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Hi Chaps,
I'm moving house next month, and will have about 10 rooms to do the curtain rails for. I've got a corded drill, but I'd prefer to have something a bit smaller and agile.
Can anyone recommend a decent drill for popping in some holes for rawl plugs and then screwing stuff in?
I've used some nice small Dewalt ones for the van in the past, but have no clue what's decent - don't really want to spend much more than £150 - and would probably want a couple of batteries.
Cheers
Ricks
...
depends if you've got internal concrete lintels, if you have just use your hammer drill with an extension lead.
I've used a corded drill for everything, then again my house is made from a composite of cheese and pig iron.
Rickon.
You still selling these?
Yep 🙂 I am. Drop me a line.
Makita (at least something with metal gearing) and the biggest Li-Ion battery (4Ah) you can afford. I've burnt-out numerous, lesser drills over the years. The Makita has enough grunt for a 2" hole saw through steel
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I bought a Bosch GSB and additional 3.0Ah battery a few months ago and have been immensely pleased with the drill itself and the battery capacity - the batteries charge so quickly I wondered if buying the second was really needed;
http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gsb-1800-18v-3ah-li-ion-cordless-combi-drill/8160gg
http://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-18v-3-0ah-li-ion-coolpack-battery/28488
and the biggest Li-Ion battery (4Ah) you can afford
Don't worry too much about battery capacity - more Ah won't give you more grunt just longer intervals between charging, but if that comes at the price of longer charging times you're no further ahead - so look at the charging times when comparing between models - theres more variance than you'd imagine. Also look at the measure for torque when comparing between models - thats the performance figure that matters and neither voltage or Ah will give you any real clues to that. Bigger capacity batteries are worth while if you're having to work somewhere away from a mains for charging, but for working indoors I'd actually compare charging times between makes and models rather than out and out capacity. For masonry drilling an extra Ah is going to going to get you a few more minutes of run time - in that scenario I'd rather have a battery that will recharge in 20mins than one that will take an hour or more.
Similarly masonry drilling can be a long, heavy load on the battery and intelligent li-ion batteries won't charge the battery until its cooled down enough - a higher capacity battery will just be hotter when you come to charge it and there'll be more delay before the charger kicks in.
Makita (but not the garbage makita sold in B&Q) tends to have amongst the quickest charge times for their 18v stuff - Hitachi have some of the slowest. But anything over 3AH and the charge times can start to get pretty long whatever brand you use
What age is the house?
Take into a/c if old plaster some wall may fall in.
As mentioned check for lintels, they maybe metal or wood.
Don't rush the job as the rails have to be straight,otherwise curtains won't hang correctly (apologise if I'm stating the obvious).
Cheers chaps, this is a new build house - so everything is wood and plasterboard!
Lidl LiIon drill on sale this Thursday. £40. 3 yr warranty and ideal for DIY stuff. You really don't need a £100+ drill for light household stuff...and spend the money saved in the bike shop. ( I have had a nicad Lidl drill for 6 or 7 yrs and it has only just given up the ghost)
http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=28416
Drop me an email. Me or the midget should be able to lend you something!
this is a new build house - so everything is wood and plasterboard!
In which case buy a cheap battery drill, whatever is on offer in Scewfix / Homebase. Paying for a proper commercial drill is just a waste of money.