Combi Drill/Driver

[dionbee93]

I recently bought the Dewalt 10.8v kit (combi drill and impact driver) and can't fault it 2mah batteries last ages and I've driven 4" screws into solid fenceposts no problem with it. Used it for every part of my home refurb with no issues whatsoever.

Cost for the kit was £110 plus VAT at Travis perkins (it's on offer at screwfix for £120 all in at the moment)

Drill
Impact driver
Quick 30 or 60minute charger
2 batteries
Carry case

No brainer if you ask me.

Dion

EDIT - this is the kit at screwfix, seems to be the 1.3ah not the 2ah though and a carry bag instead of a case.. but same sort of thing. - http://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dck211c2-bqgb-10-...

Edited by dionbee93 on Tuesday 9th May 09:35

Edited by dionbee93 on Tuesday 9th May 09:35

[S6PNJ]

pacey205 said:

Im also looking to buy a combi/impact driver combo........

Sorry, not considered your options, but I bought mine (Bosch 18V LI-2) from https://www.angliatoolcentre.co.uk/ who might have better prices.

[WolfieBot]

LFB531 said:

It looks like my faithful Makita 12v has come to the end of the line after years of good service.

DeWalt have made a name for themselves since I last bought, should I be looking at them (or others) before I do the loyal thing and stick with Makita?

I had a quick look at Ryobi when I was last in B&Q but they felt nothing like as substantial as the one I've already got so discounting them.

Advice appreciated from those that know!

Not sure what it was about the Ryobi that out you off but I've had a few Ryobi tools for over 2 years
Used pretty heavily for DIY which included building a 20m2 decking and pretty much a full house refurbished.

Drill / driver combi, separate impact driver, circular saw, sander, nail gun. Really can't fault them, certainly for the price.

[Steve_W]

Interesting thread as my old Makita is starting to show its age.

Regarding batteries, my carpenter friend said to ignore the voltage and concentrate on the amp/hours rating as it was a better indicator of "power".

[ndg]

Steve_W said:

Interesting thread as my old Makita is starting to show its age.

Regarding batteries, my carpenter friend said to ignore the voltage and concentrate on the amp/hours rating as it was a better indicator of "power".

With all due respect to your friend, power is defined as volts * amps. Capacity is normally quoted in amphours at the nominal pack voltage, but is really measured in joules (1J = 1 Amp at 1 volt for 1 second). An 18V 5Ah pack with have 50% more capacity than a 12V 5Ah pack (324kJ vs 216kJ).

It's possible to build a 10.8V motor that is as powerful as an 18V motor, but the currents will be 67% higher, so the wire will need to be thicker in the windings and for the same Ah rating it will deplete the battery faster. In general more volts = more available power for battery tools. There's a reason that the battery SDS drills and mowers run at 36V (either a single 36V pack or dual 18V).

I'm impressed that someone has been driving 4" screws into decking with a 10.8V driver. I used a friends didn't get the impression that it would manage so easily.

[S6PNJ]

ndg said:

With all due respect to your friend, power is defined as volts * amps.

Isn't it about this time that someone posts:

[pacey205]

I must admit I hadn't really looked at the 10.8V/12V option mainly because

1) I was going down the route of having more power than I need (bit of contingency and quite often driving 75-100 mm screws for floorboards etc).
2) Price wise it was about the same 10.8/12V to 18V with similar sized batteries (prior to a bit of ooh shiny new tools budget creep of course).

Still tempted by one of the Bosch kits, the V-LI appeals but realistically the 18-2-LI is probably more than enough for what I need and both will be a massive improvement on my old knackered 14V NiCad cheapy drill.

[Gad-Westy]

Used a Makita 18v drills at work for years. Seemed to have to replace the motors from time to time but that was cheap and easy to do. At home, I used a Dewalt 18v (£100 2x battery type job) for years and was very happy until I knackered the chuck drilling brickwork. It had had a very good innings though. Replaced that with 2x 18v Hitachi drills from Screwfix that were £150 including a pair of batteries. I like the drills themselves but the big plus really is that having two of them is just fantastic for many diy jobs. Drill mounted in one on high speed and and driver in the other with clutch set and low speed. Saves a lot of faffing around. Ideally I'd have more batteries but I'm happy enough.

So my slightly complicated message is that based on my experience, the big names seem to all offer reasonably comparable decent products, but having two of them is a game changer.

[ndg]

I wittered on about the physics but didn't offer any actually useful advice......

I've got Makita 18V Li Ion Drill and driver, as above having one machine to drill and another to screw is great. The driver is way better than a combi for actually driving screws too.

I suspect that any of the Bosch/DeWalt/Hitachi/Makita options would be fine, I went Makita as I wanted a battery mower, and I can use my drill batteries and charger with a Makita mower. I've since added a multitool to my kit, so remember you're buying into a system and look at what else is available if that's important to you.

[alock]

ndg said:

I'm impressed that someone has been driving 4" screws into decking with a 10.8V driver. I used a friends didn't get the impression that it would manage so easily.

My 10.8v makita impact driver will do this fine with quality single threaded screws into new fast grown timber. Double threaded screws into 40 year joists with a tighter grain is a different matter.

As with most things like this, the devil is in the detail.

[pacey205]

Well Id pretty much talked myself into a 10.8/12V combo before I noticed that the GSB18 V-Li/GDR 18 V-Li kit with 2 4Ah batteries had dropped in price down to £208 for this weekend only, which seemed a bit of a bargain (link here if anyone else is interested http://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/bosch-18v-twinpack... ), hence Ive bought that .

Probably complete overkill for what I need but will be more than man enough for the jobs I've got in mind.

Edited by pacey205 on Saturday 13th May 13:14