Drill Advice

bazxkr

I just picked this SDS plus up at screwfix. You can use it to break concrete too. It is a real heavy beast though but great for hard walls etc. Best thing is it comes with a batch of drills/accessories that have to be worth £50 on their own. All carbide tipped. I broke up my concrete path with this last weekend. But it is very heavy. Not something you would cart up a ladder. For £70 I'd get this and a cordless drill and you have something to cover all needs for less than £150 http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb631sds-5kg-sds-plus-hammer-drill-240v/4172g Probably more than you need but nice to know what's out there !

Moltisanti

i just bought this Makita drill bit set from Amazon, 60 pieces reduced from £42 to £12
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-P-90358-Power-Accessory-60-Piece/dp/B00XPNUO3C/ref=sr_1_4?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1469650730&sr=1-4&keywords=drill+bits

BigMonka

paul_c2 said:

If you're looking around the £100 range then the likes od DeWalt, Makita etc do models but they're not the same as their £400 models!!! Hammer action is definitely worth having for masonry/brick but when cordless is handy and its too small a job to justify an SDS drill etc. 2 batteries is definitely worthwhile - charge one while you use the other, no need to stop working. And go for Lithium battery not Ni-Cad. Also 2 speed is handy.

I bought a Hitachi which has all the above for £100 (including 2 Lithium batteries) and its still going strong.

+1 on Hitachi, LiOn batteries, hammer action, and having 2 batteries - not just so that one can be charging, but also because the smaller Ah batteries make the drill lighter and more manoeuvrable.

Iamnobody

paul_c2 said:

If you're looking around the £100 range then the likes od DeWalt, Makita etc do models but they're not the same as their £400 models!!! Hammer action is definitely worth having for masonry/brick but when cordless is handy and its too small a job to justify an SDS drill etc. 2 batteries is definitely worthwhile - charge one while you use the other, no need to stop working. And go for Lithium battery not Ni-Cad. Also 2 speed is handy.

I bought a Hitachi which has all the above for £100 (including 2 Lithium batteries) and its still going strong.

I bought a Hitachi in that price bracket. It's served me well so far.

They come with a 3 year warranty as well which is a bonus. Unless you are stupid like me and forget to register for the extended part of the warranty.

Guitar_Slinger

Drill advice? I thought this was going to be a thread about tick tocking.

chrispy108

boogieman said:
The lead always seems to get in the way or drag with a corded drill, it also adds weight. Drilling above your head is enough of a PITA without a lead in the way. 

I just don't see it. My mains Makita impact driver weights 1.1kg, their cordless equivalent weighs 0.9kg bare and the battery weighs 600g. No way is cordless lighter. A 10m extension lead costs a tenner.

I'd rather have a better quality tool with a lead on it. No point paying for a battery and a charger I don't really need.

I'd recommend an impact driver over a screwdriver. It's such a better tool for putting up shelves and stuff.

TheBlueWolf

bazxkr said:

I just picked this SDS plus up at screwfix. You can use it to break concrete too. It is a real heavy beast though but great for hard walls etc. Best thing is it comes with a batch of drills/accessories that have to be worth £50 on their own. All carbide tipped. I broke up my concrete path with this last weekend. But it is very heavy. Not something you would cart up a ladder. For £70 I'd get this and a cordless drill and you have something to cover all needs for less than £150 http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb631sds-5kg-sds-plus-hammer-drill-240v/4172g Probably more than you need but nice to know what's out there !

Not sure I'd cope with the weight but the walls of the block I lived in about 10 years ago were really built to last! It's literally a few miles up the road from where I live now and built around the same time I think so that looks like a steal!

thumpingrug

I got one of these from B & Q about a year ago.  Its been brilliant.  

http://uk.ryobitools.eu/power-tools/drilling-and-screwdriving/llcdi1802/llcdi18ll40s-1/  

littlegreenman

Don't forget the essential optional extras

ennspek

Hilti are good. Here ends my knowledge.

Nitefly

Don't use it to eat corn on the cob.

Sambostar

I've found the Makita 458 is the only drill that doesn't burn out or slow down drilling 12" into oak with a 32mm spade bit, it's got almost twice as much torque as the ones on the market for £100 complete.  In the old days at least I'd get a wis or something.  How time moves on. At least @littlegreenman had a sensible post.

Sambostar said:

Get a Makita DHT458 bare unit and a DTD146 bare unit.  Get a 3.0 or 4.0 Ah battery and a charger and a spare battery or two when you can afford it.  Work it out from ebay sellers, it's usually cheaper, the bare units are around £60 each, fast charger as low as £34 and a 4.0 Ah battery around £50

thisisguitar

Avoid Ni-Cad batteries, you'll charge the batteries up and leave them in the case for a few months between uses.. and they'll be flat just when you need them. Wish I'd paid £20 more and gotten Li-ion when I bought mine. And 2 batteries for the win :-)

Sporky

chrispy108 said:

I just don't see it. My mains Makita impact driver weights 1.1kg, their cordless equivalent weighs 0.9kg bare and the battery weighs 600g. No way is cordless lighter. 

And yet my Bosch with the SDS head and battery is lighter than any of the Bosch corded SDS drills.

Mains is good for some things, particularly for heavier work, but cordless has caught up and (mostly) exceeded it, because it's getting rare you're allowed to use anything corded on a building site. The result is that most of the research has gone into cordless because that's where most trade sales are.

On a limited budget I'd probably have a cheap corded and a small light cordless - the latter for getting into smaller spaces.

professorben

chrispy108 said:

I can't see the point of cordless for DIY. I can't be more than 10m from a plug socket in my own house, so why add the hassle of charging batteries and then dealing with them going flat etc?

I'd get an impact driver: https://www.howetools.co.uk/makita-td0101f-240v-impact-driver-6-5mm-hex
then a decent sized drill.

Drill for holes, impact driver for screws.

I got an impact and never looked back. 
I use it for everything lol
prob cos it's smaller, lighter and can get in tight spaces. 

professorben

Makita was good enough for Paul Gilbert. 

professorben

Sambostar said:

I've found the Makita 458 is the only drill that doesn't burn out or slow down drilling 12" into oak with a 32mm spade bit, it's got almost twice as much torque as the ones on the market for £100 complete.  In the old days at least I'd get a wis or something.  How time moves on. At least @littlegreenman had a sensible post.

Sambostar said:

Get a Makita DHT458 bare unit and a DTD146 bare unit.  Get a 3.0 or 4.0 Ah battery and a charger and a spare battery or two when you can afford it.  Work it out from ebay sellers, it's usually cheaper, the bare units are around £60 each, fast charger as low as £34 and a 4.0 Ah battery around £50

Wis'd

Danny1969

I'm not a fan of modern Makita stuff, it's not the high quality Japanese stuff it used to be. We brought a load of those blue drills with the red batteries and most of them are broke now. Stuff like the current 453 drills with canister motors are designed for light duty only and will break quite easily. 

I tend to like different drill \ drivers for different jobs. For heavy duty hammer drilling and driving in large screws or bolts I use 18V Hitachi's . For putting up guttering on a ladder then something less powerful and very light is handy to have.

The only time I would use a non cordless drill nowadays would be when using large SDS bits in deep blocks. 

boogieman

Moltisanti said:

i just bought this Makita drill bit set from Amazon, 60 pieces reduced from £42 to £12
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-P-90358-Power-Accessory-60-Piece/dp/B00XPNUO3C/ref=sr_1_4?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1469650730&sr=1-4&keywords=drill+bits

Ta for the link, just ordered one myself. 

strtdv

I have a cordless DeWalt which is pretty good for what I use it for (light enough DIY). The hardest thing it's had to do is drill a hole big enough for radiator mounting plugs into brick. 

It's perfectly good for that sort of work, anything heavier and IMO you should be using a corded SDS drill. I've used one of the TITAN ones that @Sambostar mentioned to drill holes for vents and waste pipes through brick and found it perfectly fine.

Cordless has the advantage that you can use it at the bottom of the garden in the shed etc, which is a big plus for me.