Cordless drills?

[TxBigfoot]

If you can wait, Lowes and HD always have killer deals on black Friday. They usually have Dewalts for $99. My lithium 18v Ryobi has been good to me, but it probably wouldn't hold up to heavy use.

 

[Brojon]

I was given a Sears Matrix drill for Christmas a couple years ago. It is a modular system where teh handle carries the battery and the motorized attachments snap in.
Mine came with the drill, hammer drill and 3.25" circular saw.
This thing is SO cool! The battery lasts a good long while and has a turbo boost charger that can get you back in the running in 15 minutes. It's a lithium ion battery so it won't up and die in a few months - I'm still on my original battery and it works like day 1.
The attachments are surprisingly good - not contractor quality, but for sure handyman+. I especially like the circular saw - it's built a privacy fence and replaced sections of drywall. They recently added a cutoff tool and it works pretty good. You can get the attachments on sale at Sears for $30 - normal price runs $35-$40 each.

 

[MikePotts]

Wow,
Thanks to everyone for their input, I'm most grateful.

I need to start at page one and make a spreadsheet! , I made a brief sortie to Lowes yesterday and looked at a DeWalt 970K for about $100 but due to your help and my infrequency of useage I may have to go with something with a lithium battery.

 

[Charlie]

Wow,
Thanks to everyone for their input, I'm most grateful.

I need to start at page one and make a spreadsheet! , I made a brief sortie to Lowes yesterday and looked at a DeWalt 970K for about $100 but due to your help and my infrequency of useage I may have to go with something with a lithium battery.

Lithium is the only way to go!

 

[Charlie]

Buy the Japanese stuff if possible, usually much better quality! I'd personally stay far away from Ryobi.

 

[Sugar Land]

Lithium worked for my cousin.

 

[MikePotts]

Lithium worked for my cousin.

LOL, can I scrounge some for the missus?

 

[matefrio]

Look used on craigslist for a popular model.

 

[matefrio]

Also Amazon may have cheep prices if you have prime.


http://amzn.com/B00K0O7DGA

http://amzn.com/B002RLR0EY

 

[TheDan]

They are all about the same and then the battery dies and you can buy a new drill for what a battery cost (almost).

When the batteries die, buy new cells from http://www.dx.com/ and rebuild it yourself.

 

[Charlie]

When the batteries die, buy new cells from http://www.dx.com/ and rebuild it yourself.

My neighbor did that with an older DeWalt. It costs him a little over $20 IIRC. The cases pry apart easily. Only minimal soldering experience necessary. I think there were either 9 or 11 smaller batteries hooked up in series inside the case on his 18v.

 

[rp-]

Maybe I missed it but nobody mentioned these guys

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...depot+12v+drill&hl=en&ei=o_cYVtKQK4SnNsr3itgG


The drill only kit is 99 at home depot. The kit is $169 and I highly recommend it. I personally have the hammer drill/driver at work and also the regular 1/4" Chuck impact driver in my work truck.

I have the regular drill and hopefully this weekend a second impact driver at my house.

I use the impact driver on a daily basis at work. I have one of the larger square 4.0ah batteries and it lasts a long time. The hammer drill is my only complaint. Using the regular batteries on a full charge I got about 3.5 holes in a concrete slab. I don't use them for that more than 1-2 times a year so I'm fine with that.

I originally bought the hackzall for work (pool repair guy, needed it to cut plumbing). I really liked it. It was water damaged (insert shocked face here) and the gear box in it ceased. It took a lot of use and abuse and a whole lot more water than 1 tool should.



All of these tools seem to be balanced well. For being 12v they last a long time and have plenty of power even when the batteries are going down. They make the 18v tools which are also great but for my work everything revolved around the 12v hackzall so I got the 12v stuff.

If you are a framer and use it non stop, go 18v. Milwaukee tools are tougher than dewalt IMO. Though my brother in law has the dewalt 20v kit. Its nice but in my time in all my jobs I have had too many dewalt tools fail but the only Milwaukee tool to fail was water damage.

 

[ed308]

Wow,
Thanks to everyone for their input, I'm most grateful.

I need to start at page one and make a spreadsheet! , I made a brief sortie to Lowes yesterday and looked at a DeWalt 970K for about $100 but due to your help and my infrequency of useage I may have to go with something with a lithium battery.

You'll be glad you did. The Lithium batteries are great if you don't use them every day. Nice when you pick it up and its got a charge.

 

[MikePotts]

This may be the winner for me:

only one battery but not bad for $100?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-1...less-Hammer-Driver-Drill-Kit-XPH012/205382798

 

[karlac]

This may be the winner for me:

only one battery but not bad for $100?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-1...less-Hammer-Driver-Drill-Kit-XPH012/205382798

As noted above, own one (and a few other Makita 18v models), use them daily in woodworking, cabinet making and construction, should do you just fine.

 

[james.long48]

Have over a dozen Roybi One plus tools, including a drill and impact. Starting collecting the One+ tools two years ago, haven't had a problem yet. Really awesome way to go sense Roybi sells many of the tools cheap without batteries. They are not as nice as Dewalt but get the job done. Home Depot runs periodic sells on the batteries and tools.

 

[james.long48]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/371355...7290-0%26rvr_id%3D909581285817&chn=ps&lpid=82


Home depot will sell sets like this for $250, all new, when they go on sell. Sometimes better deals pop up that include some random tool.

 

[clifpaul2]

Maybe I missed it but nobody mentioned these guys

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...depot+12v+drill&hl=en&ei=o_cYVtKQK4SnNsr3itgG


The drill only kit is 99 at home depot. The kit is $169 and I highly recommend it. I personally have the hammer drill/driver at work and also the regular 1/4" Chuck impact driver in my work truck.

I have the regular drill and hopefully this weekend a second impact driver at my house.

I use the impact driver on a daily basis at work. I have one of the larger square 4.0ah batteries and it lasts a long time. The hammer drill is my only complaint. Using the regular batteries on a full charge I got about 3.5 holes in a concrete slab. I don't use them for that more than 1-2 times a year so I'm fine with that.

I originally bought the hackzall for work (pool repair guy, needed it to cut plumbing). I really liked it. It was water damaged (insert shocked face here) and the gear box in it ceased. It took a lot of use and abuse and a whole lot more water than 1 tool should.



All of these tools seem to be balanced well. For being 12v they last a long time and have plenty of power even when the batteries are going down. They make the 18v tools which are also great but for my work everything revolved around the 12v hackzall so I got the 12v stuff.

If you are a framer and use it non stop, go 18v. Milwaukee tools are tougher than dewalt IMO. Though my brother in law has the dewalt 20v kit. Its nice but in my time in all my jobs I have had too many dewalt tools fail but the only Milwaukee tool to fail was water damage.

Going to have to second that. The 12 volt Milwaukee stuff is hard to beat.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[Whistler]

Back when I made a living with mine I tried all sorts of brands - Porter Cable, Milwaukee, Dewalt, Rigid, Makita, etc... The ones still kicking are Hitachi

 

[Dawico]

Back when I made a living with mine I tried all sorts of brands - Porter Cable, Milwaukee, Dewalt, Rigid, Makita, etc... The ones still kicking are Hitachi

Hitachis have put up with a ton of abuse from our framing crew.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk