Bosch PSB650RE Corded Hammer Drill

[scot-canuck]

So I recently bought this drill from homebase on reduction to £24.93, B&Q wanted £40 for the same drill on reduction (original price in B&Q - £50, Homebase £40something)

Positives
- Feels well made (then again I haven't tried out pro kit so take that with a pinch) and is a decent but not excessive weight
- Good grippy surface on the handle, making it easy to hold onto, even in a humid loft with sweaty hands
- Comes with a plastic case
- large unknockable hammer / plain drill switch
- smooth variable trigger (hopefully it keeps working unlike the 600W green bosch my dad has which is no longer variable...on and off only, then again it is 12 odd years old and has seen some serious abuse, especially from other relatives)
- decent cord length
- Adjustable torque
- Comes with a handle and a depth stop

Negatives
- Case flexes at some points, plastic could be a bit thicker
- Single speed due to "electronic gearbox"
- Keyless chuck, never been a fan really, this one isnt bad though

This drill is aimed at the DIY market, especially at those who intend to use it for screwdriving - it has an indicator arrow on top, which either shows an arrow facing forward towards the chuck or back towards the user. So some thought put in there.

Weight isn't bad for a corded drill, though it feels unbalanced, most of the weight is as expected in the front making it lean downwards at the front, making it a little tricky to use one handed.

Drives screws in well, sometimes too well (4x50 turbogold ended up halfway into a 1.5 inch softwood batten) variable trigger has good speed graduation, making it manageable even for novice users.

Not much else I can say at this moment as I've been mainly using it for driving in screws rather than drilling, though that test is to come as I've got some shelves to mount in the brick shed out back, I'll see how it compares then to the old 600W.

All in all not a bad drill, I would give it 8.5/10, marks off for the keyless chuck, flimsy case and the strong forward weight bias, good points being its price, ease of use even for those who loathe DIY and the general feel of quality.

[big-all]

best to avoid using a mains drill for screwing as they dont like slow speed high torque applications the guarentee certainly wont cover any dammage as its been used incorrectly[in my opinion]

[scot-canuck]

I would have thought the same BA, but the manual does mention that you can use it for screwdriving and mentions that reverse is only for screwdriving, not drilling. (got to make everything crystal clear it seems, common sense is out of the window it seems)
So they say its alright to use it for that, so they should have no grounds not to honour the warranty.
At the end of the day it cost me £25 so ill see how long it lasts.

[big-all]

I would have thought the same BA, but the manual does mention that you can use it for screwdriving and mentions that reverse is only for screwdriving, not drilling. (got to make everything crystal clear it seems, common sense is out of the window it seems)
So they say its alright to use it for that, so they should have no grounds not to honour the warranty.
At the end of the day it cost me £25 so ill see how long it lasts.

fair enough i suppose buuuut

you have a drill that even on slow speed is fast it has no clutch has quite a high motor mass so iff you release the trigger 1 tenth off a second to late the head will shear off or the screw or will wind in too far
not the best tool for the job realy

[scot-canuck]

Sadly BA, the tool budget is limited to next to nothing, and its only for DIY use only, so a classic case of make do with what you can afford. Personally I would have preferred a Hitachi 18V cordless but at £100+ its out of my price range

[scot-canuck]

Its actually quite slow when first using the trigger, which was one of my concerns, the speed control is surprisingly good, its possible to drive stuff in just above handscrewing speed if you are careful with the pressure or go halfway on the trigger and drive them in fast. Full pressure on the trigger though is out of the question as the bit tends to pop out of the screw due to the speed.

[big-all]

nice one
i have used a bosch drill for driving large screws after a couple off weeks it sounded a bit like a tractor at slower speeds it started to run rough at lower speed as well

so stopped using it for screwing

[scot-canuck]

Fair enough BA, points noted, I'll see how I go, I figure I can't really lose out at under £25 tbh.
At the end of day its a budget drill to do some DIY work rather than full on commercial work.

[Deleted-user-3]

the thing with using drills to drive screw imo is they dont have an electronic brake which stops the chuck dead when you realease the trigger, common to cordless gear but not corded in my experience..
i remember my first ever makita cordless, didnt have a brake on it, half the time it'd cam out and round the screw head off...
these days anything designed for screwing has the brake on for this reason, does it have a brake? or are they just marketing it as 'can be used to drive screws (albeit very badly and unweildly to use)

try it for sending drywall screws into plasterboard and see how many you can set right...
i.e just a hair below the surface without breaking the paper...

all that said, if i havent got the cordless handy ive been known to use a bleedin core drill for winding drywalls in before today...