www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

carhartt kid wrote:Hi Dinky73

If I where to invest in a DIY/light commercial drill I'd have to say Lithium batteries are the newest technology to make a splash. I use the Makita range and the lithium equipment is the dogs nads. Very robust, ergonomic, stylish and very very light!

The cordless combi drill here is an absolute bargain, and I think you blokey would shed a tear if he opened this on the big day!!!

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=143037


Hope this helps.

That drill is very tempting! It's a bargain considering that the battery by itself is £141!

I've also seen B&Q are doing a discount on Bosch gear, I've seen a Li-ion drill for around £100...

IMHO, the batteries are the Achilles' heel of most drills, especially if they're only being used occasionally - NiCd memory effect on batteries means that if you're not careful about only charging them from empty and fully discharging them regularly, then they die quite quickly. This is less of a problem if you're a tradesperson and using your batteries daily, but for the average DIYer then you might find your cheapie drill works fine mechanically but the batteries are basically useless, at which point you can only really buy a whole new drill with batteries.

My next drill is definitely going to Li-ion!!!

marfulee wrote: ....
IMHO, the batteries are the Achilles' heel of most drills, especially if they're only being used occasionally - NiCd memory effect on batteries means that if you're not careful about only charging them from empty and fully discharging them regularly, then they die quite quickly....

This is a very good pont and one to remember

With the Ryobi One+ kit I standardised on, I also bought the torch. When a battery is used up enough to be no good in the power tool, I always stick it in the torch and leave in switched on until totally dead before a recharge to make sure I will get the best life

It's probably not so bad with Ryobi One+ and the other big names: at least you can buy spare batteries. The other advantage with Ryobi One+ (and other similar systems) being that your batteries will get reasonable use even if a particular tool doesn't - so the the angle drill that is only used once in a while won't suddenly be useless with a dead battery...

My cheap Screwfix 'Direct power' drill is definitely on the way out, though I have got my money's worth out of it. Not very environmental though - it's going to end up in landfill very shortly!

(If you haven't got a torch to run the battery down with, you can always just keep the trigger squeezed with a quick clamp)

dinky73, this is what you want, bang on budget:

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 1&ts=81231

absolute bargain, the batteries are not great but you get three of them to compensate. this will be more than enough for DIY.

As everyone else seems to have agreed there are better options than Dewalt but just incase you're still tempted let me just advise against the newest Dewalt 18V Combi DC925, seems to be having a few problems from the people ive spoken to but is a nice machine IF you are lucky enough to get one that works