Corded power drill suggestions

[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).











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-1...06ZB/302552049