On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:31:42 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

I was just wondering what people's opinions were on the various cheap
impact drills around?

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I should probably have given some indication to what consitutes cheap.
I guess I was thinking in terms of DIY products, cheap being Clark,
Performance Power, Ferm at around £25 and expensive being B&D, Bosch
at around £50. Clearly pro spec products like Makita, Dewalt etc will
never fall into this category.

Essentially my question was aimed at whether there is a big different
between B&D and Bosch at £50 and non-brands at £25. There have been a
number of helpful responses but no-one directly addressing this,
although reading between the lines people SEEM to be saying the
cheaper option is fine.

Personally, I would recommend buying ultra cheap SDS and impact mains drills
and spending lots on a really decent battery drill (non-impact). I might
even consider having two battery drills, to prevent the need to keep
changing bits.

This is basically what I am looking at. I already have the cheap
impact drill but it's a heavy, unfriendly *******. An expensive
cordless drill driver seems to be the most logical tool to compliment
it with. I am also considering having two, as you suggest, and would
think one cheap and one expensive would be good.

I already have a cheap (£30) Bosch 9.6V drill driver. Makes an okay
drill and a reasonable driver - a very useful, if slightly flawed, bit
of kit. Flawed because it is not fast enough to be a particularly
decent drill (550rpm), although it goes through our dry walls without
blinking. As a driver it is adequate, but has a very inconsistent
response to the trigger pressure, going from 0 to 250rpm (or so)
smoothly and then jumping right up to 550rpm with nothing in between.
When driving tough screws it tends to slow right down and struggle,
but a little extra pressure on the trigger knocks it up to max and
drives the screw half way through the wall before you can react.

I am quite interested in buying a second drill driver (so I don't have
to keep changing bits) but figured it might be more productive to buy
a much superior one which can take over most jobs (other than ones
which require hammer action).

I'd be prepared to pay up to about £75 - any recommendations? There
is a Skil 2052 for £70 from Screwfix and the Ryobi CDD1200 for £75
from B&Q which appear to be the right sort of thing.

I rarely use the standard mains drill. When I do, it is because

(a) I have a huge job that would empty a battery, such as screwing down a
floor.
(b) I'm mixing up mortar/plaster/concrete
(c) I can't find my battery drill
(d) The battery drill isn't charged

The Bosch has two batteries, which is useful but due to the above
limitations any serious work still requires the power drill.
Hopefully a more capable battery drill will reduce this situation
considerably.

I do ALL masonry work with the SDS, including drilling 7mm holes for brown
plugs (I don't use red or yellow). Throw away the chuck adaptor and only use
genuine SDS bits.

The impact drill takes care of the masonry work - of which there is
not a lot anyway. Not much point in getting an SDS drill as I have no
real for it, and I don't want to have to buy a whole load of SDS bits.

Thanks for all your comments on this. It appears to back up what I
already thought.