[Shop-talk] cordless drills?

[Richard Beels]

Gee, no answers......   :-(

My advice is to goto your big box store of choice and check out the 
"systems".  It's not a good deal to buy just a cordless driver, you 
get more bang for the buck when you buy the kit.  Also, you'll be 
using the cordless impact driver to drive the deck screws & 
lags.  using the small driver makes the 18V battery (almost! :-) 
bearable for the whole day of driving.  WHy 18V?  Seems that's the 
intro "pro" battery size....

I still have my 14.4V DeWalt kit and love the heck out of it.  I 
don't really miss 18V power with it, if I need that extra grunt, I 
grab the corded tool (trim saw's a little weak after a while).  Rigid 
offers (offered) free batteries for the life of the tool or something 
like that; if you go through batteries, that might be 
attractive.  Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita are still the big 3.  Metabo 
is really nice but $$$.  if I were to upgrade, I think I'd get 
whichever system came with the best cordless impact (my most used 
tool), the nicest charger and a nice gatemouth bag.  They're all 
pretty fungible to me (buy maybe not to you).

You will also probably want a small mini cordless non-impact driver - 
Bosch makes a real nice one of those.  Which reminds me, Tool of the 
Trade did a review not too long ago - should be on their website....



At 6/13/2009 at 20:47, Shakespearean monkeys danced on David 
Scheidt's keyboard and said:
>What's the current opinion on cordless drills?  I need to rebuild a
>deck.  My ancient makita is on its last legs, even if the battery
>packs weren't dying.


Cheers!