shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Stone Mountain, GA USA
My Dewalt 9.6V cordless drill finally died. Working with my brother putting up cabinets, I handed it to him and it promptly jammed up. Something caught up in the motor as I could see the fan fins broken off.
The dewalt was at least 9 years old. I should have gotten a commission from DW as everyone who saw it or used it wanted one. In its day, most cordless drills were crap. I remember helping a buddy do a wood deck. His B&D was straining and I was snapping heads off 3" deck screws. Next day he showed up with a 18V dewalt.
It served me well with some serious abuse. Wood spade bits, lots of big screws driven. I drilled a 1/2" hole in 1.5" steel bar for a trailer hitch. 3 full batts run hard. The batts were never quite as good since
So, off to get a new one. My brother just got a 18V Ryobi; real nice but heavy. Amazing they are only $99 with 2 batts, quick charger and flashlight. Seemed real heavy duty. All the drills I looked at (ignored the real cheap ones.) were heavy. Seems everyone has learned that the gearbox needed to be all steel and also have 1/2" chucks. I just could not stand the weight of the 18V NiCad batts.
Have seen the 18V Dewalts and they have seemed solid. But, have been leery of the relationship with B&D. You seen the same drill with a B&D label (and probably plastic gears.)
I limped along with the Dewalt for a long time. I have been waiting for the lithium ion batts to come down before getting anew one.
It came down to three models: a Milwaukee, Dewalt and a Husky 18V Li-ion models, all about $200. I had used a Milwaukee sawsall and had one of their portable band saws. Both were all-steel, heavy duty motor and gearboxes and had more power than needed so I decided on the Milwaukee:
The drill is relatively light. The drill itself weights about the same as my Dewalt with the 9.6v batt. The batt is only a few ounces.The batts are smart; have a LED bar display of charge, will shut down if too hot or too much current. The 1/2 hour charger is smart too, will not charge a batt that is too hot. I have to admit to abusing the batts on the Dewalt; running them hard till they are almost too hot to hold and plugging them in the charger. So it should last and prevent me from working it too hard.
Drill has an LED to light up work area. Nice feature but would be nice to be able to turn it on without the drill turning.
Have not "used it in anger" as said here Seems nice
We'll see ho the Li-Ion batts do. MW claims they are specially designed. Must be as I have used Lithium batts in designs and the standard ones do not like heavy currents. There is also a lot of smarts needed in charging them, below a certain point, they must be trickle charged, then a standard charge and bust not be over charged (no peak charge like NiCad/NiMH).
The dewalt was at least 9 years old. I should have gotten a commission from DW as everyone who saw it or used it wanted one. In its day, most cordless drills were crap. I remember helping a buddy do a wood deck. His B&D was straining and I was snapping heads off 3" deck screws. Next day he showed up with a 18V dewalt.
It served me well with some serious abuse. Wood spade bits, lots of big screws driven. I drilled a 1/2" hole in 1.5" steel bar for a trailer hitch. 3 full batts run hard. The batts were never quite as good since So, off to get a new one. My brother just got a 18V Ryobi; real nice but heavy. Amazing they are only $99 with 2 batts, quick charger and flashlight. Seemed real heavy duty. All the drills I looked at (ignored the real cheap ones.) were heavy. Seems everyone has learned that the gearbox needed to be all steel and also have 1/2" chucks. I just could not stand the weight of the 18V NiCad batts.
Have seen the 18V Dewalts and they have seemed solid. But, have been leery of the relationship with B&D. You seen the same drill with a B&D label (and probably plastic gears.)
I limped along with the Dewalt for a long time. I have been waiting for the lithium ion batts to come down before getting anew one.
It came down to three models: a Milwaukee, Dewalt and a Husky 18V Li-ion models, all about $200. I had used a Milwaukee sawsall and had one of their portable band saws. Both were all-steel, heavy duty motor and gearboxes and had more power than needed so I decided on the Milwaukee:
The drill is relatively light. The drill itself weights about the same as my Dewalt with the 9.6v batt. The batt is only a few ounces.The batts are smart; have a LED bar display of charge, will shut down if too hot or too much current. The 1/2 hour charger is smart too, will not charge a batt that is too hot. I have to admit to abusing the batts on the Dewalt; running them hard till they are almost too hot to hold and plugging them in the charger. So it should last and prevent me from working it too hard.
Drill has an LED to light up work area. Nice feature but would be nice to be able to turn it on without the drill turning.
Have not "used it in anger" as said here
Seems niceWe'll see ho the Li-Ion batts do. MW claims they are specially designed. Must be as I have used Lithium batts in designs and the standard ones do not like heavy currents. There is also a lot of smarts needed in charging them, below a certain point, they must be trickle charged, then a standard charge and bust not be over charged (no peak charge like NiCad/NiMH).
great chuck all metal 
