cordless drills

[johnakay]

battery charger gave up on my firestorm.
nothing wrong with the drill etc.
but its not worth while buying a new charger.
prices they're not far off from getting a complete new drill.

apart from the obvious is the 18v better than 14.4 v?
the reason why I ask is that spares seems to be cheaper for the 18v's than the 14.4v.
I don't need the heavy industrial drill , I already sold that to gordon on here.
some thing along the line of the b&b firestorm.
it been a good drill been dropped ,banged etc and still kept going and still did till the charger packed up.
also what would you recomend for around £50/£80
don't recomend me any thing that cost alot more please.
I only use it for light work also its handy to have a hammer drill to.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

After having quite a few cheap and cheerful types over the years I decided to buy a Makita and haven't regreted it.
Looking at Screwfix you can get one just within your budget -
http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-8281dwpe-14-4v-1-3ah-ni-cd-cordless-combi-drill/39849
Mine is 14.4v and far more powerful than a previous 24v so don't let a lower volts put you off if just for DIY.
Brother in law uses power tool for a living and also rates Makita highly albeit the far more expensive versions.

Paul H

 

[gordon stephenson]

Hi, John. Yes the dewalt I bought from you is still going strong, I bought one of screw fix's own brand for my lad, !8v Erbougher(spelling?)Came with two batteries (ni cad ) and performs equally as well and just as powerful as the dewalt, Was on special offer at the time cost £59-99 all in a nice case too,
Nice to see you are still busy John.

 

[Fazerruss]

Cant beat makita in my opinion

 

[sparky_col]

Cant beat makita in my opinion

makitas are good, but those red batteries are poor, spend a bit more and get the same drill with better batteries nimh or lions

 

[Wedg1e]

I have a Makita cordless in mint condition; I fried both batteries in an afternoon's orgy of drilling and tapping M6 holes into 6mm mild steel angle and 2mm stainless.

Might be worth keeping an eye on Aldi; their el cheapo bargains have a 3 year warranty!

 

[chriskelland]

Trouble is decent stuff for pro use costs a mint. For DIY I have used Erbauer from Screwfix, I've had one nicad pack fail, changed FOC, all the rest has worked well and is abused somthing wicked. I regularly use an 18v jigsaw for cutting steel, been doing that for a couple of years with no probs.

 

[gordon stephenson]

A friend was a technician/ maintenance man at a 6th form college and they used the Erbauer 18v but with the Lithium batteries on a daily basis and said he could not fault them, Preferred to use them before some other more expensive makes.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Been to B&Q this morning. They have "cheap and cheerful" 14.4v @ something like £14.99 - was tempted ! Black & Decker 18v @ £59.99.
20% off if you spend over £100 this weekend.

Paul h

 

[Epicyclic]

I've got a 18.8V (LiOn) Parkside brand from Lidl. Has what seems like a quality 3/8 chuck and looks a lot like a Bosch. Used it a fair bit for screw running and drilling spot welds out and it seems fine, but no hammer action. £60.00 about 6 months ago if I remember correctly.
Keep my old blue B&D with 1/2 chuck and hammer for the odd time I need it for that sort of work.

 

[johnakay]

gone and bought the Makita 8281 model yes red batteries.
if the black and decker can last over 2 years I don't see why these shouldn't.
my son has the same drill b/decker and his charger stopped working so ask me to have a look(what good it'll do ,I know ****** all about electrics on them chargers anyway)
like a good Dad I am I put his bat into my charger and yes that to ******ed my charger.
other wise every thing would've been ok. told him to bin that battery.
so I'm left with a good drill/battery but no charger!
can't see any point paying nearly £30 for a charger and find my battery has ******ed up to.
I'll just stick it in Ebay and see what I get for it.

 

[pedrobedro]

Axminster had an offer on the nicad Makita when I bought mine last year £99.99 with two batteries and a full accessory set, hole cutters, drill bits drivers etc. My batteries last better than a friend's li-ions in 18v which he has had for a couple of years and they charge up quicker in a side by side test. I have an old 12v Firestorm drill with a knackered battery which I am reluctant to throw as it was a really good worker and went up ladders everywhere with me. I thought of getting replacement cells for it but never got round to it. You can run a 12v drill from a car battery with a couple of wires connected.

 

[flash of light]

for members who cant afford makita, a company call "SITE" market good drills from 240v hammers to cordless drills they ar makita under the badge just have red plastic and at close to half the price. sorry for not posting earlier

 

[brightspark]

for members who cant afford makita, a company call "SITE" market good drills from 240v hammers to cordless drills they ar makita under the badge just have red plastic and at close to half the price. sorry for not posting earlier

there a budget version of makita there not bad drills. i have an 18 volt one i paid 50 quid for on offer and pulled the bum out of it for over a year now nearly every day of the week so it ows me nowt

 

[BrokenBiker]

we use makita and site tools in work, and they are identical in every way bar colour.

excellent for the price

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

Makita for me . I have an old made in Japan 9 .2 what ever it is volt , hammer and rotary battery drill .

It's had seven new sets of batteries plus one charger repair in 23 years and one new chuck key as a stand by/ spare .
For five years of its life it was used for security system installing and modernising of three homes inc rewires , re gas & re plumbing . It's had a fair bit of use after that as well & is still going strong .

Cost 23 years ago was a special offer of £103 plus vat.

 

[Seano]

there a budget version of makita there not bad drills. i have an 18 volt one i paid 50 quid for on offer and pulled the bum out of it for over a year now nearly every day of the week so it ows me nowt

Any link to SITE bs......?

 

[mike os]

for batteries there are a couple of suppliers on ebay...batshop & batterypro (or batpro?) both have been as good as oem ime and iirc 14v nimh were about £25-30 each last time

 

[anto]

Bought an 18v Dewalt cordless from B&Q when they do them for £100 plus a spare battery.
It has served me well so far, although it doesnt get a whole lot of abuse.

They also do an offer on Makita as well at around the same price.

 

[chunkolini]

I think there are volts and volts as well as batteries and batteries.
EG my 14 volt Dewalt drill driver would eat my 18v Axminster model and spit out the bits.
Smaller, 'less powerful?' lighter. but miles better.
That in turn would have eaten my older no name cheapo thing and it's batteries.
In my experience cheapo Nicad batteries are crap, yet some older quality tools go on for ever.
Also look at the power in the batteries. 3 batteries!!! yipeeee. But they only last a few minutes go for max power in the batteries as well.
But it does seem you get what you pay for.
What a surprise.