Power tools

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Orlando, FL
My old drill is batteries wont hold a charge anymore. I see no point in buying replacement batteries when they have combo kits for just a little more than the cost of two batteries and the kits come with two batteries.

First. NiCd vs LitIon. Whats the deal? Ive heard LitIon wont wear out like NiCd. True? Experiences?

Many of the kits have a drill and an impact driver. There are drills with the hammer selection built in. Wouldn't the drill/hammer negate the need for the impact driver?
 
Batteries are always going to die. Buy a name brand tool so u can get a new tool with each battery purchase (that's how I got a ton of dewalt). As far as the hammer drill, completely different than an impact driver. The impact has a clutch that "impacts" the bolt, the hammer drill has no clutch but hammers up and down for use in drilling concrete.
 
- Lithium Ion, dont look back. Just make sure you have spare packs because they run hard until they are dead. like screw one screw in, load the next, dead.
- hammer drill =/= impact driver. (although the drill may have a clutch, they are worlds different in actual usage)

If I were you I would get a kit with the following:
- 1/2" Drill
- 1/4" impact driver
- Recip Saw
- light
runners up:
- mini circular saw
- 3/8" square anvil impact
- 1/2" square anvil impact
 
Forget NiCad. LithIon for sure, but as others said have a spare battery. They don't show any sign of loosing charge and will go full force and then STOP.
 
GotWood said:
Batteries are always going to die. Buy a name brand tool so u can get a new tool with each battery purchase (that's how I got a ton of dewalt). As far as the hammer drill, completely different than an impact driver. The impact has a clutch that "impacts" the bolt, the hammer drill has no clutch but hammers up and down for use in drilling concrete.
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good to know, didn't realize that.
 
mbalbritton said:
My old drill is batteries wont hold a charge anymore. I see no point in buying replacement batteries when they have combo kits for just a little more than the cost of two batteries and the kits come with two batteries.

First. NiCd vs LitIon. Whats the deal? Ive heard LitIon wont wear out like NiCd. True? Experiences?

Many of the kits have a drill and an impact driver. There are drills with the hammer selection built in. Wouldn't the drill/hammer negate the need for the impact driver?
Click to expand...

Depending on the voltage of your old drill, if you know how to solder, you could always solder a wire with a cigerette lighter plug on it and use it plugged in to your Jeep for a trail tool. This only works on 12 volt and lower drills. A higher voltage drill will turn slower and a lower one will turn faster.

As far as buying the new ones, it depends on how often you use them. If you are a pro, or are pulling them out to use daily, go with a good name (even Dewalt is sketchy for a true pro). For the occasional user like me - I've had good results with the Firestorm by Black & Decker stuff. I have a hedge trimmer, a recip saw, a cordless drill and a circular saw and they all share the same battery. I use them at MOST once a week. I've also got less invested in all of them than one Dewalt drill.
 
ManglerYJ said:
Depending on the voltage of your old drill, if you know how to solder, you could always solder a wire with a cigerette lighter plug on it and use it plugged in to your Jeep for a trail tool. This only works on 12 volt and lower drills. A higher voltage drill will turn slower and a lower one will turn faster.
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Already did this with an old 12V Drill that was the predecessor to my dieing 19.2V now. But I put Battery clamps on the end to hook it straight to the battery. Did that about 8 years ago and never used it. :rolleyes:
 
mbalbritton said:
Already did this with an old 12V Drill that was the predecessor to my dieing 19.2V now. But I put Battery clamps on the end to hook it straight to the battery. Did that about 8 years ago and never used it. :rolleyes:
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Yeah... a drill isn't really a "trail tool". It makes for a cool conversation piece when someone notices it in your trail tool box, though! :)
 
Lowe's has a Riobi 1/2in battery drill that is tough and cheap! We had one at M&M Offroad and I was very impressed with it and the price! The SOB is a He!! of a deal. It stood up to way too much stuff we put it through.
 
They Ryobi Li-Ion stuff is great for the money. Their impact isn't the strongest, but it's still impressive. I'm currently using Dewalt because I got it cheap. The impact is awesome. The sawzall is really convenient. The drill is adequate. I would have bought new batteries and a chuck for my old Ryobi stuff, converting to Li-Ion, but I got the Dewalt impact cheap, was really impressed, and bought a drill and sawzall kit on sale at HD. It's Ni-Cad, and the batteries hold a charge well. We used some Dewalt Li-Ion stuff at work, and the batteries don't seem to hold up to that abuse as well as ni-cads. They seemed to fail prematurely. The XRPs are tough, though, and last a long time. If cost were no object, I'd probably look into Milwaukee, but the Dewalt stuff is everywhere.
 
Only real draw back to lith is the fact you don't realize its going dead and of you leave in the cold(below freezing) sometimes they wont work.
 
Another great feature that no one has mentioned about the lithium batteries is that they are WAY lighter than the nicad batteries. This comes in handy if your doing a big job and holding up a drill for long hours! As far as brand goes i would suggest buying a product depending on how often you are going to use it and what you are going to use it for. As a auto tech, i only buy Snap On drills and impacts but they are super exspensive but last forever. I have had my impact and drill for 6 years now and use the 3/8 impact daily on everything that i can get it on and it just keeps going like a big block weedeater!! but for occasional use i would suggest craftsman or one of the Lowes or Home Depot brands. Millwalkee makes some great electrical tools at a good price and there tough as hell also.
 
Wife was at Lowe's today and the DeWalt Man was there offering 2 Drill bit packs and an extra battery with purchase one of their 20V Lit-Ion combos. She called and asked which one I wanted. now I have a 20V 3Ah Hammer/Drill & Impact Combo with bag, 2 drill bit sets and a 3rd battery. It's a good day.
 
did you see the new brushless impact driver??? saw one in statesville lowes the other day... had to tell myself to drop the gun and walk away
 
Hurley said:
did you see the new brushless impact driver??? saw one in statesville lowes the other day... had to tell myself to drop the gun and walk away
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I too have to do this on a regular basis.
 
I got a great deal on a 18v Ryobi package at H Depot a few years ago. A very nice drill driver, circular saw, sawsall , and a fantastic pistol grip, rotating beam angle flashlight, bag charger and 2 batteries. I was so impressed by the perf. and quality I bought their 1/4" impact driver weeks later also on sale I use it alot to install/remove hard to reach bolts when wrenching ( after breaking them loose w a ratchet ) w a 3/8" drive bit and U joint on the end of 3/8" extentions. I'll break all the fastners ( like bellhousing bolts ) and then zip them all out/back in quick w the driver. I think Ryobi is the only manufacturer that developed their lithum ion batteries to retrofit their older tools like mine and that's pretty cool IMO. I will probably replace my batts. w LI when they wear out. I wrap a little ductape around the U joint to hold bigger/longer bolts and keep them from flopping around and falling out of the socket sometimes too.
 
10-4 Hurley. Years ago I believe Ryobi's quality was not so good, but I have had no trouble w my newer tools and I could probably replace them all or buy 2 of each cheaper than buying the top brand names like Makita or Hitachi. I had some craftsman crap years ago but I think their quality has gone up also recently.
 
I've got a Craftsman drill driver pair that's about 5-6yrs old, 19.2 NiCd. The impact driver functions flawlessly, although its really bulky. The drill I'm not impressed with as much, and have since swapped in a 1/2" Jacobs chuck... IMO the chuck is worth more than the drill. For the record, I would not buy craftsman cordless tools again.
 
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