Dan White wrote:

I'm looking into Lowes' 20% off sale and want a new drill. The one I have
is a rather weak cordless with the small battery (12v?). I've also lost
the
charger, but that's another story. Anyway I want to be able to drill
in/out
3" screws into studs, and drill into concrete with a masonry bit. I found
that the 12v drill didn't have the torque to do it. I borrowed a cheap
corded drill the other day and it drove those screws like nothing.

What do you guys recommend? If the price is in the $200's US or lower I
don't care about the money. It looks like the most expensive one is a
Dewalt 18v. Is this going to match up favorably with a corded drill of
the
same quality? Will the battery last a long time? I won't be using the
drill often but I wan't one that can do everything a decent corded drill
can do without the cord hassle.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Really depends on what you want to do. I have an 18 volt Dewalt 1/2" hammer
drill from their first generation of 18v tools, and its working fine for
me, does just about everything I have ever tried to get it to do, never
managed to stall it--on low speed I suspect it's stronger than I am.
Haven't tried any big bits in masonry, but it handles up to 1/2" adequately
for my use, and the screwdriver clutch has an adequate range. If you're
going to be doing commercial construction and need a masonry drill or
you're a drywall installer and need a powered screwdriver or the like
you'll likely want something a bit more specialized, but as an all-round
drill/driver it's fine. The new ones have added a third, higher speed,
which answers my one real objection to them.

If you're going 3 inches into studs you really should drill a pilot
hole--the deWalt will drive reasonably sized deck screws 3 inches without
one _if_ the screw head holds up but even with square drive screws if I try
that the driver bit usually torques out of the head before the screw is
seated.

Batteries don't last forever on any cordless tool. You can get the deWalt
batteries rebuilt but with the 18v tools they have a discounted 2-pack that
is cheaper than rebuilt batteries, at least the ones I've been able to
find. How long they will last depends on how you use them and on your
luck--one of mine seems to have an internal short for example--it will
charge up and run as long as the others but if I let it sit overnight it
goes flat--the others will hold a charge for, well, I don't know how long
they'll hold a charge--I've always managed to run them down before they
self-discharged--if you don't use it often then recharging the packs once a
month would be a good idea I suspect.

dwhite

--
--John
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