Which drill? Any recommendations please

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

The OP asked about a drill for DIY, costing no more than £70. Green Bosch are fine for that purpose, but you won't get one for that price unless you are very lucky.

I happen to think that a cordless drill is perfectly fine for occasional use, and safer and more convenient than a corded one. The main problem is the cost of batteries i.e. £60 or more.

Yes and no, only convenient if charged and ready when you want to use it. But the absolute bottom line is that it will be flat when you want to use it, that was the essence of my post.


Regarding Bosch or Dewalt etc, I agree that the OP would have to stretch the budget, but not by a lot at all.

I used to buy professional quality kit in my past employ for a team of sparkys and fitters.

They made spare parts of makita, bosch and everything else I supplied. Only when I started buying Dewalt, which are simply the pro arm of Black&Decker as stated, did the rot stop.

To answer sgt Pepper, I personally dropped 1 from 20feet up an inspection gantry, it hit every other step and went over the side crashing the last 10feet onto concrete.

I collected the battery and the other 4 ot 5 parts, snapped them back together and bingo, still fine.

I know there will be the converse of my experience, but this is simply my experience in a hard working environment.

I now have 3 dewalt battery drills and an sds mains at home.

I'm happy with metabo, bosch makita etc for routers/planers etc.

Sgt_Pepper_2

gixer750 wrote: »

another very important thing is it must be hammer action, if not you might as well use a butter knife, i would recommend a challenge cordless, brought one off a market stool for £25 and was only gonna use it for light diy and ended up using it for fitting kitchens, my job for 2years. went through red brick, blue brick, pink brick, you name it, it went through it you will need 13mm chuck, a good battery or even 2, and at least 18v as other poster says, and tell hubby decent drill bits otherwise its like buying a ferrari and adding a mini engine for performance so if you have all the basic information then just find one and read the reviews and choose from there.

My Makita goes through brick without hammer using a cobalt drill bit.

Sgt_Pepper_2

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Don't buy your other 1/2 a cordless drill unless he already has a decent corded drill already.

To explain;
If he/you don't use a drill that often then mains is the way to go, how long does it take to plug in the hoover?

If you don't use battery drills frequently then it/they will need charging every time you want to use it, longer time than it takes to plug in the hoover?

And if you really don't charge the batteries that often they will fail and you will have to source new ones, takes a longer time than to plug in the hoover.

Absolute bottom line, battery drill are simply for convenience, they lack power compared to mains, if not used regularly, or in the wet, go cabled.

That said avoid Bosch go Dewalt if you so need.

For £70, the ops budget your taking ni cad batteries, so yes. Li ion hold their charge and have a 15 minute recharge so your issues are largely avoided.

Leif

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Yes and no, only convenient if charged and ready when you want to use it. But the absolute bottom line is that it will be flat when you want to use it, that was the essence of my post.


Regarding Bosch or Dewalt etc, I agree that the OP would have to stretch the budget, but not by a lot at all.

Li-Ion holds the charge well, and recharges rapidly too. I have one sitting on a charger in the garage, and a spare battery on charge too since I have 3 batteries.

Don't forget that if you buy Dewalt, or blue Bosch, then you are committed to buying further power tools in that range unless you don't mind having a mix of batteries. I have a Bosch drill, hedge trimmer, and strimmer, all green (amateur) products, all with the same battery. I'm not saying you have to do this, but it needs to be considered.

I've been able to drill brick, concrete, wood, MDF etc. But buy good drill bits such as cobalt from somewhere like ebay, not over-priced rubbish (e.g. Bosch) from B&Q etc.

Jaynne

Li-ion can hold its charge well - the real problem with it though is the total life of the batteries. Even if you don't use them but keep them charged they degrade and by two or three years after their capacity will have reduced by a huge amount.

This is why I'm quite happy with my old ni-cad drill, sure the power density isn't as good as li-ion but I've had the drill five or six years and both batteries are fine capacity wise and I have never come to use it and found the batteries dead.

The same wouldn't be true with li-ion - anyone who has left a laptop unplugged for a length of time would have experienced this.

cyclonebri1

Yes new battery technology is great, I was in B&Q a week ago and they had Makita drill plus two li ion batts for £100, plus it was a 10% off everything day.

They had a similar offer but with Ni cads for £80.

But taking what everyone has said I stand by my comments which were to get the op to consider which type to buy, not to offer advice on brand.

If you are suddenly in need of a tool to drill a hole in anything from plywood to concrete, the mains drill should be the 1st choice.

Juezz, I've only ever broken/burn't out 1 or 2 in a lifetimes use, I can recall the number of battery drills and batteries I've bought.



Look on ebay and I bet a reconn or cat return mains 1/2" or sds chucked impact drill is available for under the money the op was talking

Quick look for any dewalt drill came up with this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DeWalt-DC733KA-14-4v-Cordless-Drill-Driver-Kit-2-x-1-3Ah-/321010751621?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item4abdbb5885
:money::money::money:;););)

iwantoneplease

Been down to b&q and seen the following,
Any feedback would be great

http://m.diy.com/mt/www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/drilling-screwdriving/drilling/cordless/Ryobi-One-Plus-Combi-Hammer-Drill-12408576?tab=rev&action=detail&un_jtt_v_r=12

http://m.diy.com/mt/www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/drilling-screwdriving/drilling/cordless/Black-and-Decker-18V-Combi-Drill-2-batteries-12057521?tab=rev&action=detail&un_jtt_v_r=56


http://m.diy.com/mt/www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/drilling-screwdriving/drilling/cordless/Ryobi-14-4V-NiCad-2-Speed-Hammer-Drill-Driver-10957594?tab=rev&action=detail&un_jtt_v_r=63

http://www.toolstation.com/m/part.html?p=96829


Locally we have, b&q, toolstation and screwfix.

Thanks

Sgt_Pepper_2

The first is probably the best buy of the four.

Jaynne

Agreed, it only has one battery though for that price 18V li-ion with hammer action aint too shabby. The B+D one doesn't have a hammer action so avoid and stick with ryobi over the unbranded toolstation one.

cyclonebri1

I actually bought one of the Ryobi 18V Li battery units with 2 batteries on behalf of a family member few weeks ago, which is why I mentioned the offer earlier. Seems a good unit.

I know what I'd do, based on the fact that B&Q are likely to drop the price by boxing day, is to by the drill, keep it unopened, then if they advertise a cheaper price over xmas return it and but the same drill cheaper :money: remember.