help a newbie choose a drill

[John Scott]

Hi there
I just found your forum and i am really impress with it, keep up the good work :)

I want to get some power tools, but i want to use them overseas, in Europe. Price is a reason I want to get them in US, cause here are a lot cheaper (sometimes even half the price). For example, a BOSCH 14.4v drill, proffessional grade (blue color) costs there about 320 euros, which is roughly some 400 bucks, and here i can get it fot like 150.170 dollars. You do the mahs, hehe.

Now... i will tell you what I need it fot, and maybe you will help me to choose one. I am a little tight on budget so that should be taken also in consideration.
First of all, i want to build my own furniture in one small apartment that i have, from laminated wood. That is a quite dense and hard materia, so i reccon I need a little bit more power, and I was thinking to get a 18 v tool. Also, i will work with drywall hanging on metal framing, so i need something quite light in order not to tire my hand.
I was looking in places like home depot, lowes, walmart, and saw bunches of drills, some expesive, some cheap, some medium... The Firestorm drill from Lowes caught my eye, but i can't decide... is it ok to get it, or should i wait some more time and get a more expensive tool? I will use it after that just arround home, or maybe building from time to time furniture.

Also, i saw at lowes a firestorm kit that comes with a 18 v drill, a circular saw and a flashlight and two batteries. Is it worthed?
Can you recommend me other products?
Thank you

[Jim Becker]

The absolute first thing you need to do is carefully examine the charger to be sure it's usable outside of NA. If it does not read something like, "100-250v ~50-60 hz" or thereabouts, you're wasting your money. Camera, computer and other small electronics generally have universal power supplies and can be used around the world with a simple adapter plug. You need to be able to have that same ability with your power tool charger. You CANNOT use a transformer for this purpose if the charger is not universal.

[John Scott]

you are talking about a tranfsormer or a plug adapter? As far as i know, i can use any electric/electronic with the right transformer

[Mike Holbrook]

You may not be aware that there are two types of driver/drills available now. The newer type is an impact driver/drill that operates sort of like the impact wrenches you see used to remove/install bolts on automobile tires.

The impact versions have much more torque than a standard driver/drill. The impact drivers are great for driving screws in tough wood. I have a Hitachi 12 v. I got from Lowes and it will out drive my 18 v regular drill/drivers. I also have a 14 volt Makita set that came with both an Impact driver and a regular driver and two batteries (I think those sets are still around). The 14 volt I use for driving masonry screw etc. in concrete, I find it over powered for wood, although I use it for that too.

The impact drivers use a quick change 1/4 inch device for drills and drivers. This means you need special drills etc. with 1/4 inch hex ends. However, these sets are easy to find almost anywhere at this stage and if you do not have existing drills etc. it would be easy to start off with this system. I rarely use a standard drill/driver since I got my impacts.

I mention this because starting out you could probably get away with a lighter less powerful unit. The savings you gain on the lighter drill may be eaten up by the special drills & bits required but I imagine it would be close to a financial wash. Once you drive a few screws with the impact driver I think you will appreciate the increased ease of use it provides.