Cheap drills - better to go secondhand or new? Any specific recommendations?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Cheap drills - better to go secondhand or new? Any specific recommendations?

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#2899889 11-Apr-2022 15:37

Some brands are exclusive to a certain chain - ryobi and aeg to bunnings, black and decker and bosch to mitre10 - whereas dewalt and makita are everywhere.

When I asked my old builders why they used makitas it was because they could get them from any of their suppliers and if they were on stop sale at one, they could go to another.

Richard rich.ms

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#2899907 11-Apr-2022 16:02

jonathan18:
On the other hand, many of the decent brand s/h drills I've seen on TM are often sold just as skins; even if they come with a battery and charger, I'd have concerns over battery condition/longevity.

So another option if you've already got a drill yourself is to buy him a skin for the same stuff you've got, and pass a surplus/older battery on for him to use.

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#2899979 11-Apr-2022 18:17

I have a warehouse house brand 14.4 I bought for $50 over five years ago for one job. Two batteries + clutch. It's still going. It's on the heavy side.

jonathan18

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#2899983 11-Apr-2022 18:37

neb:
jonathan18:

On the other hand, many of the decent brand s/h drills I've seen on TM are often sold just as skins; even if they come with a battery and charger, I'd have concerns over battery condition/longevity.

So another option if you've already got a drill yourself is to buy him a skin for the same stuff you've got, and pass a surplus/older battery on for him to use.

Yeah, I was looking into that earlier today, but wasn’t too impressed with the condition of many of the skins either! I also only have two batteries to share between us. It could work and I’ll keep an eye out for AEG drills in case something good comes up…

johno1234

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#2899992 11-Apr-2022 19:11

These look great value for a kid: https://www.topmaq.co.nz/nordic

They look like they might even be PXC compatible.

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#2899996 11-Apr-2022 19:33

For a beginner woodworker the Ozito stuff is great, just make sure the system you buy into is one that has a wide variety of skins. If they get more serious having a variety of tools available is more valuable than absolute quality. If they get more serious they will be buying trade quality tools anyway.

I'm in the process of buying a new set of cordless tools and am going Ryobi for that reason - the widespread availability and variety of skins.

neb

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#2900005 11-Apr-2022 19:58

johno1234:
These look great value for a kid: https://www.topmaq.co.nz/nordic

They look like they might even be PXC compatible.

They're actually more expensive than the PXC's when they're on special. Look out for the black-sided PXC batteries which are made to compete with Aldi batteries in Australia and cost about half the standard price when they're on sale, the internals are identical.

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#2900007 11-Apr-2022 20:01

jonathan18:
Yeah, I was looking into that earlier today, but wasn’t too impressed with the condition of many of the skins either! I also only have two batteries to share between us.

So clearly you need to get a set of new batteries and accessories for yourself purely so your son can have your existing ones, the upgrade would be an entirely selfless act.

insane

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#2900017 11-Apr-2022 21:11

AEG a.k.a Ridgid in the US is made by the same parent company to Milwaukee, just a notch down. My good friend who runs a construction company swears by them, his crews use them and he has a set himself.

If the budget allows that could be a good option for both now and later, and perhaps you could 'borrow' them from time-to-time.

Personally I've gone all in on DeWalt, got my first heavy duty hammer drill and impact driver set from i-tools.co.nz 5 years ago and expanded to saw(s), router, nailer(s), garden tools etc etc over the years. When I need the next thing I just find the cheapest price online in NZ, and head over to Mitre10. They beat the price by 15% which is rather crazy, but suits me!

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#2900020 11-Apr-2022 21:16

richms:
When I asked my old builders why they used makitas it was because they could get them from any of their suppliers and if they were on stop sale at one, they could go to another.

On the weekend I saw a Makita battery that must have been dropped. The connector strip for the charging protection circuit looks fragile compared to other brands. The yellow plastic is easy to break.

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#2900023 11-Apr-2022 21:22

insane: AEG a.k.a Ridgid in the US is made by the same parent company to Milwaukee, just a notch down.

Specifically, Techtronic in Hong Kong, who are also Ryobi. Pretty much all name-brand tools now are either Techtronic (non-US) or Stanley (US), with a few holdouts like Hitachi and Bosch.

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#2900051 11-Apr-2022 21:38

insane: AEG a.k.a Ridgid in the US is made by the same parent company to Milwaukee, just a notch down. My good friend who runs a construction company swears by them, his crews use them and he has a set himself.

Son is a tradie and went makita because everyone at his work uses them but he would be happy to use dewalt or milwalkee. He's noticed a number of electricians use AEG and the boss buys AEG as temp tools for temp labourers and the such as it's cheaper and they don't tend to get stolen as much but do a good enough job.

I want to go makita so I can borrow my sons gear when I need it. It's quite a step up from my B&D drill.

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#2900089 11-Apr-2022 23:29

logo:
Son is a tradie and went makita because everyone at his work uses them but he would be happy to use dewalt or milwalkee. He's noticed a number of electricians use AEG and the boss buys AEG as temp tools for temp labourers and the such as it's cheaper and they don't tend to get stolen as much but do a good enough job.

I want to go makita so I can borrow my sons gear when I need it. It's quite a step up from my B&D drill.

Seems to be a common story, its obviously great kit and being able to share tools and batteries on site also helps. Yeah I had a B&D 18v before too, going from 12nm to 85nm of torque on a drill was quite an experience.

neb:

Specifically, Techtronic in Hong Kong, who are also Ryobi. Pretty much all name-brand tools now are either Techtronic (non-US) or Stanley (US), with a few holdouts like Hitachi and Bosch.

Yeah I've seen the tool brand's map/visual, it's quite similar to the food industry - not many players. You'd think by now they'd at least figure out how to natively support backwards battery compatibility between Ryobi & AEG & Milwaukee and B&D & Stanley & DeWalt to allow the OPs use case for a user starting out to upgrade skins and even sub-brands when the time comes without being tempted to switch to another camp.
Seems like a huge missed opportunity IMO. I know some third party battery adapters exist, and they are trying to prevent forward compatibility to protect brand value, but backwards seems low risk.

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#2900096 12-Apr-2022 01:37

Ozito is a better first step if price is important. By the time more powerful tools are needed you’ll probably have got good value out of them.

I just looked at moving to Ozito 18V Power X-Change from Ryobi 18V One+ because I never get a good discount on them and the batteries are the most expensive buy. So here’s the positives and negatives of such a move from my perspective:

+ Ozito is to Ryobi what Ryobi is to Dewalt or Makita: aiming for a lower price and generally better value for money for DIY or infrequent use. On the other hand, Ryobi are increasingly competing with an increasing range of competitive professional products.

+ Ozito have some exceptional price-performance e.g. cheap brushless tools that are amazing value.

+ Ozito Power X-Change batteries are considerably cheaper (per Amp Hour) and easier to carry being a smaller package than the legacy shape Ryobi have committed to for over 25 years. However, this commitment is one of the best reasons for sticking with Ryobi. They the only ones who have guaranteed that their 18V battery package will continue to be compatible which is why I’ve been able to continue with the same tools for more than 20 years.

+ Ozito garden tools use two 18V batteries (like Makita does) rather than Ryobi introducing a non-compatible 36/40V system. But for the little it is worth Ryobi does have a few products that work with both batteries: only chargers and inverters so not technically the power tools.

+ Ozito specials are better than Ryobi specials: more frequent and better percentage drop.

- Both brands are exclusive to Bunnings in NZ. That means no options for competition on price/service and price-matching discounts cannot be accessed.

- Ozito has a more limited product range than Ryobi and doesn’t have the complete Einhell Power X-Chase range but we can potentially get access to the full range of Power X-Change products by buying overseas.

- Ozito is often a much cheaper build e.g plastic grips would improve if they gave better grip like Ryobi grips.

- If you need better performance then using batteries with more energy is a good option. Ozito top out at about 6Ah but Ryobi has 10+ AH or the HP (High Performance) range with additional terminals to handle higher power.

By the way, all the tool brand maps I’ve seen are US-centric so they don’t include the many brands and producers that don’t sell into North America. This leads to a lot of confusion because there are a lot of power tool brands outside of the US:

* Einhell in Germany, who own Ozito Australia, don’t even appear on such maps. Nor does Kyocera who own the Ryobi brand. Nor does the Chinese tool company that arose from Ryobi Japan’s manufacturing in China.

* TTI is not Ryobi. TTI licensed the Ryobi brand and used the corded power tools from Ryobi Japan and now from Kyocera who bought that arm from Ryobi in 2017/2018. However, it is true that TTI totally owns the 18V One+ cordless tool system and others they’ve developed.

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#2900113 12-Apr-2022 08:03

This has turned into a really useful discussion. Thanks everyone who has contributed.

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