Cordless drill etc

[j44ke]

I have this Milwaukee 2407 with their M12 (as in volt) battery system. It is a chunk but the grip placement makes it nicely balanced and the battery size/shape means I can get inside a cabinet and put the screw where I want to without some honking big battery constantly getting in the way. It has a 3/8" chuck but that's good enough for about 89% of everything. I drilled through a steel fire door & door frame with mine (not the right tool to use to be honest but) to put in a pneumatic closer, and I went through two drill bits but the drill did fine. Just used cutting oil and steady pressure. I'd recommend it with the caveat above about discounted innards in mind. I got mine on Amazon I believe where the user reviews are pretty merciless when they find a power tool that has cheap plastic inside. I expected not to like it or for it to last but so far I like it and it isn't broken.

[giordana93]

little late on this one, but will add my 2 cents. I looked around alot a few years ago for just this item and scored a Hitachi cordless drill/impact driver combo set for a great price and a measly 12 volts---and let me tell you that unless you are building a deck or drilling monster holes through oak or steel, don't dismiss the 12v units. they are lighter and slimmer which means easier to wield overhead and into the back recesses of cabinets behind plumbing, etc. and the dang thing feels like it could break my wrist with its torque. pretty similar probably to the M12 by milwaukee Jorn cited. the makita 18s pack a big punch in a small package too. point being that if you don't need a big ass drill, don't get one. I'm convinced the power of the 12s is plenty adn the bigger battery might get you longer run times, but at the expense of weight and handling. try driving fasteners overhead on top of a ladder and you'll know what I mean

[Gattonero]

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans! Happy Thursday, everyone else!

I need a good cordless drill. It occurs to me I should choose with future cordless tools in mind to maximize battery compatibility. What do I want? Porter Cable? Ryobi? Hilti? Dewalt? Hitachi?

Use case: I'm not becoming a construction contractor, just want to do light to moderate repairs around the house.

Spend once and wise.
We have this in the workshop and use it several times a day for driling, unscrewing things, building wheels... after 3 years we hardly see a degradation of the battery. It's 18v and has a lot of juice for common tasks, batteries charge fast.
Before this we had a 12v DeWalt, it was pretty good as well, and lasted probably 8yrs (still useful as backup)

Makita UK
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[Mark Kelly]

Just to second / seventh the Makita / Milwaukee thing: the Milwaukee is my choice (even though I'm 20,000 km from Milwaukee itself) as it is light, easy to use and surprisingly powerful and versatile. My BIL, the building contractor, prefers the Makita as the extra power is worth the extra heft to him.

BTW there is no such thing as a brushless DC motor, they are properly electronically commutated (EC) motors*. I mention this because it explains the difference in low speed behaviour: where a real DC motor will just keep slowing down until it stalls, due to the linear speed / voltage and torque / current curves, an EC (aka BLDC) motor will torque limit when you reach the current limit of the switching transistors in the electronic commutation.


*This is basically a motor with a permanent magnet rotor and AC driven stator coils, with the AC drive to the stator coils provided by a circuit which "cuts" the DC supply to fake AC.

[guido]

Wasn't sure if I should put this in grumps or here... After singing the praises of the DeWalt 20max driver, I had not one but two packs loose the ability to hold a charge while driving the cement screws for my insulation project. Using and re-charging them at 52 degrees (12 degrees over their recomended temp range) . This is not easy work but I'm pretty shocked. I have a couple of the 6AH packs on order. Hope these suckers do the trick. Lots of screws left to drive...

[Calgary_George]

I know your pain, having done a similar project with 80 year old, chert pebble concrete. Do not waste your time buying tools. Rent a Bosch rotary hammer and be done with it. Way less effort required, far fewer drill bits will be consumed. And you get to use a really nice tool. Drills concrete faster than a wood bit in spruce / pine / fir.

[guido]

I know your pain, having done a similar project with 80 year old, chert pebble concrete. Do not waste your time buying tools. Rent a Bosch rotary hammer and be done with it. Way less effort required, far fewer drill bits will be consumed. And you get to use a really nice tool. Drills concrete faster than a wood bit in spruce / pine / fir.

I'm using a Bosch Hammer Drill to punch the holes. No complaints with that tool at all! It is just driving the screws into the resulting holes the are the issue. It handled about 95 of the little devils before giving up the ghost...

[Calgary_George]

Apologies. Missed that detail. I used a cheap corded drill to drive 250+ hex head tapcons. Finished by hand as required. And found that tapcon substitutes were very poor substitutes ....

[guido]

Apologies. Missed that detail. I used a cheap corded drill to drive 250+ hex head tapcons. Finished by hand as required. And found that tapcon substitutes were very poor substitutes ....

No apologies needed! This tale of woe is spread out over several forum topics... The tapcons are the real deal. I'm addicted to the clutch of the cordless drivers or I'd have dug out my old Craftsman corded. Dealing with one cord and a long extension is enough of a pain too...

[j44ke]

No apologies needed! This tale of woe is spread out over several forum topics... The tapcons are the real deal. I'm addicted to the clutch of the cordless drivers or I'd have dug out my old Craftsman corded. Dealing with one cord and a long extension is enough of a pain too...

There are clutched corded drills. Milwaukee makes one for wood and one for metal. Some clutches are based on torque, which is what you need, and some are based on depth. Those are usually for drywall so the screw doesn't just made a hole. Pretty sure you'd use the wood model above, but check with Milwaukee.

[guido]

Thanks for this. If I have more issues I'll go that way...

[guido]

Wasn't sure if I should put this in grumps or here... After singing the praises of the DeWalt 20max driver, I had not one but two packs loose the ability to hold a charge while driving the cement screws for my insulation project. Using and re-charging them at 52 degrees (12 degrees over their recomended temp range) . This is not easy work but I'm pretty shocked. I have a couple of the 6AH packs on order. Hope these suckers do the trick. Lots of screws left to drive...

The 6Ah pack is amazing. Much more power, a charge indicator. Nice when a company makes new products compatible with their old ones. Very cool...

[11.4]

If you've seen a teardown of any of the popular drill, impact driver, and rotary hammer products, the best hammer drills out there have a hammer weight that's so small as to be pretty much useless. It might help starting a hole in plaster or soft brick, but definitely not concrete. While the hammer drill hammer is about the size and weight of a men's wedding ring (yes, seriously) with only a quarter inch or less of travel, the impact hammer in a impact driver is closer to a pound in weight. And a good rotary hammer like a Hilti, which is really the best of all of them out there, has almost an inch of travel and a hardened piece of steel that would put a hole in a Sherman tank.

I've had a variety of drills and impact drivers and consistently found that the Makitas were the best built internally. Milwaukee has good battery packs but they are now foreign-owned and while the packs start with a lot of power, they are using cheaper battery cartridges that begin to fail much earlier. And mechanically, inside, they are nowhere near as sound. I have one of the very last of the really great European-designed Milwaukee 5-inch grinders and it's amazing; the new ones are not in the same class. The only upgrade you can get above Makita drills is to go with Hilti, but pay about two or three times the price. For most that's not a realistic investment, especially when Makitas are so good.

[Calgary_George]

Yes Hilti ....go big or go home!

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[11.4]

Yes Hilti ....go big or go home!

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Subtlety is always appreciated.

[Bobonli]

Pulling this out of obscurity to see what the current state of drill-dom is?

I need something cordless for routine home repair, build the occasional planter box in the yard. I have a corded monster drill but sometimes it a PITA to drag out the extension cord to make a hole or drive a screw.

DeWalt, Milwaukee.......who do you like and why? Battery compatibility is not an issue, no other cordless tools. The online reviews look more like advertisements than actual reviews.

[j44ke]

I have a Milwaukee 12v drill and a 12v driver. Getting both was a work changer, because then I could have the drill bit on one tool for doing the pilot hole and bit for whatever fastener I was using on the other tool.

This is the driver than I have. I think it is great. Really smooth, controllable, with plenty of power for the work I do.

This is the drill I have. I'd say I am less impressed with this tool. However that's unfair, because I dropped it off a ladder and bent the shaft on the chuck slightly, so spin is slightly wobbly and the chuck no longer holds the drill bit tightly enough sometimes. But it works and survived a big drop, so I really just need to replace the chuck and see if that improves the function.

I've had the drill for 7 or 8 years and the driver for 5 years.

The batteries are key. You can get (and sometimes the tools come with this battery) a smaller amp-hour battery like this one that makes the tool 100% easier to get into tight places. And then for the rest of your work, you can use a larger amp hour battery as your everyday do everything battery and keep the smaller ones as back up to use while recharging the larger battery.

And Acme Tools typically has some of the best prices on Milwaukee.

edit: Oops, wrong battery linked above. 12v can only use 12v. Link corrected.

[monadnocky]

I've bought into the Milwaukee 18v system and I have one of the 18v drivers as well as one of the 18v drills. If you don't mind a relatively heavy tool with the battery in place (I have three of the 18v batteries Jorn linked above) and have lots of space to work with (like, outdoors and unobstructed indoors), I have no complaints with this system. But, of course, you're kind of committed to a particular tool ecosystem once you've invested in the charger(s) and the batteries.

I also have a Milwaukee 18v ("Fuel") small canister vacuum, blower (NOT a leaf blower, just a small handheld blower - best thing since sliced bread), chainsaw, Sawzall, brush cutter, and weedwacker. I'm pretty bought-in at this point. But no complaints.

If you're looking for something a little less bulky or perhaps planning to use a drill or driver in tighter spaces, I have heard good things about the Milwaukee 12v system. Milwaukee's chargers have space for both batteries (but the tools aren't the same, of course).

[Bobonli]

Thank you both.

[mg2ride]

Chances are any of the name brands will meet your needs. Instead of asking a bunch of skinny cyclist I asked a bunch of husky blue collar workers at the shipyard. Many, many of them said Milwaukee.