What's your favorite cordless drill?

onthebeam

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Aug 14, 2005
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What is your favorite cordless drill in 14.4 volt?

And, what's your favorite 18 volt drill?
 

Morelite

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18 volt: Milwaukee (same goes for all my other cordless tools)
14 volt: N/A as I don't own any
 

onthebeam

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I have a Makita 14.4 model 6228. It's great for screwdriving or light drilling at a superlite 3.7 pounds. Only 200 lbs. of torque though. So, I just picked up the Makita 6935 impact driver, which is only 3.7 lbs. too, but has a torque rating of 1200!! They say you can use impact drivers as drills, too, but with less precision. I haven't tried it as a drill yet. However, to drive screws, it's stunning and won't twist on you at all.

Also have two Ryobi 18 volt drills, the P200 and new P201 that just came out. They call the new one "torque power" but it has less torque, 330 inch pounds, although a faster drilling speed, 1600 versus 1300 on the old one. The old one had 400 inch pounds of torque but not quite as nice a balance as the new one. One handed chuck is a nice feature on the new one though, as is quick switch from drill to driver mode. These are both 5.3 lbs. with battery.

Like most people, I'm looking for power and speed, but light weight. Among contractors, there seems to be a trend back to 14.4 volt tools, or the 15.6 volt Panasonics, to deal with weight issues. That's what's so incredible about the impact drivers. Light and powerful!!! Anyone using an impact driver for everything??
 
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onthebeam

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One other cool thing. Both the Makita and Ryobi impact drivers have built in LED lights that do a good job. The new Makita 3.0 nimh batteries also have an LED light option.
 

jezzyp

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I've got dewalt 12v and 18v and like them both. I was so impressed with the 12v that I then bought the 18v. Don't pay full price for them though - get the over the internet but beware of the mexican imports they are not as good as the UK or German ones
 

MicroE

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18V ==? DeWalt hammer drill/driver. A real workhorse, until I got the Panasonic.........

12V ==> Panasonic impact driver. Smaller and lighter than a 14.4 V drill. The Panasonic does almost all of the work now. I grab it whenever I need to drive a screw or drill a hole less than 1/2" in diameter. Even at 12V, it easily drives almost any screw or lag bolt.

There is very little difference between the top-end models of the top manufacturers.
I bought the Panasonic because it had an LED for illumination and came with an extra battery.
 

NewBie

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Feb 18, 2004
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RIDGID

Torque: 510 in-lbs.
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/R841151-18V-Hammer-Drill/

screwdri.jpg
 
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daBear

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Chigger Branch, MS
Milwaukee 28v cordless with LiIon Batts. After you leave everything in the dust and back on the charger you will wonder why you bought anything else.
 

cy

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I'm a fan of batt power tools. it's hard to beat Dewalt batt powered tools. 12V to 24V depending upon your needs.

I've got a full set of 18v milwaulkee, drill, sawzall, circular, I never use. it's available for sale, in excellent price/condition if anyone is interested.

also got a full set for 18V Dewalt and full set of 24V Dewalt in hammer drill, sawzall, circular saw.

my fav is 18V Dewalt drill for most of my needs.

dwalt drills.JPG
 

InFlux

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I've been using a Milwalkee 14.4 hammerdrill. 480 lbs of torque (similar to many 18 volters- but lighter).

I'd love to try one of the new ones with the Li-ion cells, but I don't use them enough to justify.
 

bjn70

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I have a DeWalt 1/2" 14.4V that I have had very good luck with. It has good battery capacity, it came with 2 batteries, and they recharge quickly. The drill itself seems to have good torque.

I was in a hardware store a few years before, and their cordless drill display had max. torque numbers for each drill. I remembered that the DeWalt was the highest, so I decided that was what I wanted and I put one on my Christmas list a few years later.

Not long ago I watched a contractor building a wood fence and was impressed by how well their 18V DeWalt drove large lag bolts into the wood posts.
 

sotyakr

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Benicia, CA
I picked up a Milwaukee 14.4V 0616-24 "Lok-Tor" a couple years ago to use at work. It's been a nice compromise in weight, runtime and power, and got plenty of use when we had to assemble a metal barn for our camels. When projects come up, it has also been handy to always have it available in my car, instead of constantly trying to track down our department's drill (an 18V DeWalt).
 

Yooper

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Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Panasonic 18V. Blows away every other drill I've ever tried. More torque, longer run time, comfortable and easy to use. It was about $200 and it came with a coupon for either an extra batter and charger or an extra "drill body", which is the whole drill without battery. Well, since the original came with two batteries and a charger, I got the extra free drill body, so now I have two completely functional drills!
 

parnass

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I like the 12 volt Dewalt 3/8" VSR drill. It is a few years old and has black rubber/plastic padding on the back of its yellow handle. The current 12 volt Dewalts do not have the padding, a feature now found in the higher end models.

This is my second 12 volt Dewalt drill. I had an earler model which I sold when Dewalt introduced a newer model with better balance. My original Dewalt drill had the handle at the very back of the drill, so the drill wanted to tip forward while I held it. The newer and current models have the handle more toward the center for better balance.

Both drills came with 2 batteries, a fast charger, and a steel case, which I prefer over plastic.

I also have a 12 volt Dewalt trim (circular) saw which uses the same batteries. The 12 volts runs the drill for a decent amount of time, but isn't really enough to power the saw in hardwoods except for brief periods.

Most of my corded (i.e., non battery operated) tools are Milwaukee and Porter Cable.
 

yuandrew

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Apr 12, 2003
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I have a old 12 volt DeWalt as well that my mom bought. :grin2:

Somewhere in the garage, my dad has an old black and decker that plugs in but it's been lost for a long time. He now grabs DeWalt whenever he needs to mount something.
 
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nightshade

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My favorite for metal work is a Metabo BST Plus. It has a nice "pulse" feature for starting holes in metal without the need for a centerpunch.

The 18 volt Dewalt hammer drill gets the nod for everything else. Good combination of torque,run-time and durability. I can't count the number of times it's been rained on.
 

CobraMan

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Nov 26, 2005
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Cerritos, California
I have owned a Makita 6233 DWAE 14.4 volt 3/8 cordless for a number of years and would certainly buy a current version of this model if I had to replace mine. Tons of torque and great ergonomics - comfortable to hold and use and well balanced. If you are not careful with this thing it will snap off large diameter drywall screws without much trouble!

Cheers,
Tim
 
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