Cordless drills

With so many options available when it comes to buying a drill it can be daunting trying to decide which drill tool is best for you. The first decision you’ll have to make is if you need or even want the extra power of a a corded, electric, drill, or if the flexibility of a handheld drill is what you need.
When you say the word ‘drill’ to most people, especially those new to DIY, nearly everyone will think of the pistol shaped handheld cordless drill. For most jobs, DIY or professional they are powerful enough. Corded drills can even be too powerful when it comes to using the drill as a screwdriver, delivering so much oommmppphh that it is hard to delicately control the movement of the drill, or screw bit as is required when the screw first bites into the timber. Home assembly of furniture is a widely used application for electric drills these days so being able to screwdrive well is a must for most people and cordless drills are excellent at this giving fine control over the application of power to the screwdriver bit.

Along with the inconvenience of supplying power and running a cable the corded drill is, in most cases, best left to specialised applications that need the extra grunt power. Drilling into masonry or stone for example can often require a powered drill tool depending on the number or depth of holes to be bored. Heavy duty use too, where the drill will be in action all day needs power, although a rapid charger kit and two cordless drill batteries can overcome this deficiency of cordless drills.

There is a third option. The drill press. Fixed to a workbench they give excellent, quick precision but have the obvious drawback of not being able to be moved. I’m not going to dwell on these here but will probably come back to them over to coming months.

We'll look at some of cordless drills on offer (from the big manufacturers) over the next fews posts.