What happened to £50 corded drills?

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woodenstx

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When we moved into our house 10 years ago, I picked up a £50 Dewalt mains hammer drill. Its lastest well and while not being the greatest tool in the world, its done all I've asked of it. Anyhow, I used it to mix concrete the other week with a paddle.... that finally killed off the bearings :(

So, Looking to replace it as while a cordless drill is great, you cant fault the ease of a corded drill to always spin at the pull of the trigger.
I have access to an SDS for anything serious in hammer drilling, but the Dewalt had hammer too.

Any suggestions for a £50ish mains drill? I see lots of "no brand" efforts and while I'm under no illusion that the dewalt one wasnt merely a cheapy in drag, I simply dont know how to gauge the no brand items.
Thoughts?


That or I apply terrible man maths, and add £50 to my £100 impact driver budget and get a twin cordless set :lol:
 
Car boot sale, or Gumtree £10 and you're sorted. Did your drill give off a weird smell when using it to mix, mine does!

Then spend the saving on cordless stuff.
 
No funny smell, well no funnier than the smell the mix had with the dye. Just it had a grinding feel and got tres hot
 
If you are in a rush, Aldi/Lidl, Screwfix depending whats available and whats on offer. They are all the same, I have a spear and jackson branded drill that is about 10 years old now, cost me £10 at Trago Mills, I use it mostly to mix paint or to pump water.

If you can afford to look around a bit, car boot sale. I see at least half a dozen of this kind of drill at car boots every week, wait until you see one that looks and feels alright, I reckon you could get something for £5-15 but it for that price you could get some branded and possibly a bit beefier. I have seen plenty of makita corded drills going for about £20 in reasonable condition. Bosch and AEG are common too. Dewalt not so much. See a lot of B&Q own brand stuff, never even look at that since most people are asking the same a brand new unit.
 
Aldi have one this Sunday. £20.

3 year warranty,

You know it makes sense.

Bill

Should have read all the posts, someone beat me to it :oops:
 
2 months ago I bought a Metabo corded drill from ebay. Cost me £0.99p +p&p.

It was at least 20 yrs old, scuffed and beaten up.

Restoration was replacement of a wire which had separated from its component, removal of the gearbox and all its small parts, cleaned out the grease with thinners, repacked the grease, rebuilt the gearbox and drill.

I now have a solid, 780w corded hammer drill with metal gearbox and I expect good reliability for about £4 in grease and other bits plus cleaning materials. A polish of the alloy outside and good to go.
 
£20 aldi drill did me good for the bathroom refit. It was mostly used for mixing tile adhesive/grout, but also did some light masonry duties too.

It smells very electrical still, but thats about the only bad point I have for it :D
 
Last new fairly cheap one I bought was about 15 years ago, mainly for drilling masonry for a kitchen fit I recall.

At the time DIY cordless did not typically have the power, hammer action or battery life for that sort of work. Times have changed - cant see me buying another 240v drill. As others have noted above Ebay is probably your friend!
 
Off topic but I have (or had) two 24v drills - a Rolson & a similar one from Maplins. Can't remember how old they are but must be well over 10 years & cost about £35. Each came with two batteries & a charger. It was cheaper to buy a second drill rather than a new battery.
Anyway the Rolson has been the workhorse because of it's hammer capability. Two days ago, drilling a hole in brick, the whole of the front nose came off. On inspection it was held on by two M3 screws which had sheared off.
Considering its age & the amount of work it's done, I've had my moneys worth out of it.
 
Over 20 years ago I bought two 18volt DeWalt hammer drills, still being used to this day, only one Nimh battery pack has been replaced, out of the four supplied, the secret is to use a more sophisticated charger, they are still capable of driving a 100mm decking screw through a 100mm Oak post, although I can't imagine why you would want to. (hammer)

Mike
 
Evolution sds 4 800 on Amazon for £55. 4 function .got one to remove plaster from damp wall .works well got a bit warm after half an hour but soon returned to cold.will drill , hammer, drill hammer and hammer rotate.
Tony
 
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