[Shop-talk] cordless drills?

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

On Mon, 15 Jun 2009, Richard Beels wrote:
> My advice is to goto your big box store of choice and check out the 
> "systems".  It's not a good deal to buy just a cordless driver, you get 
> more bang for the buck when you buy the kit.

I'll second this...  I've been quite impressed with my Milwaukee 18v 
(older ni-cad, not the Li-on setups) sawzall and circular saw.  They'd 
have been hard to justify on their own, but I grab them first when I need 
to cut something over the corded options.

I think I'd go with the Li-on battery tech now, regardless of 
manufacturer.  Milwaukee finally updated their battery form factor to make 
in uncompatible with the older slide on style like I have, but that 
doesn't mean their new tools aren't still a good choice.  I've put my 
cordless impact gun and drill through quite a bit of hell since I got them 
in 2002 or whatever and they're still going strong.  In that time I've had 
to feed the system a number of batteries however, which can add up.  If 
someone is offering a lifetime battery replacement and they're a quality 
tool, I'd spend more money to get that.

Don't overlook how handy it is to have a light as well... One of my 
batteries lives on the light most of the time.

If you don't care about the Li-on batteries, you may well find a great 
deal on the older 18v milwaukee kits on ebay.  The last time I was going 
to replace a couple batteries, the charge for two batteries and a charger 
(I was going to move to Li-on) was $200.  I found a kit on ebay with two 
of the older ni-cad batteries, a charger, hammer drill, sawzall, skillsaw, 
and bag for just under $300.  That was pretty much a no brainer.

Mark