Woodwork Ireland

Cordless and Corded Drills

Aside from hand tools, I’m looking into getting a good drill. I’m torn between the reliability of a plug-in drill with a cord, and the portability and convenience of a cordless. The cordless can be used anywhere, but it depends on rechargable batteries, which last about three years at best, and can run out at the most inconvenient times. The corded drill is never going to run out of power, but it can be very awkward.

I’m also wary of the sheer weight of a cordless drill - batteries are heavy. If I’m going to be holding the thing up for half an hour at a time, I really want something I can handle fairly smoothly.

Amazon.co.uk have a variety of drills, and have customer reviews as well, which helps for purposes of comparison. I’ll probably look to buy locally when I make up my mind, but window-shopping on the web is a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

First up is the Draper 71385 14.4V Cordless Drill. It’s got a 3.5 star rating, dragged down by one guy who says it’s not good on metal. I'’m pretty unlikely to be drilling metal, so that doesn’t worry me. The other reviewer gives it five stars. It will, of course, work as a screwdriver as well, and comes with screwdriver bits. It’s fairly inexpensive as well, so I’ll put it on the list to consider.

The Black & Decker KR500 Hammer Drill 500W has no reviews by customers. It looks like a pretty standard hammer drill. The price is nice, but I’m wary of the lack of reviews, and Black & Decker tools haven’t the best of reputations for durability. However, I wouldn’t be subjecting it to extra-heavy use, so I’ll consider it as well.

The next one up is the Jcb 18V Cordless Hammer Drill Jcbd-Chd18Vc . It looks very impressive - long list of features, satisfied customer review, and hammer action in a cordless drill. Spare batteries, drivers and drill bits, case. Nice. That’s on the list, then, although it might come off again when I come to consider the price - it’s four times the price of the Draper cordless above.

The search brought up the Bosch IXO Cordless Screwdriver 3.6V as well - and while it looks like a neat little toy, it’s only a screwdriver, and I need a drill.

They’re also got a single hand drill, in case you’re feeling old-fashioned: the Draper 13838 8mm Double Pinion Hand Drill - but I honestly can’t see much reason to use a hand drill these days.

And, incidentally, Tools Ireland carry the rather useful looking Plano Drill Holster. I’m not convinced it’d be of a huge amount of use to me personally, but for someone who’s moving around a lot, I can see it being very useful.