I bought this drill...

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/83834/...-Accessory-Kit

(but for £100 - don't know why Screwfix made that price up!)



I'm concerned the clutch (or whatever it is that lets the drive slip)
isn't quite right. On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_
torque setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the chuck
with my hand. On the drill setting, the clutch has no effect (i.e. the
drill turns unless it can't - it doesn't intentionally slip). The gap
between highest torque and no slip seems ridiculously large. I was
using one of the hex bits to drive a bolt into a wall, and it didn't
go in at all on the screw driver setting. It went in fine on the drill
setting, but then nearly broke something at the end.

On both my previous drills, the top setting was far far stronger. On a
cordless I borrowed there was still a slightly annoying gap between
the top setting and the "drill" setting - but nothing like this! On my
old mains drill, the range was continuous, which was ideal.

Is this new drill faulty, or is it a design fault, or is it just crap?
It's possible, when changing gears or direction, to get the clutch
stuck "open", but that's not what I'm talking about here. Even when it
seems to be engaged, it doesn't seem to be as strong as I'd like.


The batteries don't seem to be that great. I posted a thread on here a
few weeks back asking about cordless vs mains. As I drilled a 15mm bit
through stone at the weekend, I was wishing for a mains drill - the
cordless got through in the end, but it was so slow and kept stopping
completely when the bit caught. (There wasn't quite room for my SDS).
I thought the batteries were getting flat, but swapping to a freshly
charged one only improved things for a few seconds.

Cheers,
David.

On Nov 22, 2:10 pm, David Robinson
wrote:
I bought this drill...

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/83834/...s-Drills/Makit...

(but for £100 - don't know why Screwfix made that price up!)

I'm concerned the clutch (or whatever it is that lets the drive slip)
isn't quite right. On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_
torque setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the chuck
with my hand. On the drill setting, the clutch has no effect (i.e. the
drill turns unless it can't - it doesn't intentionally slip). The gap
between highest torque and no slip seems ridiculously large. I was
using one of the hex bits to drive a bolt into a wall, and it didn't
go in at all on the screw driver setting. It went in fine on the drill
setting, but then nearly broke something at the end.

On both my previous drills, the top setting was far far stronger. On a
cordless I borrowed there was still a slightly annoying gap between
the top setting and the "drill" setting - but nothing like this! On my
old mains drill, the range was continuous, which was ideal.

Is this new drill faulty, or is it a design fault, or is it just crap?
It's possible, when changing gears or direction, to get the clutch
stuck "open", but that's not what I'm talking about here. Even when it
seems to be engaged, it doesn't seem to be as strong as I'd like.

The batteries don't seem to be that great. I posted a thread on here a
few weeks back asking about cordless vs mains. As I drilled a 15mm bit
through stone at the weekend, I was wishing for a mains drill - the
cordless got through in the end, but it was so slow and kept stopping
completely when the bit caught. (There wasn't quite room for my SDS).
I thought the batteries were getting flat, but swapping to a freshly
charged one only improved things for a few seconds.

Cheers,
David.

suspect a 15mm masonry bit was pushing the envelope for a 18v
combi !!!

similarly re torque settings - remember they are designed for screwing
*screws* without snapping them - your hex head bolt sounds somewhat
more "torque hungry" than a woodscrew?;)

You could try it with a mains drill - and prepare yourself for the
snapping sensation and the fun of extracting the broken bolt out so
you can have another go....

perhaps lower your expectations a bit for £100 & battery power?

Jim K

On Nov 22, 2:10*pm, David Robinson
wrote:

I'm concerned the clutch (or whatever it is that lets the drive slip)
isn't quite right. On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_
torque setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the chuck
with my hand.

It certainly doesn't sound right. On my Bosch 24v cordless, of similar
price, there's no way you could slip the clutch with your hand on the
highest setting.

That probably doesn't help you directly but it may add some support
for your expectations not being unreasonable.

Mathew

Mathew Newton wrote:
On Nov 22, 2:10 pm, David Robinson
wrote:

I'm concerned the clutch (or whatever it is that lets the drive slip)
isn't quite right. On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_
torque setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the
chuck with my hand.

It certainly doesn't sound right. On my Bosch 24v cordless, of similar
price, there's no way you could slip the clutch with your hand on the
highest setting.

That probably doesn't help you directly but it may add some support
for your expectations not being unreasonable.

My 14.4v Makita couldn't be stopped on the highest torque setting - no way -
unless the battery is flat.

Are you sure the batteries are charged properly? Sometimes with Makita
chargers, if you insert a flatish battery the green light remains on & it
won't charge. Unplug charger, remove battery, plug back in, insert battery
& check the red light comes on.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

David wrote...
On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_ torque
setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the
chuck with my hand.

That is broken or at least not good enough, or you may have it on the
highest speed which allows momentum to build to overrun the clutch.
For screwdriving you should use speed #1 (at least for plasterboard,
cement board, rubbishy pine).

I have a Makita 14.4V 6337D.
I actually bought the body (£32), NiMH battery (£40), multi-charger
(£19) as odds-n-sods on Ebay as I disposed of other stuff. It is a
Marathon motor drill which does mean it has very torque, and uses NiMH
(or NiCad) batteries. It is a 2-speed drill and not a combi drill like
the MXT Combi which is about £45-55 for the body even on Ebay (and
heavier).

Set to screws, gearbox speed 1.
With clutch set to 5 it can be stopped with a firm grip, albeit giving
your wrist a good snatch.
With clutch set to 16 you can forget stopping it, it will actually
break your wrist before you can get the trigger fully down.

The downside is under part-speed, very high resistance, the speed
control can smoke and fail. I suspect that may be the run-in NiMH
battery. So I have a "no speed control" for brickwork and a "do not
abuse" for precise (cough!) woodwork. Makita would not entertain the
warranty because I had bought on Ebay, no point shipping it around and
just bought a replacement 6337D body for £27 delivered in the
recession.

Now, when I tried 12V non-marathon & 14.4V non-marathon with NiCad I
did find them weedy - even compared to an old 9.6V NiCad which I
suspect re 1998-2000 had a "marathon motor or its equivalent back
them".

Batteries do take time to run-in and achieve a full charge, but I find
1.3Ah is that bit too small - 1.5Ah is noticeably better in that you
can actually finish a job without finding the thing grinds to a halt.
On the NiMH you have almost consistent fresh-charge power until the
last 20secs, it really is that good. The downside is the self
discharge is pretty dire.

If you do not need a Combi, buy a non-Combi cordless with occasional
masonry (Bosch Multiconstruction bit) and a proper mains SDS for
masonry because nothing matches it except the expensive cordless SDS
drills (£200+).

On Nov 22, 2:44*pm, "js.b1" wrote:
David wrote...
On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_ torque
setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the
chuck with my hand.

That is broken or at least not good enough, or you may have it on the
highest speed which allows momentum to build to overrun the clutch.
For screwdriving you should use speed #1 (at least for plasterboard,
cement board, rubbishy pine).

Yes, it was on 1. It didn't make much difference (except when the
clutch didn't engage at all and it slipped completely).

I have a Makita 14.4V 6337D.
I actually bought the body (£32), NiMH battery (£40), multi-charger
(£19) as odds-n-sods on Ebay as I disposed of other stuff. It is a
Marathon motor drill which does mean it has very torque, and uses NiMH
(or NiCad) batteries. It is a 2-speed drill and not a combi drill like
the MXT Combi which is about £45-55 for the body even on Ebay (and
heavier).

Set to screws, gearbox speed 1.
With clutch set to 5 it can be stopped with a firm grip, albeit giving
your wrist a good snatch.
With clutch set to 16 you can forget stopping it, it will actually
break your wrist before you can get the trigger fully down.

This is what I would expect!

I just phoned Makita to ask. The guy in the service department claimed
that he could stop all their tools with his hand in screwdriver mode -
it's just that some took more effort than others. ????

He asked what I was trying to do. I said 3" No. 10 screws into 4x2
(which I've tried, and it gives up). He said drill a proper pilot
hole.

He pointed out that this only has 40Nm of torque, while the better
model has 80Nm. But this is torque in drill mode - he couldn't say if
it made any difference to the max torque in screw driver mode. He
seemed to think I was a bit mad switching to drill mode to finish off
the screw driving - me too, but I've rarely needed to before!


I was thinking that maybe I'd keep the cordless as a glorified screw
driver, and get a mains drill for heavier jobs - but this one doesn't
work as a glorified screw driver, so I think it's going to have to go
back. :-(


btw, I really liked the keyless chuck. Far more convenient than any
keyed chuck I've had, and it didn't slip - whereas a keyed chuck did
in the same circumstances (though due to the lack of power the keyless
didn't get thrashed as much, so it's not a totally fair comparison).


If you do not need a Combi, buy a non-Combi cordless with occasional
masonry (Bosch Multiconstruction bit) and a proper mains SDS for
masonry because nothing matches it except the expensive cordless SDS
drills (£200+).

I think you're right - though there are times when a normal hammer
drill seems like the right thing to use and SDS seems like overkill.

Cheers,
David.

David Robinson wrote:
On Nov 22, 2:44 pm, "js.b1" wrote:

With clutch set to 16 you can forget stopping it, it will actually
break your wrist before you can get the trigger fully down.

This is what I would expect!

I just phoned Makita to ask. The guy in the service department
claimed that he could stop all their tools with his hand in
screwdriver mode - it's just that some took more effort than
others.

Send it back, it's broken.

On 22/11/2010 14:10, David Robinson wrote:
I bought this drill...

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/83834/...-Accessory-Kit

(but for £100 - don't know why Screwfix made that price up!)



I'm concerned the clutch (or whatever it is that lets the drive slip)
isn't quite right. On the screw driver setting, even at the _highest_
torque setting, I can stop the shaft turning just by holding the chuck
with my hand. On the drill setting, the clutch has no effect (i.e. the
drill turns unless it can't - it doesn't intentionally slip). The gap
between highest torque and no slip seems ridiculously large. I was
using one of the hex bits to drive a bolt into a wall, and it didn't
go in at all on the screw driver setting. It went in fine on the drill
setting, but then nearly broke something at the end.

On both my previous drills, the top setting was far far stronger. On a
cordless I borrowed there was still a slightly annoying gap between
the top setting and the "drill" setting - but nothing like this! On my
old mains drill, the range was continuous, which was ideal.

Is this new drill faulty, or is it a design fault, or is it just crap?
It's possible, when changing gears or direction, to get the clutch
stuck "open", but that's not what I'm talking about here. Even when it
seems to be engaged, it doesn't seem to be as strong as I'd like.


The batteries don't seem to be that great. I posted a thread on here a
few weeks back asking about cordless vs mains. As I drilled a 15mm bit
through stone at the weekend, I was wishing for a mains drill - the
cordless got through in the end, but it was so slow and kept stopping
completely when the bit caught. (There wasn't quite room for my SDS).
I thought the batteries were getting flat, but swapping to a freshly
charged one only improved things for a few seconds.

Cheers,
David.

I've one two of these
http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/...&product=36503
and there's no way you can stop the chuck turning when the torque
setting is set to maximum.

I've one two of these
http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/...&product=36503
and there's no way you can stop the chuck turning when the torque setting
is set to maximum.

Never realised Makita was made in the UK until I saw that ad....