I’m on a search. I’m looking for the perfect drill gun for my theatre work. I do lots of scene shop work and I know I need at least 14v. I’ve seen such a varience on drill and price. Any one have great or crappy experiences with their guns? Any info on refurbed units?
I’m rather found of my Skil Dual-source. Its a 12 volt drill, but it also has an adapter to run it off of AC. It’s really a life saver when your half way through a project and run your battery down, you can plug it in and go to town.
Son of a contractor here, and an ex-powertool salesman. I’ll work on the assumption that your screw gun would get a lot of daily.
Refurbished unit is probably a no-no. The refurbishment could have just been bushings or something a lot more serious. Lot of risk, and not enough savings to warrant it.
I would recommend an 18 volt, preferably one that comes in a kit with two batteries. Brand-wise, DeWalt is a popular choice and has the advantage of being available at most hardware chains (as well as the accessories). (DeWalt and Black and Decker’s Industrial line, btw, are the same thing, but different casings). The 18-volt DeWalt I was salivating over at Home Depot the other day was really balanced and drove some test screws with ease.
My dad has a Craftsman 18-V that is nicely balanced as well, has taken an absolute pounding on his jobsites, and is still running perfect after about a year. He has a basement full of beat-to-shit power tools that he and I will fix someday (yea right).
I have a 12-volt Black and Decker Firestorm that works fine for my clumsy attempts at home repair, but I have to change batteries a bit more than I’d like when I’m hanging drywall or working on a deck.
And BDGR, those guns you’re talking about are sweeeeet!
Good luck!
Well, you can get a refurb 14.4 DeWalt at Amazon for $100.00 right now. That’s pretty hard to beat.
It’s got a one year warrantee, so you’re not taking much of a risk. I just bought the 1/2" chuck version of this and so far I’m pretty happy with it. It’s replacing the 12 Volt version that I’ve been using heavily for several years.
The only reason I’m replacing that one is that the high gear went on it, although the driver gear still works great.
I’ve always liked Makita. Very reliable, long-lived, and powerful. Built like a steel block, too.
I’m not going to use it daily, but I will be using it many hours in a couple day period every couple of weeks. Battery power is important. A/C doesn’t really work for most of my work.
I watched a Dewalt take a fall from a 15 foot ladder last spring. The batterry (which I picked up off the floor after it bounced off my foot) needed to be put back in, but otherwise, not a chip on it. That’s the way I’m leaning.
$100 refurb! That’s what makes it tempting. I’m looking at $160 to $180 range and I can’t tell the difference.
Survey1215… no kidding. Same thing, huh? B&D is cheaper and the kits ( sawzall, circ saw) are a lot cheaper.
DeWalt DeWalt DeWalt.
We have a 14.4 drill and an 18.8 hammer drill. Both are excellent. Of course the 14.4 is a lot lighter, and if you are mainly drilling wood, you don’t need a hammer drill. It holds a charge for a really long time.
As far as batteries go, most contractors, etc, have 2 batteries, and have one sitting on the charger while they are using the other one. I’d recommend this if you are going to be working for “many hours.” You could also get a high-speed recharger, but it might be a better use of your money just to buy the second battery and use the regular recharger.
And we just bought a DeWalt kit–with the hammer drill, a cordless circular saw, and a cordless reciprocating saw. It was relatively inexpensive, and the cordless saws are really really handy. Costco has great prices on DeWalt kits.
BTW, Some of the DeWalt “factory reconditioned” are actually brand-new–they were returned to the store and could not be re-shelved for some reason. If you call or go to a DeWalt store, they will be able to give you more info. Although, I would not necessarily want to take a chance with it if I had to use it professionally.
Production manager for a remodeling firm checking in.
My guys use a mixture of Hilti, DeWalt, and Porter Cable.
I personally prefer the Porter Cables’ ergonomics, but the Hilti are some fiiiiiiiine tools! The DeWalt are also hard to beat with the added benefit of market saturation (you can get em and get em fixed everywhere)
Re: refurbished, I LOVE refurbished tools as long as they were good to start with. In the instance of Porter Cable, When they refurbish a tool, they simply replace ALL the internal mechanicals and keep the old casing. That works for me- I like my tools to look like they have actually been used!
Craftsman, Black and Decker et. al. - I avoid em like the plague
…and yes I know B&D=DeWalt but there are substantial differences in quality.
Would someone mind explaining the B&D=Dewalt thing to me?
I didn’t make myself clear in my previous post regarding
DeWalt and Black and Decker. B & D has a couple different lines of tools. Plain ole Black and Decker you can buy anywhere (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.), along with Black and Decker’s Firestorm line. Neither of these are marketed towards the everyday user, they’re more for the home repair/weekend project type folks.
Black and Decker INDUSTRIAL is their heavy-duty line, and it is only available at certain stores (i.e. Fasttool, B & D outlets, catalogs, etc.) These are the tools that are the exact same as DeWalt, outside of different casings. DeWalt is usually less expensive and much more readily available than B & D Industrial. Its just a marketing scheme.
Sorry about the confusion.
Sure!
B&D was looking for an intro into the mid to high end tool name biz. They bought the old and respected name of DeWalt which was a manufacturer of some really nice stationary equipment from the post WW11 era. (IIRC, they got their start making tools for the war effort)
So they start up this new line, and market the heck outta it, give the R&D people room and resources to work and most importantly, they didn’t try to F it up with B&D parts.
SO DeWalt is a subsidiary of B&D but not the same parts.
I will of course confirm this later when I go pick up 6 drywall screwguns later today or tomorrow.
While I’m doing that, you want me to see what price I can get? Let me know what model you are looking for and I’ll see what it will cost to add it to my order. Of course you will have to spring for shipping but take it to email if you want to discuss more.
I have always felt Milwuakee was the best of the drills. However then are very expensive. As the others said Dewalt, and B&D professional are probabbly next. Makita is also very good, and usually a step or two below. I believe Crafstsman Professional is trying to make a name for itself, as Sears will often give good deals and sales on them, and so far I don’t no of anybody who has gotten a bad one.(Craftsman normal line sucks the big one however.) I would also second the recomendation on at least 18v and two batteries. Keyless chucks are much better than they used to be, and unless you spend a lot of time drilling into metal they are good enough, and you don’t need to worry about losing the chuck or stripping off the chuck gears.
I meant to say Makita is usually a step or two below in price, didn’t mean to imply they are that much worse in quality.
No matter what you get, go with cordless, two batteries, a quick charger, keyless chuck, variable speed, forward and reverse, and a clutch. Most of the above are pretty standard on most drills available today. We paid a little extra a few years ago when we bought our DeWalt cordless because we wanted the keyless chuck and the clutch. I haven’t looked at them lately in any great detail, but both of those seem to be pretty standard now.
Study the price difference between the 14 v. and the 18 v. carefully. That extra 4 v. doesn’t seem like it would make much difference, but it does.
Aha. Thanks for the info. I didn’t know that DeWalt was a subsidary of B&D, and frankly I’m surprised. IME, B&D tools suck eggs, but I’ve only ever used the “household” line. I guess it was smart of them to use a totally different brand name.
I’ll chime in on the DeWalt cordless drill/circular saw kit, with two batteries (at least). Milwaukee is a nice strong drill but may be a monster for what you need it for.
14 v may be enough for your use; 18 is starting to get heavy and forget about 24 v. Yikes!
Am I the only one who hates cordless drills? Gimmie a good 'ol Milwaukee, and I’ll be happy…
Why do you hate cordless? My skill works as both a corded, and a cordless.
Good evening,
I use my Dewalt 14.4 cordless hammer drill every day. It has held up real well so far. It has lasted and out performed the Makita that preceded it, and the Skil that preceded the Makita. A few of my co-workers have replaced thier Dewalts with Porter cable, but seeing as how I take prettyt good care of my tools, I won’t get a new one for quite a whaile.
I’ve had two cordless drills, and both crapped out after about two years. (Maybe it’s just my bad luck.) My cousin is an electrician, and has to purchase a new cordless every year. And power-wise, they look pathetically anemic compared to any corded drill. Guess I’m just in a minority here…