Advice please on power drills.

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883 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1832188 27-Jul-2017 13:06

kiwifidget:

@mugs2000 Thanks for the offer but I am sorted now.

Hah - I don't think he was offering it to you, just letting you know how long the batteries in these things can last!

I got an AEG 12V drill/driver combo from Bunnings and am very happy with it for my tootling around the house. Really like the small size/weight and it seems to pack a wallop (especially the impact driver). I'd imagine 18V is a better choice for any kind of really serious project though.

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raytaylor

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#1832415 27-Jul-2017 17:43

Fred99:

The small batteries are useless in high-drain tools, angle grinder etc.

Yeah I think you need the 4ah battery or larger for the angle grinder because its high drain and so the smaller 2ah / 3ah have a blocking pin so you cant use them.

I have to say I love milwaukee and it has 99% of the tool range available in the M18 series.

The thing they are missing is a battery operated polesaw or mini chainsaw clippers - which are availiable in the Makita range (owned by milwaukee) except the milwaukee batteries dont fit the Makita equipment.

I just bought the M12 heated jackets for our staff that work outdoors - you can buy the M18 power source and use the smaller batteries in the M12 jacket for extra long run times.

Ray Taylor

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richms

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#1832528 27-Jul-2017 21:01

MikeAqua:

Those Milwaukee tools look great.

I'm so far down the 18V B&D path though, there is 'little prospect of return'.

I have a coupleof 18v B&D tools. first was a gift from someone who refused to shop at bunnings because australian owned, so went to M10 instead. Hopeless little drill driver. Second is the matrix thing which I got for the trim router addon which was because bunnings had no ryobi 18v trim routers. I now own a ryobi trim router because the B&D one on the matrix was so useless.

Richard rich.ms

mdf

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#1832532 27-Jul-2017 21:09

raytaylor:

<snip>

The thing they are missing is a battery operated polesaw or mini chainsaw clippers - which are availiable in the Makita range (owned by milwaukee) except the milwaukee batteries dont fit the Makita equipment.

Does Techtronic own Makita now too!? Milwaukee, AEG and Ryobi are all from the same stable, but I thought Makita was still independent?

raytaylor

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#1832723 28-Jul-2017 10:48

mdf:

Does Techtronic own Makita now too!? Milwaukee, AEG and Ryobi are all from the same stable, but I thought Makita was still independent?

Their sales guy was visiting the local milwaukee dealer so I took him aside and asked when they are getting me a pole saw. He explained the Makita brand is the one I want which they own but its for residential power users, where as milwaukee is their tradesmen brand so they didnt see much of a point bringing it out for tradespeople because they would use other brands than milwaukee because aborists have their own preferred brands.

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Bung

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#1832846 28-Jul-2017 12:51

Are you talking local dealerships or manufacturing companies. As far as I can find Makita is indepedant, not part of the group including Milwakee

Fred99

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#1832948 28-Jul-2017 15:25

I don't think Makita are owned by the same parent company as Milwaukee.

Sod's law may apply to this thread. My son came home from work (sparky) with what I thought was his M18 drill in his hand - complaining it had died. It wasn't his drill - it was mine he'd grabbed it by mistake - and I'm pretty sure out of warranty (5 years must be up). Grrrr. Anyway I pulled it apart - cleaned it up a bit inside as it was full of 5 years worth of grunge and grit, wiggled a few connectors - couldn't see anything obviously wrong, so put it back together. That fixed whatever was wrong with it apparently - for now anyway. At least it probably wasn't the control circuitry which is quite complex in brushless tools - parts are available but at about 1/2 the price of a new bare tool hardly worth even DIY fixing.

MikeAqua

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#1832958 28-Jul-2017 15:51

richms:

MikeAqua:

Those Milwaukee tools look great.

I'm so far down the 18V B&D path though, there is 'little prospect of return'.

I have a coupleof 18v B&D tools. first was a gift from someone who refused to shop at bunnings because australian owned, so went to M10 instead. Hopeless little drill driver. Second is the matrix thing which I got for the trim router addon which was because bunnings had no ryobi 18v trim routers. I now own a ryobi trim router because the B&D one on the matrix was so useless.

I've found them really good but I'm just doing light DIY. A few hours a week as a max. I have the matrix with router, drill, driver and trim-saw. The trim saw has been fantastic for panel work up to 14mm ply and making stakes for the garden. I found when drilling and driving, changing over heads on the matrix became hard on the hands.

Also have a separate driver, pole hedge clipper (fantastsic tool), line trimmer, LED lamp torch, leaf blower and bluetooth speaker (surprisingly good). No shortage of batteries and chargers. Like I said I'm in deep ...

I have managed to build quite a few things over the years and no reliability issues with any of the tools.

We did wear out a line trimmer due to incorrect use around concrete, but that was user error. I'm making a spit-roast driver out of the innards of that.

Mike

Zippity

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Ultimate Geek

#1832962 28-Jul-2017 16:02

https://www.facebook.com/MotovadedVideo/videos/vb.284048048629424/294975677536661/?type=2&theater

http://www.ryobi.co.nz/power-tools/products/details/18v-one-2-piece-combo-kit

mdf

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#1832964 28-Jul-2017 16:05

MikeAqua: We did wear out a line trimmer due to incorrect use around concrete, but that was user error. I'm making a spit-roast driver out of the innards of that.

Oh, cool! Could you post pics on the DIY projects thread when done, please?

MikeAqua

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#1833017 28-Jul-2017 16:57

mdf:
MikeAqua: We did wear out a line trimmer due to incorrect use around concrete, but that was user error. I'm making a spit-roast driver out of the innards of that.

Oh, cool! Could you post pics on the DIY projects thread when done, please?

Happy to but don't hold your breath. I'd completely forgotten about the project until I found it in a drawer the other day.

Mike

Bung

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#1833026 28-Jul-2017 17:17

I don't remember the exact details but a friend's heath robinson device got too hot and started melting. Check that your design allows for however hot the spit gets.

mattwnz

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#1833035 28-Jul-2017 17:29

If you want a good one, always go for trade quality with a couple of decent Lithium batteries and fast charger. The batteries actually appear to be more than the drill handset itself. I have a Hitachi 18V one which is 5 years old and excellent, before that I had a NiMH one, which was okay, but nowhere nears as good as the Hitachi, and took all day to charge. ALso they threw in a jigsaw handset with it which is also really good. Hitachi does however appear to have both consumer and trade ones, which look similar, so if you want the better ones, make sure you go for the trade ones. There is a big price difference, but you get what you pay for.

Ayejay

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Wannabe Geek

#1854477 28-Aug-2017 23:58

In response to kiwifidget question on page 1 of this forum,
'There are RCD things in the switchboards so the whole house is RCD protected, yes?'

Well, NNNnoooooo!!!!!!
RCD in your home switchboard will not provide adequate protection for wet works with power tools. You can get a sparky to install a suitable protection device in your switchboard, otherwise you need to buy a plug in RCD. The multi boxes that say surge protection don't cut it either, the cheapest options from mega10 are i think goldair, at about $30. They need to have test, reset buttons on them with the little red light. They will trip out within 1/100th seconds with a minute imbalance in the power supply that suggests you are earthing power through your wet hands!

darylblake

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#1854537 29-Aug-2017 08:38

I had a black & decker 18v drill, it was pretty awesome. It lasted about 6 years before the coils burnt out, but I used it a lot and never really had problems with the battery. For the home DIYer it was fine.

My brother in law lent me his Makita 18v drills and these were the next level up. Have been great drills.

I currently only have a corded hammer drill at the moment, but when I get a few extra funds then I will get a new drill

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