Corded power drill suggestions

[O2HeN2]

My old 18V DeWalt isn't doing so well using a 5/8" auger bit on railroad ties. Looking at getting a corded 9-10amp drill, 1/2" chuck for the task. Considering the following DeWalt model: DWD215G (https://www.dewalt.com/products/power-tools/drills/drills-and-hammer-drills/12-13mm-vsr-midhandle-grip-drill-with-keyless-chuck/dwd215g).

Two questions:

1) Anyone experienced with this kind of drill have any alternative suggestions like different model or brand? I want to stay under $200.
2) Home Depot and Lowes is completely sold out of them, though supposedly Murdoch's in Castle Rock has one. Are there any good equipment stores in Colorado Springs that carries equipment like this? Besides Grainger - they have it... for $60 more... I'm outta the loop as to where construction workers might shop.

Thanks!

O2

[BushMasterBoy]

I like Bosch, but I have a Makita too. Used for drilling into telephone poles to mount gates.

[Grant H.]

For corded stuff anymore, I buy HF...

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-d-handle-variable-speed-reversible-drill-63114.html

I've had one of the above for 3-4 years, and used it many times where it made sense (mixed lots of mortar/counter concrete with it) and it's still going strong.

It's not worth the extra money for a name brand on a standard corded drill...

[BPTactical]

Milwaukee 1/2” Hole Shooter.
Notice- make sure you use the screw in side handle unless you:
A - want to break your wrist(s)
B - go spinny around in circles
C - all of the above

[beast556]

I'm with Grant if your only gonna use it every so often go with harbor freight. If it is a power tool I will be using all the time I go with dewalt, bosch.
We use millwalkee at work and they are ok we have burnt out quite a few 28v, 20v, 18v tools over the years, with that said we run the shit out of them.

[laportecharlie]

I"m with BP on this one. Hands down the best corded drill motor I have ever used and I made my living with them for nearly forty years.

[Singlestack]

For corded stuff anymore, I buy HF...

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-d-handle-variable-speed-reversible-drill-63114.html

I've had one of the above for 3-4 years, and used it many times where it made sense (mixed lots of mortar/counter concrete with it) and it's still going strong.

It's not worth the extra money for a name brand on a standard corded drill...

This. I have one of those, and it runs strong. Run it hard. If it breaks your not out much.

[def90]

Milwaukee for anything corded, you'll be able to use it til the day you die.

[Delfuego]

I got a Bosch from a pawn shop a while back. Cheap and still works like a champ.

[whitewalrus]

For corded stuff anymore, I buy HF...

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-d-handle-variable-speed-reversible-drill-63114.html

I've had one of the above for 3-4 years, and used it many times where it made sense (mixed lots of mortar/counter concrete with it) and it's still going strong.

It's not worth the extra money for a name brand on a standard corded drill...

I would go with HF if you won?t be using it too often. Likely the cordless you already have will be your main go to. If you get the HF you can save money.

If you want something nicer I would go with dewalt or Milwaukee. You can find good deals on the corded stuff on Craigslist or similar if you want to find a used one. Most people want the cordless so the corded do not sell as fast.

You can also use this as a chance to upgrade to the newer cordless models. Dewalt sells an adapter to use the 20v batteries in the 18v tools.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wulf202]

Milwaukee 1/2” Hole Shooter.
Notice- make sure you use the screw in side handle unless you:
A - want to break your wrist(s)
B - go spinny around in circles
C - all of the above

This. Hole hawgs are nearly indestructible.

[O2HeN2]

Thanks for all the replies! For $50 the Harbor Fright appears to be worth the experiment.

The cordless DeWalt has worked and continues to work for everything except the RR ties, where it does about 1.5 holes per battery charge.

Other than the ties, the DeWalt will remain my main go-to.

O2

[earplug]

I have a DeWalt corded drill that uses a hand tighting chuck. It tends to slip for me. A Jacobs chuck would be a improvement.

[Irving]

I don't want to high jack this thread, so kick me out if need be. I have the same question about a hammer drill. I want to be able to secure vending machines to concrete floors, so I don't need anything very heavy duty. I wouldn't use it often, and I'd like it to be cordless, assuming the cordless version won't cost me 5x what a corded will. I'm under the impression that a hammer drill isn't much more than a regular impact, but I've never used one and wanted to ask here first.

[Sawin]

For infrequent and specific jobs, don?t forget to evaluate if it makes sense to just rent a tool at that time. I?ve needed a hammer drill exactly once for securing a large safe to a concrete floor, so just rented one for a day.

[laportecharlie]

Sawin brings up a good point. I have a Hilti TE72 Hammer drill left over from my working days that I haven't used in several years. The tool and all the bits would retail for close to $2000.00. I have decided to sell it and if I need one in the future I will rent one.

[Grant H.]

I don't want to high jack this thread, so kick me out if need be. I have the same question about a hammer drill. I want to be able to secure vending machines to concrete floors, so I don't need anything very heavy duty. I wouldn't use it often, and I'd like it to be cordless, assuming the cordless version won't cost me 5x what a corded will. I'm under the impression that a hammer drill isn't much more than a regular impact, but I've never used one and wanted to ask here first.

My 18v Ridgid drill/hammer drill has done great in doing reasonable sized jobs for bolting to concrete. The hammer drill function works well.

The combination dewalts that I have had worked well too.

For what you are wanting to do, I would just buy the hammer drill/drill/driver combo tool that you already own the batteries/chargers for, and use that.


ETA:

A hammer drill hammers axially, or along the axis of the drill bit. Basically driving the chisel points of masonry bits into the material in front of it.

An impact hammers tangentially, or 90? to the axis of the bit. Basically it creates spikes of torque impulse in the direction of rotation for tightening or loosening.

[Irving]

I thought about renting or borrowing, but if they are cheap, and it looks like they are, it'd make more sense for me to have one immediately available just from an optics standpoint with regard to business perception.

[Erni]

I thought about renting or borrowing, but if they are cheap, and it looks like they are, it'd make more sense for me to have one immediately available just from an optics standpoint with regard to business perception.

If you want to try out my HF one let me know. I have the metric bits. Might have a 1/2? but not 100% sure anymore.

[Irving]

Thanks, I'll let you know.

[O2HeN2]

Wanna thank everyone for the Harbor Freight suggestions - I took it and successfully completed my project.

Just so you know why it's a cheap drill (both price and quality-wise), I had the following problems which I'll pass on for a simple "heads up".

There's no way to tighten down the side handle, so when I'd let go of the main handle the weight of the body of the drill would cause the handle to loosen, flipping the drill over and causing some excitement as the 18 inch auger bit would make a run towards my face. This happened a lot. Other people would have learned after the first dozen times, but me? Noooooo. Fortunately it never connected.

I know joking about mild Chinese steel has almost become a meme, but boy is the spindle/drive shaft mild steel. Make that very, VERY mild steel. At one point I bent it. The drill was unusable, wobbling all over the place. Well, until I simply bent it back. Now I know how they filmed those segments of Superman bending steel - they used Chinese steel.

Yhea, there's still a little vibration but it's negligible.

For the price, it was worth it and allowed me to complete the project. Probably put 40-50 holes through heavily creosoted railroad ties.

Thanks everyone!

O2

[HoneyBadger]

I love a happy ending! I too am a fan of Harbor Freight corded tools for light/limited use. I bought a hammer drill and a paddle mixer drill from harbor freight for our house renovation and neither had issues. I’ve used HF tools on a job site before and they just didn’t hold up under constant heavy use.

Maybe this deserves its own thread, but here are a few before/after shots of the work I did. Wasn’t cheap and it took almost a full year (on top of my day job).

87992
87994
87995
87996
87997
88000
88001
88002
88003

Edit: sorry the post is a little dorked up- I’m operating solely from a cell phone for the next month or so. And yes, that’s a metric shitton of tile.

[SouthPaw]

At work, we have tried almost every brand of cordless tools and finally stuck with Milwaukee. Them seem to last longer for us and the warranty process is quicker/easier to use. For hammer drills, we have always used Bosch for whatever reason.

[FoxtArt]

I don't want to high jack this thread, so kick me out if need be. I have the same question about a hammer drill. I want to be able to secure vending machines to concrete floors, so I don't need anything very heavy duty. I wouldn't use it often, and I'd like it to be cordless, assuming the cordless version won't cost me 5x what a corded will. I'm under the impression that a hammer drill isn't much more than a regular impact, but I've never used one and wanted to ask here first.

Get a hercules from harbor freight. It's actually a decent tool line. Note the impact pressure. A good hammer drill is nothing like a impact. Some of the corded can do like 17 pounds per strike or more. You can blast through an entire stem wall in under 5-8 seconds at those levels. I was using a hitachi hammer drill and omfg did it suck. I don't even want to say how much time I spent making a single 4.25 inch hole. Then bought a $100 harbor freight hammer drill. Side handle, 3.8ish lbs impact hits. I expected 4 hours at best, I was done in 30 minutes.

[FoxtArt]

Bauer is a good corded line at HF, what mine is. Hercules for cordless probably

[OtterbatHellcat]

Nice work, HB.

Stuff from Dewalt hasn't given me any problems.

[Duman]

1. Metabo
2. Milwaukee

[To Bear Arms]

Guess my experience has been different on the hammer drill. I tried using my cordless hammer drill to drill a few smaller holes in my garage floor a few years ago, just ended up pissed off with the amount of time it took to drill one hole. I went out and got a Milwaukee corded hammer drill and was amazed at how effortless it was compared to the cordless units.

[CapLock]

RIDGED 1/2 inch drill from Homedepot.
I use mine for mixing mortar with a paddle bit in a bucket.
Been going strong everyday for years.
This really isn't a big enough drill for what I'm doing but it just keeps chugging along.

[buffalobo]

I don't want to high jack this thread, so kick me out if need be. I have the same question about a hammer drill. I want to be able to secure vending machines to concrete floors, so I don't need anything very heavy duty. I wouldn't use it often, and I'd like it to be cordless, assuming the cordless version won't cost me 5x what a corded will. I'm under the impression that a hammer drill isn't much more than a regular impact, but I've never used one and wanted to ask here first.Two words for cordless hammer drill - Rotary hammer.

Bought this compact model last spring and gave my cordless hammer drill(basically cordless impact repackaged - sucked in comparison) to my apprentice.

Makes quick work of any holes 1/2" or smaller, does well up to 3/4". Two hundred 5/32" holes a day for over 2 months. Usually 20-30 holes per each 3AH battery charge.

Similar Milwaukee and Dewalt models perform great as well.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18V-LXT-Lithium-Ion-Sub-Compact-Brushless-Cordless-11-16-in-Rotary-Hammer-accepts-SDS-PLUS-bits-Tool-Only-XRH06ZB/302552049

[Grant H.]

Guess my experience has been different on the hammer drill. I tried using my cordless hammer drill to drill a few smaller holes in my garage floor a few years ago, just ended up pissed off with the amount of time it took to drill one hole. I went out and got a Milwaukee corded hammer drill and was amazed at how effortless it was compared to the cordless units.

This can also be affected by the type of concrete poured for your garage... If the contractor ended up with higher PSI rated concrete, it can make it harder to drill... I have been cussed at by sparkies for using "too good of concrete" for the "portable" tower bases that we poured for towers.

We rented one of these, then bought our own for a couple of projects working on old water tower foundations. Makes driving ground rods easier too...
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-15-Amp-2-in-Corded-SDS-MAX-Concrete-Masonry-Advanced-AVT-Anti-Vibration-Technology-Rotary-Hammer-Drill-with-Hard-Case-HR5212C/205650381...

I used it to punch a couple holes in my house foundation wall. Took under 2 minutes each for the 1.5" holes in 8" thick foundation walls... Something my Ridgid combo hammer/drill/etc wasn't up for. The Ridgid did well for tap-cons to mount my battery racks to the garage foundation wall and my safes to the slab...



ETA: "Portable" tower bases...
https://live.staticflickr.com/8221/29086466433_6a52dff436.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/LjgK7z)0323151201 (https://flic.kr/p/LjgK7z) by ARNEWB (https://www.flickr.com/photos/61071044@N08/), on Flickr