'Splain this to me: Makita Cordless Drill Speed Selectors

[Kent A Bathurst]

I have 2 different Makita cordless drills. And, after a number of months, I just noticed this anomaly:

On the "black" one's speed selector: forward is speed 1, back is speed 2

On the "green" one: forward is speed 2, backward is speed 1.

Did they figure that the homeowner/handyman [market for black model] has a brain that works backwards from the "pros"?

The green controls make sense - like on the foot-feed for the supercharged Mini: push it all the way forward, and hang on.

[Larry Edgerton]

I must have the pro models, all mine make sense. I did however switch from Hilti to Makita a couple of years ago, and the forward/reverse switch is backwards. I'm still screwed up on that one.

I had a supercharged Miata, so yea, the push it forward for more speed thing makes sense. I miss that car but my drivers licence doesn't.

[Jason Roehl]

Huh? Okay, I will never buy a Makita now. My Porter-Cable drills all have two drive speeds on a switch on top of the tool, but they don't change the direction--that is a through-switch above the trigger--push it in from the right to tighten a right-twist screw, push it in from the left to loosen a right-twist screw.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Huh? Okay, I will never buy a Makita now. My Porter-Cable drills all have two drive speeds on a switch on top of the tool, but they don't change the direction--that is a through-switch above the trigger--push it in from the right to tighten a right-twist screw, push it in from the left to loosen a right-twist screw.


Nah - We're talking the same thing - not the forward/reverse thumb button, the 2-speed slide switch on the top of the barrel. The forward/reverse is the same thumb button everyone's got.

[Jason Roehl]

Ahhhh...gotcha..."forward" and "back" referred to the position of the switch, not the direction of drill/drive...

[Kent A Bathurst]

Bingo.

I just wondered why the speed selector would work differently on 2 different models. Must have something to do with quantum physics, I guess.

[Greg R Bradley]

Probably more to do with what was convenient due to internal pieces in the gear mechanism. My 3 different models of Makita "green" drills all have 1 forward and 2 or 3 to the back, which matches your "black" one.