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> I have a 12v cordless drill. Ended up saving me tons of work over the years but by no means either the best or the worst But are there cheaper drills that do

> I have a 12v cordless drill. Ended up saving me tons of work over the years but by no means either the best or the worst But are there cheaper drills that do the same?

jabroni_salad 6y ago
corded drills, and if you are an infrequent user you dont have to worry about the battery going flat.
- tln 6y ago
  Most corded drills are pretty large though. I have 12v, 18v and corded drills and would never use the corded drill for small things because it's too clumsy. 12v for small things and 18v for small-medium, corded for large only. I often use both, 18v for drilling and 12v to put in the screws. I'd say buy an 18v as your only tool first, but if you ever start on a project where it's struggling even a little, get a corded drill. They're good bang for the buck at ~$30.
klodolph 6y ago
The cheaper drills I’ve seen have motors that burn out or run out of torque. At least, that’s my experience with them. One of the ways you save money on a motor is by making the windings with thinner copper wires. The higher-end drills are 18V or 20V models with enough power to, you know, hang sheetrock for eight hours a day. Something that I don’t need. So I bought a mid-range drill, a relatively inexpensive 12V model.
- jacobr1 6y ago
  Also cheap drills seem to have poor batteries or electrical setups that are rough on battery life. Even 6 months of a casual usage (pulling it out every other week for some small job) might be enough to basically brick the thing.
mturmon 6y ago
Even tradespeople (like union electricians) have this same dispute. In the US, one of the favored brands in the trade is Milwaukee Fuel 18v. Many electrical pros swear by these tools, even to the point of mildly judging people who use consumer gear on paid jobs. But: other electrical pros will in turn mildly judge the Milwaukee-loving contingent as paying way too much for the logo. Tales will be told of Makita or Ridgid (the latter, a Home Depot house brand) 18v rigs that have outperformed more expensive gear in real conditions. So, it's fun to talk about, but it seems fundamentally undecidable, at this level of granularity. At lower levels of granularity -- specific tools -- there are a few legendary products that have been made consistently high-quality for so long that they're almost universally acknowledged to be worth the money, and also that there's little point in paying more. One example that comes to mind is Klein linesman's pliers.

> I have a 12v cordless drill. Ended up saving me tons of work over the years but by no means either the best or the worst But are there cheaper drills that do the same?

jabroni_salad 6y ago

corded drills, and if you are an infrequent user you dont have to worry about the battery going flat.

tln 6y ago
Most corded drills are pretty large though. I have 12v, 18v and corded drills and would never use the corded drill for small things because it's too clumsy. 12v for small things and 18v for small-medium, corded for large only. I often use both, 18v for drilling and 12v to put in the screws. I'd say buy an 18v as your only tool first, but if you ever start on a project where it's struggling even a little, get a corded drill. They're good bang for the buck at ~$30.

klodolph 6y ago

The cheaper drills I’ve seen have motors that burn out or run out of torque. At least, that’s my experience with them. One of the ways you save money on a motor is by making the windings with thinner copper wires. The higher-end drills are 18V or 20V models with enough power to, you know, hang sheetrock for eight hours a day. Something that I don’t need. So I bought a mid-range drill, a relatively inexpensive 12V model.

jacobr1 6y ago
Also cheap drills seem to have poor batteries or electrical setups that are rough on battery life. Even 6 months of a casual usage (pulling it out every other week for some small job) might be enough to basically brick the thing.

mturmon 6y ago

Even tradespeople (like union electricians) have this same dispute. In the US, one of the favored brands in the trade is Milwaukee Fuel 18v. Many electrical pros swear by these tools, even to the point of mildly judging people who use consumer gear on paid jobs. But: other electrical pros will in turn mildly judge the Milwaukee-loving contingent as paying way too much for the logo. Tales will be told of Makita or Ridgid (the latter, a Home Depot house brand) 18v rigs that have outperformed more expensive gear in real conditions. So, it's fun to talk about, but it seems fundamentally undecidable, at this level of granularity. At lower levels of granularity -- specific tools -- there are a few legendary products that have been made consistently high-quality for so long that they're almost universally acknowledged to be worth the money, and also that there's little point in paying more. One example that comes to mind is Klein linesman's pliers.