Does torque rating mean a lot for drills? Or much the sameness. https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-d...-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-twin-pack/337kv 1 x 18V Brushless Combi Drill 65Nm 1 x 18V Brushless Impact Driver 178Nm https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dlx2336f01-18v-2-x-3-0ah-li-ion-lxt-cordless-twin-pack/255kh (not brushless) 1 x 18V Combi Drill 43Nm 1 x 18V Impact Driver 155Nm I suppose brushless motor are the ones to go for these days.
I have the Dewalt DCD776D2T-GB with 2x 2Ah batteries. https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcd776d2t-gb-18v-2-x-2-0ah-li-ion-xr-cordless-combi-drill/804pf It has served me well for about 4 years and has taken quite a bit of abuse. Batteries charge quickly and last quite long for 2Ah. Makita is my go-to, but this Dewalt drill has been great.
Torque is turning force, more is better. The reason the impacts vastly outdo the drills is that they impact like a hammer blow, so it delivers short powerful blows and then does nothing for a while, the drill will continually apply the same torque. Drill for drilling and mixing plaster and the like, impact for screwing. If you can only have one, get a drill.
More is nice, but what you're doing dictates how much you realistically need. Just about anything will happpily drill 4mm holes in soft wood all day, but mixing plaster or driving big augers or hole saws needs more. There is such a thing as too much too... my combi has <checks> 91nm and I feel like its more than enough to break one's wrist if not being respectful and I'd rather use my (clutched) SDS in those cases. If I was using it for screws that much torque is far more likely to hollow out the screw head than it is to actually do something productive, this is where impact drivers are king.
I just can't resist the DeWalt drill+driver deal so went and picked it up. Thanks very much all. In terms of system, we'll see what we buy down the road. Initial research can't see anything missing from DeWalt range. Albeit pricy compared to what we have been using, which are all cheapest to 3rd cheapest of each tool type, wired. So unless there's a requirement for cordless, unlikely replace for replacement sake. This is an entry into the system.
From my bits of reading around I think you get different tiers of manufacturers (who may then also have tiers within their product lines), and dewalt/makita/milwuakee are similar enough, so being able to get brushless vs brushed I think would be an upgrade, as others have said I've seen people do a lot with 12V drills etc so even the waker 18V are probably going to be fine for most tasks.
I cheaped. My shed has a shelving unit full of Lidl's Parkside 20V tools. They're fine for what little DIY I get up to.
Honestly on balance this is the best take out of this thread. I'm prone to fanboy all over Makita as others are with their tool ecosystem of choice, but for casual or occasional DIY use almost anything will do and spending thousands is silly. For anyone prone to doing some actual building, woodworking, construction or renovation, sure choosing which ecosystem to invest in is important. But a £20 combi will help you put up a shelf just as well as any £500 one... arguably better since it will almost certainly be lighter and more compact.
Exactly this, i just got a run of the mill £30 Black and Decker one as not being a home owner I don'r need anything fancy and when I become a home owner I can just buy into a full lineup if i need to! This does fine from saving my wrists from RSI and the minor drilling needed! We have some of the Bosch 12v ones at work and they're fine, bit I don't think I'd spend £180 of them if it was my money...
It pains me to say, right down in the core of my sole, and I'm hiding my man card in case anyone I know IRL reads this, but yep that. If I had to buy cordless tools I'd go for the big 3, Makita, Milwaukee or Dewalt in that order, but they'd be total overkill for the five days a year where they'd get used. I don't really like cordless stuff, but what I do have is Bosch, https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gs...ilO4kdIWL7vv9zDyOCcaAoYFEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds which again is arguably overkill for what we use them for. I can thank sweet baby jesus I didn't have to pay for them because no way is Bosch worth that money, especially as one of the two batteries has pooped the bed already
My tip would be to find a couple of good value starter kits you want to lay a foundation as it's generally a cost effective way of getting batteries and chargers. We bought a Ryobi One+ drill/driver with 2x 2Ah and a 36V mower with 2x 4Ah in fairly short time. Both were good value once you factored in the batteries+chargers, which are likely all we'll need for the forseeable. Then since it's just a case of picking up other bare tools when the need arises or they're available cheap.
Another Slytherin Ryobi house here. I blame @legoman. The starter kits are really handy, even after you have a few tools, if you want / need more batteries, may as well get a tool with them.
Yeah, I would say that for the average casual DIYer these are absolutely perfect. I have some Ryobi One+ stuff, which is great, but to be honest if I was starting from scratch today then I'd just pop down to my local Lidl (which didn't exist when I started buying tools 15 years ago) as I'm very much an occasional DIYer and even the Ryobi stuff is probably a bit more than I actually need. As a forum of tech enthusiasts, I am sure we all have the tendency to... overbuy... rather than letting our use-case dictate what we should buy
I'm sat here, new drills in hand, it's built like a brick and lighter than my NiCd Makita. Honestly, it does feel a little bit over built for whatever a 70 year "young" can get up to. Titan or Parkside will probably do the job just as well. Got to remember it's a nice present and not bad value for money thanks to the deal screwfix had on.
All of my gear is Parkside apart from my router which is an old Hitachi one and still going strong and my Compound mitre saw which is JCB. All have done me proud and out of all the parkside stuff I have only had 2 failures, funnily enough both sanders and both have been worked to death. Orbital sander just recently got replaced under warranty but I couldn't find the receipt for the palm sander and they refused to do anything so I took it apart and found it was just a build up of sawdust in the switch and I need to fit a new velcro pad and its fully operational again. (got to keep the replaced broken orbital sander too so may well take it apart and see if that's just the switch too) I do quite a lot of DIY and woodwork and they are doing me proud.
