Mains drill, non-hammer, 2 speed, screwing too?

[jimmer]

Can anyone recommend such a drill?
i'm after something for the workshop that will do nice smooth timber drilling with forstener bits etc, but is also capable of drilling screws in speed one. basically a powerful, mains equivalent of a cordless; faster on speed 2 and capable of high torque, low speed on speed 1.
can anyone recommend something? i don't really want a hammer function as have 2 sds drill.

 

[Jake]

What's the sort of budget?

 

[jimmer]

under £150 ish
something quality anyways

 

[Rhyolith]

Such a tool would actaully be a really good idea, since the batteries cost so much and never last that long (5 years seems to be the max).

I know Festool do a drill like this, but its almost certainly beyound your budget!

There are several vintage offerings that knock around ebay on a regular basis, such as the old Wolf and B&D 2-speed drills. But these don't have varaible speed beyound the gear changes (2-gears, high and low), excellent tools but hard to screw drive with!

edit: Wolf did do a mains drill spefically made for screwdriving, but I have not bought the ones i have seen on ebay so cannot comment in their performance.

 

[RogerP]

If you do a Google search for "corded drill driver" you'll find quite a few. The Skil 6221AB looks good for less than 40 quid. http://tinyurl.com/gubtzj8

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And that's got a six metre lead!! It's dawned on a tool designer at long last that sometimes you're more than seven or eight feet from a socket.
Weighs 12kg though ... some machine ...

 

[jimmer]

hmm, skil looks alright. worth a punt anyway, tho not really sold on skil quality, and am really after something i can use as a 'proper', powerful drill too

otherwise, if i let go of the 2-speed thing, i've found this, which on the u.s. site says is good for small screws and bolts.
http://www.hitachi-powertools.co.uk/pow ... rill/d13vf

would be nice to know i'm getting something with a god low gear so motor can run comfortably, rather than a higher gear and the moter crunching round slowly, wich they never seem to like...

will have a google rogerp thanks for the pointer.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Small screws? probably - it'll have next to no torque at low speed, I expect.

 

[Wuffles]

Do these things have a torque setting? I foresee things being broken quickly if they don't.

 

[jimmer]

aye that's it isn't it.
unrealistic to expect a mains drill to be able to have torque at low speed, due to nature of motor/AC/240v etc?
maybe i'll just get something simple and quality and only use it for screwing in a squeeze

 

[graduate_owner]

I suppose you could try to run a cordless drill from an external battery or mains power supply. I have seen websites showing how to remove the battery pack contents and simply connect a cable which then goes to a suitable supply. That would give you all the advantages of your existing cordless drill without having to buy a new drill.

K

 

[MMUK]

I suppose you could try to run a cordless drill from an external battery or mains power supply. I have seen websites showing how to remove the battery pack contents and simply connect a cable which then goes to a suitable supply. That would give you all the advantages of your existing cordless drill without having to buy a new drill.

K

Aye, fairly easy to do as long as you're pretty competent with a soldering iron and have a basic knowledge of electrics. I converted my old Makita PA12 battery to a mains operated plug in. All I did was remove the cells, solder on flying leads and fit a DC power socket into the casing. I picked up a 12v 5A DC power supply with appropriate DC plug and away I went. The drill never performed so well.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

CHJ did one with a wooden blanking plate and a lead to a battery /transformer iirc.

 

[Ali]

Look for one of the Bosch Percussion Drills, the GSB 21-2 RE or the newer more powerful GSB 21-2 RCT which is on my shopping list. Obviously you don't need the percussion switch for what you want to do, but works well in a drill stand too.

 

[shed9]

You could get a standard percussion drill for around £70+ and then get a mains imapct in addition within your budget.

http://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Maki ... t%20Driver

Mains drills are not the easiest for screw driving given their length and a mains impact would free up constant changing of bits between drill and driver. Just a thought.

 

[ED65]

I use a Rok I got cheap as an end-of-line promotion when they were changing their signature colour from yellow to lime green. I paid so little I'd be embarrassed to say but they currently run to €40 IIRC. Anyway despite the low-low price it ticked all the boxes: hammer and normal action, decent length of lead, reverse function and trigger speed control.

I don't generally use it as a driver but it does work for that, this was the first thing I confirmed once I got it home. It doesn't have a set driving speed though, you have to use trigger pressure to run it very slowly. It's a 700W or 750W and torque at low speeds seems fine to me but as I say I don't use it for driving a lot of screws. Can't speak to durability as it's the only one I've owned and I've only had it a little over a year, but it seems robust enough.

Lidl or Aldi do a very similar drill for around the same money at some point during the year.

 

[jimmer]

yeh, what i don't want is a standard percussion drill, or something chea from lidl/aldi, or a mains impact driver.
bosch do a Carpenter's drill i've seen but it's pretty pricey.

i think i'll get tha Hiachi i found. good price and good quality. i'll jus tneed to ride the trigger when screwing or mixing mortar.
thanks for all the suggestions
and thanks MMUK and graduate-owner for the cording-a-cordless ideas. food for thought.
i've seen someone wire one to a motorbike battery so it was a quasi cordless...

 

[shed9]

yeh, what i don't want is a standard percussion drill, or something chea from lidl/aldi, or a mains impact driver

Like I said, just a thought and putting something in the mix that may not have been mentioned. Apologies if my suggestion offended, that'll learn me.

 

[jimmer]

it didn't offend shed9. i was just clarifying and being straight forward. shouldn't have started with 'yeh,' perhaps.