Recommend me a good corded drill

I'm about to put in a order for :

DEWALT DWD112 8.0 Amp 3/8-Inch VSR Pistol-Grip Drill with Keyless All-Metal Chuck

DEWALT DW1163 13 Piece Black Oxide Split Point Twist Drill Bit Assortment

DEWALT DW4856 6-Piece Metal/Woodcutting Reciprocating Saw Blade Set

Any other suggestions?

I don't like to buy drills with smaller than a 1/2" chuck anymore after having to drill out 2 engine stands to accept the HUGE bolts that F2Ts use. (~5/8")

That Dewalt looks pretty healthy, though.

Porter Cable

Dewalt and Porter Cable are the same company now. Milwaukee is another excellent choice.

Edit: Go with a 1/2" chuck.

There are drills that have a hammer-drill function. (This is different than a rotary hammer drill, which does not spin and are usually very heavy-duty.) I love having this function whenever I need to put a hole in masonry, cement, etc. I would never get a drill without it.

Dewalt makes several options, you will thank me for getting a true multi-purpose drill.

http://www.amazon.com/DeWalt-DW511-13mm-7-8-Hammerdrill/dp/B0008ELQ0G/ref=sr_1_7?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1368557226&sr=1-7&keywords=dewalt+corded+drill

This one?

Actually, that one I just posted is a single speed...which sounds like no good.

Cordless drills are so good for 99% of tasks that when I need a corded drill it needs to be burly. I have the DeWalt 1/2" chuck D-handle drill with enough torque to require using 2 hands for most drilling jobs; an earlier version of this one: http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW130V-2-Inch-Drill-Handle/dp/B0007W1K9G/ref=sr_1_11?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1368558093&sr=1-11&keywords=dewalt+corded+drill

When I bought it, it was the most powerful drill Home Desperate had in stock. Only a single speed, but it's pretty slow and for most heavy drilling tasks, slower is better.

I also have a Bosch SDS bit hammer-drill that'll put holes in concrete like a hot knife through butter as well as a 5/8" RA drill from NorthernTool when I was drilling a crap-load of 4"-6" holes for running high-velocity flex duct.

My job is repairing tools for Home Depot. The only two that I would buy these days are Milwaukee or Makita.

Dewalt, Ryobi, and Ridgid are all the same parent company. Of those three, Ryobi is the cheapy, Dewalt is the middle, Ridgid is the higher-end brand.

Dewalt and Ryobi carry a 3- year warranty. They have non-serviceable parts including sealed motors and gear cases. Your motor will get smoked. Ridgid will also get smoked, but if you register them for the lifetime warranty, you don't have to worry about it.

Home Depot is attempting to acquire milwaukee but I heard a rumor recently that Hitachi is also attempting to acquire controlling ownership.

curtis73 wrote: My job is repairing tools for Home Depot. The only two that I would buy these days are Milwaukee or Makita. Dewalt, Ryobi, and Ridgid are all the same parent company. Of those three, Ryobi is the cheapy, Dewalt is the middle, Ridgid is the higher-end brand. Dewalt and Ryobi carry a 3- year warranty. They have non-serviceable parts including sealed motors and gear cases. Your motor will get smoked. Ridgid will also get smoked, but if you register them for the lifetime warranty, you don't have to worry about it. Home Depot is attempting to acquire milwaukee but I heard a rumor recently that Hitachi is also attempting to acquire controlling ownership.

Good info there.

oops, you said corded.

I was going to recommend this, or whatever its modern equivalent is

http://www.dewalt.com/tools-discontinued/cordless-drills-hammerdrills-dc900kl.aspx

I've drilled 1/2" holes through 3/8" plate with it before. Many of them. On one battery. The thing is a tank.

curtis73 wrote: My job is repairing tools for Home Depot. The only two that I would buy these days are Milwaukee or Makita.

I had a corded Makita fail. I was going to take it apart to find out what was wrong. I had to cut the label to get the halves apart, the label said "Makita Japan. Made in China". I threw it away. I hear Milwaukee is finally making stuff in China now, too, is their quality really any better than the rest still?

I actually just bought a 1/2" chuck Hitachi corded hammer-drill at Menard's on Saturday. It's pretty beastly so far, though now i'm finding that my bits suck badly.

The only made in the USA electrical tools I know of are (There's probably others) Dynabrade, but I don't think they make drills.

curtis73 wrote: My job is repairing tools for Home Depot. The only two that I would buy these days are Milwaukee or Makita. Dewalt, Ryobi, and Ridgid are all the same parent company. Of those three, Ryobi is the cheapy, Dewalt is the middle, Ridgid is the higher-end brand. Dewalt and Ryobi carry a 3- year warranty. They have non-serviceable parts including sealed motors and gear cases. Your motor will get smoked. Ridgid will also get smoked, but if you register them for the lifetime warranty, you don't have to worry about it. Home Depot is attempting to acquire milwaukee but I heard a rumor recently that Hitachi is also attempting to acquire controlling ownership.

Makita's good E36 M3? Go me!

I should mention that a cordless drill works for 99% of what I do, I'm just tired of failing batteries and my skills include the ability to use an extension cord. I want this to be a replacement for my cordless drill (ie, strip screw heads, drill holes into plumbing when installing a shelf and making machine gun noises).

Find a used one from the pre-90s. Metal and built like tanks. At best they might need bearings and new brushes.

Appleseed wrote: Find a used one from the pre-90s. Metal and built like tanks. At best they might need bearings and new brushes.

Yup. Basically, look for one that has an aluminum gear case and those little brush caps on the sides. Easy to repair, bulletproof, and parts are cheap.

Most manufacturers are going to china now. Makita at least makes most parts on their own and then much of it is assembled in China. Makita always had its roots in Japan but moved production to California several decades ago.

Milwaukee is almost all Chinese now, but that doesn't mean its bad. I still love their tools. Machine tolerances aren't what they used to be but its still good stuff. Oddly enough, I just tore apart a Milwaukee hammer drill and the the bearings were stamped "USA"

Our tool rental department has all Makita electrics from a cordless impact up to 70-lb jackhammers. Of the entire fleet of Makita stuff (about 40 tools) I've had one fail. Exactly one. Some of them are 4 years old and have been on hundreds of rentals where they endured god-knows-what. Ok, I lied... I had to replace one switch on a jackhammer, but other than that I have an 11-lb demo hammer that finally wore out the anvils.

The cordless set we have in the rental repair room is a Milwaukee. You cannot imagine how much abuse those drills get on a daily basis. Its rare that 15 minutes goes by in a 16 hour day that we don't abuse those tools. The batteries last for days and we've never replaced one, never had a failure of any part.

But, contrast that with the hundreds of Ridgid, Ryobi, and Dewalt tools we repair under warranty every month and its a no brainer for me. I can't help but think about that when I'm using our abused, beaten, dropped, hammered Milwaukee driver to disassemble a 2-month old Ridgid table saw with a smoked armature.

Milwaukee and Makita for the win, Ridgid as a distant second as long as you register the warranty. Hilti is hands down the best stuff I've seen, but unless you're a big-time pro there is no reason to sell a kidney to buy any Hilti stuff.

Where does one get parts for them?

Osterkraut wrote:

curtis73 wrote: My job is repairing tools for Home Depot. The only two that I would buy these days are Milwaukee or Makita. Dewalt, Ryobi, and Ridgid are all the same parent company. Of those three, Ryobi is the cheapy, Dewalt is the middle, Ridgid is the higher-end brand. Dewalt and Ryobi carry a 3- year warranty. They have non-serviceable parts including sealed motors and gear cases. Your motor will get smoked. Ridgid will also get smoked, but if you register them for the lifetime warranty, you don't have to worry about it. Home Depot is attempting to acquire milwaukee but I heard a rumor recently that Hitachi is also attempting to acquire controlling ownership.

Makita's good E36 M3? Go me!

One of our rental Makita rotary hammers went up for sale after 170 rentals. We originally paid $299 for it. I didn't hesitate for a second to snatch it up for $90.

Enyar wrote: Where does one get parts for them?

Directly from the manufacturer's website. Almost all of them have a big parts page. Ridgidparts.com is impressive.

Look for a Home Depot with a repair department. Its only been around for a couple years so most poeple don't even know about it. Our software doesn't let us order parts unless you have checked the tool in on a repair tag. They do that because they don't want us to be a parts supplier, they want us to repair only. But, I do it all the time. I tell the customer to bring in the tool, start a repair order, then I'll order the parts and just not put any labor on your ticket. Then you come get the tool and the new parts. If your local HD repair department is cool like me, they'll do it

Oh... also try ereplacementparts.com. Great website with TONS of parts for everything from appliances to power tools to lawn mowers.

Sorry but Milwaukee is owned by TTI. http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands/by_division/power_tools_and_accessories I still would recommend their 1/2 drill for now.

Osterkraut wrote: Makita's good E36 M3? Go me!

I bought one for my first job with the airlines. I was sold on it after I was depaneling the engine pylon on an airplane dropped it about 20 feet off the stand onto the concrete floor picked it up and drilled out or removed literally thousands more screws without any issues.

The 15 minute recharge time on the batteries doesn't hurt it's standing with me either.

I also owned a few other Makita saws and never had a single problem with them, unlike a lot of Rigid and Ryobi tool's I've owned.

bikerbenz wrote: Sorry but Milwaukee is owned by TTI. http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands/by_division/power_tools_and_accessories I still would recommend their 1/2 drill for now.

E36 M3. Oh well, still good stuff for now.