Good corded drill

[Allen Grimes]

Hi guys,

I am one of the very rare breed of WWs who hates cordless drills. I just dont like to deal with batteries.

I was just going to make a blind purchase and go with a Bosch, but I decided that I better ask around first. I have been trying to research them but since the attention is seemingly always on cordless drills, its hard to find any good info on corded drills.

[Greg Koch]

Here's a link to over 700 reviews for corded drills.

http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Shop_Tools-All-Corded-Drill_and_Screwdriver

[David Fried]

I bought a Bosch 1012VSR a couple of years ago and am very happy with it. It has survived a few drops from the roof with no ill effects.

Originally I was looking a less expensive Bosch but several people I know told me they had bought that model and returned it. They felt the problems had to do with it's Malaysian origin.


Dave Fried

[Frank Pellow]

I have a cordless drill (a Festool TDK 12), but I find myself using my corded drill more than the cordless one. The corded drill that I recomend is the DeWalt Hammer Drill (DW505). It's about the fifth corded drill that I have owned (including one Bosch) and definately the best one.

[Allen Grimes]

Frank, were your other drills hammer drills too?

Dave and Frank,

Have you used your drills for steel, and if so how did they perfom?

[Frank Pellow]

Frank, were your other drills hammer drills too?

Dave and Frank,

Have you used your drills for steel, and if so how did they perfom?
This is my third hammer drill. Of course, it drills in non-hammer mode as well.

Yes, I have used it to drill through steel (with carbide bits) and it worked well. The thickest steel that I tackled with it was about a centimetre thick. I have also drilled through 20 centimetre concrete and about 30 centimetres into granite rock.

[David Fried]

Frank, were your other drills hammer drills too?

Dave and Frank,

Have you used your drills for steel, and if so how did they perfom?

No. Like Frank the steel I drilled was about a centimeter but I used my drill press. I use the drill for home repairs. Not much steel in my house.

Dave Fried

[Mark Singer]

Here's a link to over 700 reviews for corded drills.

http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Shop_Tools-All-Corded-Drill_and_Screwdriver
Only 700? Thats all?

[Frank Chaffee]

Allen,
I have not bought a corded drill for some time, but brands I have had great experiences with are Milwaukee and Bosch.

My first personal power tool purchase was a 3/8” VSR Milwaukee drill in 1975. I used it in light to moderate production (piecework) for two years, and am beginning to think that it will out live me.

I plumb wore out two Milwaukee Tek guns, but believe you me, their rest is well deserved.

My Milwaukee ½” drills (straight Magnum and D handle), coupled with my right angle drive, slow down enuf to run hole saws and relatively large drill bits through steel plate.

I have a Milwaukee Screw Shooter (VS), (drywall gun), that is a keeper too.

While corded drills are wonderful and predictably powerful, please do not overlook the advantages afforded by the currently available cordless drills. Especially when I work outside on the house, or on a ladder, I use my Festool cordless drills and my Milwaukee 18V cordless hammer drill. Having several drills, each set-up with an appropriate bit or driver for successive operations, without cords that entangle with one another is a wonderful advantage.

Also Allan, check out Chris Pasko’s opinion of Milwaukee’s 28V Lithium Ion series of power tools. IIRC, his experience with this generation of cordless tool is that they “rock around the clock”.

All in all, this is a very good time to buy industrial quality power tools, corded or cordless.

And if you have begun to consider a cordless purchase, check out the Makita 14.4 impact driver. I have heard nothing but rave reviews from those who have them.

Regards,
Frank

[Chris McKimson]

Love my Milwaulkee's. I have the 3/8" VS, 1/2" Hole Shooter, one the Hammer Drills and the close quarters drill. All are a pleasure to use.

Chris

[Brad Schmid]

I've had very good service from my Milwaukee 1/2" Magnum VS. I've drilled 1" holes through 5/8" steel with it with no problem (except when the bit catches it'll about tear your arm off:eek: ). It is 16 years old and the only maintenance i've ever done to it is replace the cord.

[Bryan Sayer]

You can't go wrong with Milwakee. One thing to look at is do you like a pistol grip or a "T" grip? I also have and really like the angle drill. Easy to use one handed. I have the Milwakee, but I heard they were made by Sioux. Don't know if Sioux is still around or not.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have a 1/2" Milwaukee and 3/8" Makita..........Corded and both work well for me!

[Allen Grimes]

To Greg,

Thanks for the link, I appreciate it.

To Dave,

The bosch I was considering in the first place was the 1034VSR, a big brother to your model I just didnt realize it until I did a little research


To Frank Pellow,

Thanks for the help and the suggestion, I also did a little research on your and I have it marked as one of my options.

To Frank Chaffe,

Thanks for the suggestion. Also, I want to add, I hate cordless drills because of past experience, but that is not to say that I will never, buy a cordless drill again, its just that right now, I can only buy 1 drill so I need it to be a drill that wont die on me in the middle of a heavy load.

Also that impact driver that you mentioned is on my to buy list already:D

To Chris,

Thanks for the comments on Milwaukee quality, I will keep them in mind.

To Brad,

That is exactly the type of power house that I am looking for. It is also on my list of options. Thanks

To Bryan,

I have only used pistol grip drills, Im not even sure what a "T" grip is.

EDIT: I didnt catch you the first time around Ken, but thanks fior your suggestions.

I guess I should have mentioned from the get go, that the price I am willing to pay tops off at about $150, unless a drill is of some outstanding quality that it warrants a little more.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

I hear you on the batteries, I have two cordless that the batteries are dead, and replacing them cost more than a new cordless drill does :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I bought a cheap little red Ryobi corded, it is OK (I needed a drill, it was on sale cheap) it looks like a cordless, clutch and all, but without the battery pack, and it has a cord attached to it. It is OK, but I doubt it will last forever.

What are you wanting to do with this drill?

Have you ever looked at air drills? If you need high-speed and light weight, they are hard to beat.

If you want some serious torque, then the 1/2" monsters are the way to go.

Really, I think most of the good tool companies top models will do you well. I like Hitachi, I have an old, REALLY old 1/2" that I was given, this thing could turn the world on it's axis, and I have a Hitachi hammer drill, a big one, it works very well too.

Cheers!

[Allen Grimes]

Stu,

I am basicly wanting a drill that will last for a while. I want it mainly for WW, but I plan on using it a lot. Also I will probably use it every now and then for drilling into steel, as I like to do a little metal working now and again.

I really dont need it for concrete, as I will be buying a good rotary hammer as well (probably a hilti), since houses here are pretty much all made of concrete and brick. Plus, I got a crappy rotary hammer that does the job for now, though I dont see it lasting much longer.

[David Rose]

Allen,

The Milwaukee is a tough corded drill. I have a Magnum Hole Shooter 1/2" that is over 20 years old. It doesn't get used every day, but when it is used it gets heavy use. I use it for reaming shotgun barrels for chokes and polishing bores of the same and drilling rifle barrels for liners. I usually get involved enough in the job that I smell it (the drill) before I realize how hot it is! That is abuse, and the old drill is still going like new. Well, last year the switch started to get a little fussy, but they are suppose to be easy to install... when my 'roun tuit' gets fixed... :o

David

[Frank Pellow]

Allen, I talked about heavy duty use of my DeWalt drill above in responding to your question about steel. What, I did not talk about is use with wood. First of all, its great with my Kreg Pocket Hole jig. But, what really surprised me is how easy it is to use when driving screws. Most of the siding for my shop was screwed into place with this drill. I have also used it for about 12 hours one weekend when helping a friend build a deck.

I know that you have my shop building journal, and you can find pictures of the drill in use on Sept-18-2004, on Dec-10-2004, and on Jan-17-2005.

[Bill Lewis]

Allen,
I've give another vote for the Milwaukee 1/2" holeshooter VSR. I've got one that is about 10 years old, and it is seemingly unbreakable. I use it for the tough jobs, like large hole saws, drilling steel beams, and even for mixing morter for tile. The model I have also has the removeable power cord, which makes it easier to store, and replace if it were to become damaged.

[Christian Aufreiter]

I am basicly wanting a drill that will last for a while. I want it mainly for WW, but I plan on using it a lot. Also I will probably use it every now and then for drilling into steel, as I like to do a little metal working now and again.


Hi Allen,

what’s „your“ average hole size? I mean, do you want a drill for pocket holes or will you mainly use forstner and auger bits etc.?
I had a look at the Bosch 1034VSR you mentioned. While I don’t know how good it is, this drill is definitely designed for drilling rather large holes and other applications that require high torque. Due to the rather low top speed (550 RPM) I would not recommend to buy this drill if you plan to use it for pre-drilling and countersinking.

Personally, I like Fein (http://www.feinus.com/p/NEWdrills/newdrills.htm) corded drills a lot. One year ago, I bought an ASkeu 636 Kinetik that I couldn’t be happy with. After telling a buddy about this drill he immediately got one to. And he also loves it.

Regards,

Christian

[tod evans]

allen, i think the old style (pre aeg) milwaukee drills are the best corded drills ever made from the 2500 rpm sheet metal unit to the 850rpm hole shooter, the 350rpm holehawg really isn`t a shop drill...for hammer drills i use bosch, they seem to out live the milwaukees.. but the big question is why electric? if you have air the drills are available in a wide variety of speed and torque ranges that are all smaller and more comfortable to use than their electric counterparts, and a good air tool will outlive an electric 10-1......02 tod

[Ed Labadie]

Tod has it right, the Milwaukee old style drills can't be beat. I have the cat# 0234-6. It's about 25 years old & has had a rough life. It's been used for everything from 1" holes in steel, 6" hole saws, mixing drywall mud, driving lag bolts & sprained wrists, you get the picture. Never replaced anything on it.
It's one of those tools that is an investment, not just a purchase.

Ed

[Darl Bundren]

No real recommendation for make or model, but make sure you like the chuck on whatever you buy. I have a low end Dewalt that works well, but the chuck is not keyless. And, for what I have invested in it, I can't really see buying a nicer keyless chuck to replace the one I have.

[Frank Pellow]

No real recommendation for make or model, but make sure you like the chuck on whatever you buy. I have a low end Dewalt that works well, but the chuck is not keyless. And, for what I have invested in it, I can't really see buying a nicer keyless chuck to replace the one I have.
I consider the fact that my DeWalt Drill is not keyless to be a feature. When you really need to hold onto a bit tightly in a check, keyed is better. A keyless chuck is nice on my cordless Festool drill, but I am not doing heavy duty work with that drill.

[Allen Grimes]

allen, i think the old style (pre aeg) milwaukee drills are the best corded drills ever made from the 2500 rpm sheet metal unit to the 850rpm hole shooter, the 350rpm holehawg really isn`t a shop drill...for hammer drills i use bosch, they seem to out live the milwaukees.. but the big question is why electric? if you have air the drills are available in a wide variety of speed and torque ranges that are all smaller and more comfortable to use than their electric counterparts, and a good air tool will outlive an electric 10-1......02 todTod, I have 2 big answers to you big question. 1) I wasn't even aware of air drills, until now. I mean I've seen them before as well as air wrenches, but I never thought of them as WW tools. 2) most importantly, and even bigger stilll, is the fact that I dont own an air compressor, and it will probably be about a year or more before I can afford one.

To Christian,

I really dont have an average hole size. I use my current drills, for anything and everything I can.

To Frank P,

I will look up the pics on from the journal. Also, I am a fan of keyed chucks.

As of right now, I am still considering all options, but I am leaning towards the Milwaukee 0234-6. It will probably not be my only drill, but it will be my only drill for a while. And so far, I have heard nothing but good about this drill.

[Brian Parker]

I've used my fathers Milwaulkee 3/8" (either early 80's or before) but I have the Makita 1/2". Both offer some serious drilling power and also a nice solid drill with a good feel. I've had B&D and a dewalt a few years ago but I managed to get both of them to smoke and die. It just goes to show that smoking kills you.

I'm not sure about the new Milwaulkee drills, but I can really vouch for the Makita. I put my drills through their paces and I don't recomend buying a cheap $20 drill unless you will use it only a few times a year. If you buy something nice you get a great tool and hopeully something that you can pass onto your kid....although at 25 I have nicer tools than my dad :)

[Les Spencer]

Allen,

Whatever drill you decide on, now is a good time to buy at Amazon. They are running a promotion that would bring down the cost of the Milwaukee 0234-6 from $142 to $122. Includes free shipping.:cool:

From their web site:

Special Offer: Get instant savings on power tools, hand tools, and power tool accessories. Enter promotional code SAVEPWERHAND to get $20 off a total purchase of $120. Use code PWERHANDSAVE to get $40 off $220, or use HANDPWERSAVE to get $80 off $420. Offer applies only to purchases of products sold by Amazon.com from February 22, 2006 to March 4, 2006.

[Allen Grimes]

Thanks for the heads up Les, I didnt notice that even though Amazon is where I do most of my online shopping.

[Bruce Haugen]

I've had a Makita 6510LVR for 27 years. 3/8" reversible, variable speed. I have abused the daylights out of it, and the only thing that has EVER gone wrong is last year I broke the reversing switch.

When I got it, I called around to a lot of shops and soon discovered that the one they considered the best was the one they were selling. Then I got smart and asked some repair shops. Milwaukee got good ratings, because they were easy to fix. Dewalt wasn't out yet, B&D industrial good, easy to fix. On and on for a bunch of different makes. Then I asked about the Makita. No one had ever fixed one. Now I know why. Nothing goes wrong.

Same for the Makita 1/4 sheet pad sander.

Bruce, just a very pleased consumer.

[Barry O'Mahony]

Like many here I have a Milwaukee 1/2" Magnum that gets pulled out every once in while for heavy-duty use. IMHO it's too big and heavy for everyday drilling. I use a 12V Makita for that. I know you don't like batteries, but I just resign myself to buying a new drill set every few years. So I have three 12V Makita drills, and the two NiMH batteries that came with the last one. ;) They do seem better than the old NiCaD's, BTW.