[NA] Cordless drill

Oddly, my first cordless drill, an absolutely ancient (and heavy) Makita (which I always called "Stan") still works.
 
+1 for the Ryobi's. I had one given to me by the cabinet installer, he had used it a bunch daily, it still worked great, but the Nicad battery was was getting tired.
I bought another since it is almost a cheap to buy the drill and battery as it is to buy the battery (maybe cheaper). Used it for probably 5 years until the nicad battery died and then bought the $100 (on sale) drill, impact driver combo with the Lithium battery. Was still going strong after about 4 years when I gave it to my son last year, and bought me a new one. The Old drills still work great with good batteries and are compatible with the newer lithum batteries. Even the one that sat submerged in a bucket of water for about a month still works great.

Brian
 
cgrab said:
If you watch any of the outdoor/Alaska shows, you'll see that most are using Dewalt.
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Nothing in those shows happens by coincidence. If they use DeWalt, it is because DeWalt secured the contract.
 
cgrab said:
If you watch any of the outdoor/Alaska shows, you'll see that most are using Dewalt. I converted my 14.4V Dewalt drill over to 20V when the batteries wouldn't charge anymore. I figure it will eventually burn up and then I'll get the 20V version.

Several professionals have told me to skip the drill and go to a driver and get the driver bits for drilling. They say the drivers are easier to use and just plain better.
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Just FYI, if you can see the brand of the product, then the product is provided to the show for promotional consideration. In other words, they pay to have the product appear on the show. In advertising lingo, it's called "Product Placement". Those that don't pay have the brands/logos blurred out.

I would ignore what you see on TV with certain limited exceptions. It's not even a product endorsement - it's outright pay to play.
 
Thanks for all the replies! It would be used for projects around the house, so industrial strength not needed. But hey, this IS PoA... brings back Tool Time memories - "more power!" :D

I have a Ryobi 18V trimmer with newer lithium battery, and a quick charger. Would be nice to share batteries, cheapskate that I am!
 
Go cordless and battery free:

hand_drill_IMG_1883.jpg
 
N659HB said:
Finding myself in need of one. Any recommendarions, or at least what to avoid?
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Lots of opinions are expressed in this thread - so I'll add my two cents worth.

First of all, there aren't any I would say to definitely avoid. I have never bought any of the "cheapie" Harbor Freight / Northern Tool cordless devices - so
can't comment on them. I have bought a number for their corded devices (grinder/sander/cutoff saw/impact tool) - and they are fine for occasional use.
If I made my living with those items I'd have the best available. But for intermittent jobs around the house they are good enough.

As for cordless devices, I have had a right angle drive Makita for over 20 years (my favorite tool), and it has never failed me despite heavy use. I have, of
course, gone through a number of batteries. At least you can still get the OEM Makita batteries, and they last a long time.

I also have a Bosch drill about the same age - which I acquired when a phone company employee left it on my trash can. I tried notifying the company -
but nobody ever showed up to claim it. Anyway, it is a fine tool as well - with the limitation that OEM batteries are no longer available. There are plenty
of "equivalents" out there - but for the most part they are crap. After a hiatus I recently needed it for a project around the house, and invested in an
"equivalent" NiCad. So far it is holding up - but we'll see.

At work I have and use a compact DeWalt with Lithium batteries. It does a great job, has held up very well, and I have never been able to run the battery
down in a days work. If I were in the market for a new cordless drill, I'd probably buy a DeWalt.

Dave
 
Matthew said:
Go cordless and battery free:

hand_drill_IMG_1883.jpg
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Isn't that the truth. I had to chuckle when an earlier post mentioned that a drill is good because it lasted 4 years. My dad has a corded power drill that dates back to the 50s. That thing has a sight glass for the transmission oil.
 
N659HB said:
Thanks for all the replies! It would be used for projects around the house, so industrial strength not needed. But hey, this IS PoA... brings back Tool Time memories - "more power!" :D

I have a Ryobi 18V trimmer with newer lithium battery, and a quick charger. Would be nice to share batteries, cheapskate that I am!
Click to expand...

Probably for most around the house use you could buy almost any cordless drill and it would be fine. IMO either go cheap or get one of the "pro" brands like DeWalt, Milwaukee, Mikita, etc. For me the biggest thing would be if I buy a pro brand I'm pretty much committing to that brand because I'll want to be able to interchange batteries if I buy any additional tools.

I've become a fan of corded tools lately, for my sporadic use it's kind of a pain dealing with the limitations of batteries and I usually have a plugin close enough. An extension cord will always work, a battery that's been sitting in a drawer for a month may not.
 
weilke said:
Isn't that the truth. I had to chuckle when an earlier post mentioned that a drill is good because it lasted 4 years. My dad has a corded power drill that dates back to the 50s. That thing has a sight glass for the transmission oil.
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My grandfather had a whole workshop of hand tools for his carpentry work. Those tools all outlived him. We might think back to those being the good old days, but I'm sure he would have loved a DeWalt.
 
Buy a Makita. Nothing else compares. I've tried them all.
 
Having always gone w Dewalt, I was recently surprised to learn that my cabinet contractor who recently immigrated from Australia and was equipping his new business went w Ridgid: American made, get pretty good reviews on line, and have a lifetime service warranty INCLUDING replacement of worn out batteries.
 
wrbix said:
Having always gone w Dewalt, I was recently surprised to learn that my cabinet contractor who recently immigrated from Australia and was equipping his new business went w Ridgid: American made, get pretty good reviews on line, and have a lifetime service warranty INCLUDING replacement of worn out batteries.
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Traditionally Rigid has had a lifetime warranty on tools. We didn't make many warranty claims because of the excessive circumstances we'd regularly put their tools through. It was enough to say that their stuff is tough.
 
wrbix said:
Having always gone w Dewalt, I was recently surprised to learn that my cabinet contractor who recently immigrated from Australia and was equipping his new business went w Ridgid: American made, get pretty good reviews on line, and have a lifetime service warranty INCLUDING replacement of worn out batteries.
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I like some of Ridgid’s tools, although none of mine are cordless models. We have a pneumatic framing nailer, a circular saw, and a miter saw that all work great and get used a fair amount each year. My father bought a cheap Ridgid cordless drill at a local “used tool auction” some years back, and it held up for a year or two, but it had been abused a good bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
N3368K said:
My 25+ year old 12V Dewalt still works fine, but the cost of the replacement Ni-Cad batteries is painful.
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My Makita from 1996 is still working great, but the NiCd batteries are finally getting a little weak. Amazing how much better the charger tech and the mechanical portions were built in these things back then. Charger properly charges and doesn't cook batteries, and the drill is nearly indestructible. Can't even find that now without spending well over $100 on just the drill, let alone the "matching set".
 
Matthew said:
My grandfather had a whole workshop of hand tools for his carpentry work. Those tools all outlived him. We might think back to those being the good old days, but I'm sure he would have loved a DeWalt.
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My grandfather as well, and I now have his braces, a tool box he build that uses one of the braces for a handle and holds his two hand saws (which I also have and use) and his hand miter saw (which I still use. In fact I just finished retiming a room at my mom's house using this saw.) He apprenticed as a carpenter in the 1910's and actually built tailplanes for Curtis Jennys at the Curtis airplane plant during the first world war. (Aviation tie in!) By the 1960's he was using circular saws and electric drills. And he'd have loved a screw gun!

John
 
jsstevens said:
...
And he'd have loved a screw gun!

John
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My grandpa's yankee screwdriver was his goto for the busy work.

For plaster and lattice walls you didn't have to drive a couple hundred screws a day, though.
 
Matthew said:
My grandpa's yankee screwdriver was his goto for the busy work.

For plaster and lattice walls you didn't have to drive a couple hundred screws a day, though.
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Yep. And my grandfather bored a hole in the bottom of his hammer handle which he filled by pushing octagon soap into. When needed to drives screw he’d pop it into the hole to soap it and make it easier to drive.
 
I still remember my father's first cordless electric screwdriver. A Black&Decker unit that weighed a ton, had no replaceable battery and didn't last long or have much power, lol. Awful thing, really, but it was like 1990.
black-decker-cordless-screwdriver-1_4120182034191330666.jpg
 
jsstevens said:
Yep. And my grandfather bored a hole in the bottom of his hammer handle which he filled by pushing octagon soap into. When needed to drives screw he’d pop it into the hole to soap it and make it easier to drive.
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Those guys knew all the tricks. To this day the smell of fresh sawdust reminds me of his workshop. That sawdudst smell, mixed with the smell of tractor oil, good memories.

I remember he had a large (3x8"?) whetstone mounted on one of his benches, and a bottle of mineral oil next to it. No dull tools, ever.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I still remember my father's first cordless electric screwdriver. A Black&Decker unit that weighed a ton, had no replaceable battery and didn't last long or have much power, lol. Awful thing, really, but it was like 1990.
black-decker-cordless-screwdriver-1_4120182034191330666.jpg
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I had one of those. It worked OK for what it was.
 
Matthew said:
I always liked the whole brace and bit invention. "Back in my day, if you wanted to put a big hole in a piece of wood, you'd have to WANT to put a big hole in a piece of wood!"
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They're great with those fortsner bits in them!
 
Matthew said:
My grandfather had a whole workshop of hand tools for his carpentry work. Those tools all outlived him. We might think back to those being the good old days, but I'm sure he would have loved a DeWalt.
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Yep. We have some stuff that dates back to the 1800s. Back when people made things, with pride, rather than buying a cardboard box filled with parts. Or with Chinese printing.
 
wsuffa said:
Yep. We have some stuff that dates back to the 1800s. Back when people made things, with pride, rather than buying a cardboard box filled with parts. Or with Chinese printing.
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嘿，中国印刷有什么问题？
 
FastEddieB said:
I know Ryobi’s often get a bad rap, but I’ve gotten reliable service from quite a few of their 18v drills, radial saws and the like for over a decade.
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I have an older 12v Ryobi. Batteries will not longer hold a charge and nobody makes replacements. A good light duty drill being shi#canned for lack of a battery. :mad:
-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
I have an older 12v Ryobi. Batteries will not longer hold a charge and nobody makes replacements. A good light duty drill being shi#canned for lack of a battery. :mad:
-Skip
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That’s surprising. The Makita both has name brand batteries available (which might be sketchy new-old-stock) and there’s always third party batteries from China if one is brave or at least willing to try a few vendors.

Really industrious souls cut open the old packs and repack the NiCDs with good ones and glue the packs back together with epoxy. Not much inside these old packs or anything to worry about if they aren’t Lithium cells.

If the pack is already dead, there’s not much harm in figuring out how to pry it open or if sonic welded, grabbing a hacksaw or bandsaw and cutting carefully to see what can be done to replace the cells. If you screw up, it was dead anyway.
 
[QUOTE="denverpilot, post: 2500720, member: 6717] If the pack is already dead, there’s not much harm in figuring out how to pry it open or if sonic welded, grabbing a hacksaw or bandsaw and cutting carefully to see what can be done to replace the cells. If you screw up, it was dead anyway
.[/QUOTE]

Six screws will get me into the battery pack without cutting. They appear to be Torx screws except they have a lug in the center to prevent ordinary Torx drivers from engaging the screw. Maybe a tiny Easy-Out?

And I have called several internet battery houses that deal with older battery names. All report that this 12v battery is no longer available. Which I take as meaning: so little demand it is worth stocking anymore.

-Skip
 
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Skip Miller said:
Six screws will get me into the battery pack without cutting. They appear to be Torx screws except they have a lug in the center to prevent ordinary Torx drivers from engaging the screw. Maybe a tiny Easy-Out?
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The security torx screws can usually be removed by just using a flat-blade (slot) screwdriver and placing it off-center next to the center pin. If you have the ends of the slot inserted in the splines, it should give you enough grip to get it to turn.

FGZCZPPG7DYYIL8.LARGE.jpg


Either that, or you get these from almighty Amazon for $8:

https://www.amazon.com/Torx-Driver-Security-T-10-T-40/dp/B0002SPLQ8
 
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