What Drill/Driver do you use?

[John Wadsworth]

...have you guys ever tried the old Yankee-type telescoping screwdriver? No noise, no battery changes...

Oh, yeah, sorry, wrong forum.

On this side of the fence I have an old 9.6V Makita (seldom used now, but it shares batteries with a few other tools) and two 14.4V DeWalts, one in the house and one in the shop.

[Jim Becker]

I would look at the Ridgid with the LIfetime warrenty (INCLUDES BATTERIES). Cant go wrong with that option in my opinion.

Buy quickly, however...there is no "lifetime warranty" available on new purchases of Ridgid tools after 30 December 2003.

[Steve Clardy]

I,m a big gray fan on almost all there stuff except their ROS sanders. Got tired of the dust canasters blowing off, numerous factory and self fixes, and they do not pick up dust well.
I have 5 of the older 862 12 volt drills, five chargers, 11 batteries. Two of these drills are approaching 6 years old. Yes, they have been replaced twice now with newer models. Only had 1 problem with 1 of them. I stripped the guts out of it one day driving 10" log home logs screws into a staircase that I built out of pine logs. I knew it was way to much for it but that drill was putting them right on it. PC took care of it under warranty. When it comes time to do some replacing, it will be gray again. All the original batteries still work fine. I did have two of them that the connecting straps inside connecting the numerous individual batteries together come loose, but resoldered them and they are still going.
Steve

[paul comer]

Craftsman 14.4 v have not found anything that would give it a good challenge yet.....also not to hard on the wallet

[aurelio alarcon]

Craftsman 14.4 v have not found anything that would give it a good challenge yet.....also not to hard on the wallet

Paul, is that from their Professional line or their EX line?

[Mike Harrison]

John,

Yup, I have several. North Bros, Stanley, Millers Falls, Sears, etc.. I get a kick out of using them.

[Michael Cody]

I have an old makita stick battery drill. But I would like to know where I can get a charger and battery for this. I looked every where and found the charger with battery to cost about 90 dollars. But I found the same style, although new and don't know if it is the same quality, at amazon for 87 dollars which includes the drill, batteries, charger and case. My charger gave out. And all I have left is one battery. But the batteries are also very expensive. Any recomendations on where to get chargers and batteries? Or should I go with the amazon deal?

Go w/Ebay -- batteries selling for 20$ and chargers going for 25$ -- I've saw a complete used driver, case, charger & 2 batt's go for for 41.00$ about 2 weeks ago. That's a deal anytime for this unit.

There are a lot of them around 'cause they last forever and are great units.

[Michael Cody]

Well I'm gonna wrankle some with my recomendation of the HF 44849 18V unit. It has been a great tool and I've used it to drive some pretty good sized screws into a variety of materials.

Had one -- worked great for about a year -- then the high speed side of the gear box would slip on high torque app's -- still drove most anything and drilled fine, but you couldn't drive deck screws w/it .. I payed 39$ which means I still think it was deal even given the problems I had. Held charge a long time, well balanced, good torque & is cheaper than dirt. Even if you have to replace it once a year. I sold it in a garage sale for 15$ even though I told the guy it slipped in range driving high torque stuff.

[aurelio alarcon]

Go w/Ebay -- batteries selling for 20$ and chargers going for 25$ -- I've saw a complete used driver, case, charger & 2 batt's go for for 41.00$ about 2 weeks ago. That's a deal anytime for this unit.

There are a lot of them around 'cause they last forever and are great units.

cool, I'll check it out

[Dean Baumgartner]

I got one of the Rigid cordless 12V mostly because of the lifetime warranty on the battery. It's a good second cordless. I also have the 14.4V Dewalt XRP and an old Makita 9.6 that the batteries don't hold a charge any more. Even though the specs say the Rigid has 20 in-lbs more torque than the Dewalt it's no where close. It did manage snap off a couple of 2 1/2" deck screws. The fast charge is nice at about 20 min. The longer charge time on the Dewalt has never been a problem as I haven't been able to drive enough screws to kill a battery before the other one re-charges.

All in all the Rigid seems fine for general shop use.

[John Preston]

I have the panasonic 15.6 volt with the 3 Ah NimH batteries.

I bought it about three or four years ago. A good drill, the noise when you open and close the chuck means you need to add lubricant to it. Mine did that after sheetrocking a ceiling, a little penetrating oil flush in the chuck quieted it right down.

I use my drill at lot, not every day, but a lot, and the only thing wrong with my drill is the danged brake cut out this summer. I took it apart, cleaned it, almost lost some of those ball bearings, just about didn't get all the gears back in, and the brake still doesn't work. I told myself I was lucky just to get it back together, and have been on the lookout for a festool laying by the side of the road in the original box.

I've only used other people's Ryobi 18v and 12v drills, and the Panasonic is head and shoulders above them, and much smaller than those danged 18v drills. A must for tight cabinet work.

I don't like T handle drills (I figured this out after I bought mine). I have wrist problems, and want one built like my makita corded drill. The ergonomics of a T handle drill used one handed are terrible.

[Steven Wilson]

I've been using the Dewalt 14.4V XRP drills (regular and right angle) for a couple of years now and have recently bought new batteries for them. As drills they're ok but I find them a bit heavy for use in the shop. I had the pleasure of participating in a cordless drill test awhile back and the ones that I liked the most were the Metabo 12V followed by the Panasonic (12v IIRC). The 12V Metabo had the torque of an 18V, the impulse drive feature is a usefull addition, the chuck was fantastic (better than the Panasonic), you can set the torque ring to handle small brass screws (not many drills are good at low torque settings) without breaking them, and the unit fit my hand. Another drill I found interesting is the Festool. I like the head change feature and it would be a usefull tool for installing fastners in strange places (drawers). If I were shoping for a new cordless drill for making furniture and cabinets I would look at the Metabo and the Festool. If my needs were for a general purpose, carpentry beast, then any Milwaukee, Dewalt, PC, Makita of 14.4V or higher would be just fine. The Metabo and Festool have some subtle engineering features that I find would be better suited for furniture/cabinet/installation work.

[mike malone]

My current "grey" 9.6v drill/driver seems to be slowly biting the dust and the vendor has been less than helpful in getting it repaired since they have moved on to bigger and supposedly better
TIA,
Ed

hey ed
i think you started something here.
i've been using a dewalt 952 (9.6v) for a few years. When i need muscle, i pull out the milw corded 1/2". The Dewalt has survived pretty well and i would probably stay with that size (or maybe a 12v) if i had to replace it. It is compact and lightweight (most important) and batteries are readily available (as is the drill itself on ebay). The 18v models seem ridulously big and clumsy.
good luck with santa.
mike