Cordless Drills ... Any thoughts?

[Mike Heidrick]

Makita BDF452HW


You already found your answer!! Contact Mark at heavy duty tools dot net and he will make you a deal. He rocks and is my go to guy for makita lith ion!!

[sean m. titmas]

regardless of the brand that you choose i recommend that you buy a drill motor for drilling and an impact for driving.

the only negative i can see is the initial cost.

however there many advantages to the two gun set up.

longer battery run time and life
fine tune driving for smaller screws
plenty of power to drive even 4" lag bolts with no kick back
short nose cone adds stability to action and allows access to narrow places
because a 14v impact has more driving power than 18v drill motor you can buy the 14v impact and 14v drill and save money over the 18v guns.
but either way you go buy the same voltage impact and drill so that the batts are interchangeable.

[Nick Abbott]

I think the Panasonic 15.6 volt drill is the finest available. It is small, lightweight and has the power of everyone elses 19.2 volt drills (or better). At $199.00 it's not cheap but as soon as you use one it will only take a few minutes for you to understand why Panasonic's are the best cordless drills made.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Bosch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Mark Koury]

Panasonic __________________________________

[sean m. titmas]

since we're throwin' names out there, my vote goes for

Hilti

[Mike Henderson]

regardless of the brand that you choose i recommend that you buy a drill motor for drilling and an impact for driving.

the only negative i can see is the initial cost.

however there many advantages to the two gun set up.

longer battery run time and life
fine tune driving for smaller screws
plenty of power to drive even 4" lag bolts with no kick back
short nose cone adds stability to action and allows access to narrow places
because a 14v impact has more driving power than 18v drill motor you can buy the 14v impact and 14v drill and save money over the 18v guns.
but either way you go buy the same voltage impact and drill so that the batts are interchangeable.

It's also really nice to have two drills when you have to drill a pilot hole and then put the screw in. If you can't drill all the holes first, it's drill pilot hole, change to driver bit, put screw in, change back to drill bit, etc.

With two drills, you just grab the other drill and keep going.

Mike

[Jason White]

I've purchased cheap cordless drills and expensive ones.

I prefer the cheap ones and am partial to the 12-volt DeWalts. I think I paid $99 each at Lowe's, so I bought two of them -- one for drilling and one for driving. They're nice and lightweight and have metal chucks -- not super powerful but perfect for the shop!

For bigger jobs, I use my 14v Milwaukee cordless or my impact driver(s).

Jason

I've been researching and have narrowed it down (I think) to 3:

Makita BDF452HW
Hitachi DS18
Milwaukee 2601-22

I want lithium-ion. My usage is normal hobby/home repair, however I am probably going to be building a deck for my neighbor, so I'd like it to stand up to some intermittent long-hour use (driving screws). I also want one that won't give me popeye arms after holding it for an hour. Prefer the $200 price target range (i.e. no Panasonics).

Any thoughts?

[michael osadchuk]

I second the advice of Mike and Sean to get a pair of drills with the second drill being an impact driver that has extra power to drive screws.....

Based on a recent review in www.toolsofthetrade.com
on 18v lithium-ion impact drivers I bought this combo kit of a driver drill (BDF452) and a impact drill (BTD142) from Makita: extremely compact and light (uses 1.5amp batteries) and am very satisfied

http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/....aspx?ID=24067

btw, Amazon.com has lots of end user reviews of most drills that have been on the market for a couple of years.....

good luck

michael

[Mike Lipke]

I have a Panasonic cordless. The best. Period.

But....when I saw a Milwaukee 2601 factory reconditioned with 2 batteries for $109, I had to snap it up. BANG FOR THE BUCK?? You bet. Like it a lot

[Bruce Wrenn]

I would look seriously at the 12V LI's from Rigiid, available from HD. I bought my first about two years ago, and I now own five. You have ninety days to decide if you like them. If not just return them. For the lifetime service agreement, you must send in papaer work in the first ninety days though. Get a cofirmation of delivery though. (OWT is having problems procesing the service agreements.) Ninety day satifaction, three year warranty, and life time service agreement, including BATTERIES, make it hard to go wrong.

[Charles Krieger]

Here's why!

I have an old 9.6V Makita which I got it for my birthday about 15 years ago. I bought a new battery about 5 years ago and I still use the original battery as well as the "new" one. With that kind of service I had to buy Makita again when I decided to go with a LI-ION 18V machine. It has many improved features over the old 9.6V but the 9.6V still has plenty of torque to break screws. Got to love them both! If the new Makita lasts as long as the old one my heirs will fight for it.

So I have to vote for the BDF452 which does every thing I ask it to do.

[Shawn Christ]

For a home hobbyist who wants to build an occasional deck I'm surprised nobody mentioned Ryobi. Check out their One+ system and new lithium batteries. Nice features and performance at reasonable prices. My used Ryobi drill has outlasted the Panasonic and Porter Cable drills I previously owned.

I would recommend an 18-volt Ryobi drill and also an impact driver, and one or two of the new lithium batteries. You don't need the new "alien green" tools, any of the One+ will do, but get the new lithium batteries and charger. I purchased mine on eBay for a fraction of the cost of new (came out of combo units) and substantially less than the other brands.

[Blake Barr]

You simply can't beat a Makita LXT407 combo from ebay... $340 shipped and it comes with the drill/driver an impact, 2 batts and a light... there are a variety of vendors from time to time. I got my set from ebay and had no troubles....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Makita-LXT407-4p...3%3A1|294%3A50

[Tom Godley]

I purchased the Makita combo pack W/O the flashlight -- 18v lith/ion - When they were on sale at HD.

I like them very much -- especially surprised how much I like the impact driver. They are small and very powerful -- mine have the smaller batteries and I like them better than the larger heaver ones.