, although I understand that today they use a Taiwanese motor. No markings on the drive train or trigger, so no idea where they were made.

Cutting open the battery, they were Panasonic industrial made in China.

I don't think DW or other major brand makes an honest "made in USA" tool.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

The rep for TSTI (or TSI) that was the holding company told me they are both his products, along with Ryobi USA and a couple of others, including a paint brush company.

He moved me over to Ridgid as he could see there was no sale on the Milwaukee products, most of which are now made overseas. That shift started well before their sale to the holding company.

But being a good sales rep, he sold me what he had in his line, making sure I didn't go to another brand he didn't represent. As a sidebar, the feel of the Ridgid and the Milwaukee are eerily similar.

Robert

Thanks Robert, I steered my BIL towards Ridgid shortly after the hurricane. He is an occasional user and I really pushed the life time warranty on the battery as being something he would probably appreciate.

Reply to
Leon

"Leon" wrote

Ridgid, Ryobi, Milwaukee, what's the difference?

... apparently :)

Looking back, Robert apparently never even mentioned "Ryobi", but alas, when I think of HD and cheap, that brand immediately pops to mind.

Actually, and judging from what I see on construction sites, a lot of Ridgid tools, though not the Ridgid of yore, still seem to be pretty damn good, despite their now bastardized origin.

Witness my Ridgid planer, still trucking along after five or six years of use.

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Last update: 10/22/08 KarlC@ (the obvious)

Reply to
Swingman

Swingman wrote: ...

pretty damn good,

Those Ridgid tools _are_ the "Ridgid of yore" for them--Ridgid never made those prior to the licensing of the name.

The traditional Ridgid domain of pipe wrenches, threaders, etc., etc., are unchanged afaik.

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Reply to
dpb

Of course not. The way you know your cordless drill isn't made entirely in the USA is that it's doesn't cost $600.

Reply to
-MIKE-

I got the Milwaukee, $103 at Amazon. Two batteries, one drill, but otherwise sounds about the same, lights, fast charger, case and all. HD wasn't offering the promo back then. I don't feel a loss for having to swap the driver for a drill bit. The change is quick and easy. More to the point, though, the 500 RPM driver is a bit slow for drilling. I prefer a normal corded drill for making lots of holes. (If it's not lots of holes, I guess it doesn't matter so much how often you swap or don't swap the bits, or how slow it spins.) It's a great little driver that can also make a few holes.

As to who they are, Milwaukee is a US headquarted company, owned by the European conglomerate that also owns Ryobi and a few others. Ridgid doesn't say much on their website about where and who they are.

Reply to
MikeWhy

Reply to
Dave

Not much. Warranty mostly.

The guy I was talking to in the store said that Milwaukee is trying to reach the serious DIY, semi-pro and pro guys with more affordable tools.

Then he said they are upping the ante on the Ridgid tools by making them better, with different guts than before and with more sturdy designs. They are now actively seeking the pro market, and will leave the DIY to Skil, Ryobi, and others.

So one is going up, and one is coming down on the quality scale.

I still can't get over the fact that the store has a large Hilti display. These tools are priced in Festool's domain, perhaps a touch south. Many are made in Switzerland, and seem well built, but awkward.

Someone will lose rack space. You aren't going to have $450 cordless drills in a big box stores for long. Especially when no one I know that isn't in the trades has used Hilti tools.

I think some are better. Their newer line of cordless drills are supposed to be pretty good, and priced competitively.

For about 5 years I used a 14.4 drill that was a Ryobi "Commercial" brand that I bought at the old Builder's square. That drill was a stud and was only used for roofing repairs and sheet metal work. It worked great. It wasn't cheap like today's Ryobi tools, but it was a winner.

You never know. I don't care anymore what color or name is on the tools. I just want them to do what they advertise, in the manner they claim.

Seems to be a trick to doing that, though. Perhaps explains why I was so pleased with the little Li 12v drill. In reality, it just does what it is supposed to do...

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

'Memory' never really existed anyway - except for specific satellite applications that had a very precisely controlled charge-discharge regime and a specific battery chemistry. That's not to say an occasional deep discharge is bad, but it's not good if individual cells get reverse polarised. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to ever intentionally discharge a battery nor buy a charger that did the same.

Discharging any battery before charging is normally a waste of time and energy particularly when chargers exist that can control very precisely the charge curve to ensure extremely short charge times without overcharging and overheating together with conditioning of cells to avoid whisker growth.

In the case of lithium-ion batteries now coming into the portable tool market a full discharge kills them years before their time - lots of top ups before the discharge gets too much is the way to go.

I routinely run my five year old Bosch drill Nicad's to the point at which they become incapable of drilling or screwing at a reasonable speed. Then fit the other battery. I struggle to discharge a fresh battery before the discharged one is ready for service. In case they ever go faulty the cost of new ones is so high I'll either re-cell them with some modern cell, or given the hug falls in the price of new tools, buy a new drill.

Reply to
Mike

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