wrote:

"For basic operations, the budget tools will do pretty much what the
high end ones will"

Something occurs to me about this. A guy I know had a load of real
cheapo power tools for site work, £10 drills and angle grinders etc,
and the tools were dead within a month. It seems the plastic gears were
really only capable of lasting if the tool only saw occasional use. So
I'm not sure one can say budget will do what decent stuff will. Also
there is quite a high failure rate on low end tools. Perhaps add
'though the low end ones often dont last very well'

The following sentance does say however:

"Spending more money will buy you better endurance from the motor, so
you can run it longer without rest periods, and it will last longer,
better speed controllers, and more robust gearboxes. Bearings will
improve and become more impervious to dust - handy if you do much
masonry work, or lots of grinding and sanding"

Does that not make it clear enough?

Codless speed controllers arent essential on the lower power tools, eg
2.4v. In fact they wouldnt really gain you anything on those.

I would agree, although in general we have not covered much below 9.6V
(what is there is more of an after thought)

It could do with someone's experience on soemthing between 2.4 and 12v,
and some experience of what one can actually do with a £25 special.

I have used an early Skil 2.4V screwdriver. Good for light screwdriving
and flatpack assembly, however you typically needed to do the final
tightening by hand since it would run out of puff.

My first cordless drill was a 7.2V Richmond Tools one. Twin speed box,
no speed controller. It used to get frequent use for light screwing and
drilling tasks. It was very good for assembling flatpack furniture etc.
Also ok for drilling in wood. The gearbox was not that robust however
and a snaging spade bit stripped a tooth from a cog once.

Limits on performance were sticking a 2" screw into a rawlplug, or about
1.5" into solid timber (if not pre drilled). It got retired when I got a
better 9.6V one, however recently has been pressed back into service as
a light screwdriver after the happy discovery that the battery pack fits
my Makita charger... Hence it is now a 15 min charge rather than 16 hours!

Batteries: higher voltage doesnt just mean more drilling power, it also
means a longer work time from each charge.

Well, that kind of depends on the drain rate, you can use the extra
voltage to get extra power and/or extra run time depending on how you
design it.


--
Cheers,

John.

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