I need a new mains electric drill with a clutch!

[JohnD]

Have you said

What size holes you want to drill

How many in a day

How many days in a year

What you want to spend?

Do you want one that will be light and handy?

It may be that you need e.g. a light rechargeable for curtain rails and cup hooks, a budget corded for occasionally laying floors, and a huge SDS+ for heavy building work once in a blue moon. Or it may be that you want to drill lots of holes in walls to hang kitchen cabinets.

Or it may be that you will be working every day to core pipes and ducts through walls.

If you don't tell us what its purpose is, you might as well walk into a bar and shout "what's a good car to buy?"

 

[BML]

JohnD

I am not being sarcastic but this is the most intelligent post I have seen since I was asking questions about computing some time ago and they also made it clear that they required some detail before they could give a considered answer. I will now answer your questions.


What size holes you want to drill?
If I am drilling into brickwork it will probably be for Raw Plugs so no more than about 5mm.

If I am drilling into metal it will probably be no more than about 4mm.
If I am drilling into wood the maybe up to 20mm.

How many in a day?
I prefer to sit in front of my computer writing and only launch myself into action when provoked by my wife and I doubt that happens more than once or twice a month.

How many days in a year?
Probably no more than 25.

What you want to spend?
My budget is no problem, at my age I have learnt that normally to get quality one has to pay.

Do you want one that will be light and handy?
Apart from two bashed about thumbs carrying weight is no problem.

It may be that you need e.g. a light rechargeable for curtain rails and cup hooks, a budget corded for occasionally laying floors, and a huge SDS+ for heavy building work once in a blue moon. Or it may be that you want to drill lots of holes in walls to hang kitchen cabinets.
A speculative pig has just destroyed the view from my back garden with a new estate and I can’t persuade my wife to move so I seriously doubt I will be setting up any more curtain rails, doing any more heavy building work or hanging any kitchen cabinets.

Or it may be that you will be working every day to core pipes and ducts through walls.
Certainly not!

If you don't tell us what its purpose is, you might as well walk into a bar and shout "what's a good car to buy?"
You’re absolutely correct so I will tell you what I want a new drill for. “Because my wife has had to take me to the minor injuries department twice when a drill bit/cutter jammed but the drill kept going. Leaving aside the pain it was demoralising and I love my wife sufficiently not to want worry her the next time I pick up a drill. So, if I have to pay to buy a drill just to drill probably no more than six holes through some metal fence post then I will do so because I want to finish that job and experience the indignity of getting someone in to do it for me.

To go back to the original question, “Is there one drill that will do what I set out above?”


By the way Roger928 said, “I'd never use an sds drill for steel as they don't have the correct speeds." Does that mean one should use a special drill?

 

[JohnD]

I'd go for an 18v cordless combi. Light enough, and enough power for those jobs. Use the tommy bar to hold it steady. They (always?) have both a selectable torque clutch and a speed control, and are light enough for driving screws. I use mine for coach screws building the shed, which are quite big.

For drilling steel, the chuck speed is supposed to be slower for each increase in drill size. This is because there is an optimum cutting speed for the edge, and a bigger one is going faster (in miles per hour at the edge) than a smaller one at the same RPM. This is not something I paid attention to but there are some old engineers here who can describe it better.

I don't buy drills often enough to know a good one of this type.

 

[Doggit]

I looked for a dewalt 995 but there were several with partly that description.

You can get a dewalt 996N (improved model) which has no batteries, and then it stretches to an M1 with one battery, and an M2 with two, so you'd be looking for either a Dewalt DCD996M2, or a DCD796M2 for something a little lighter.

And John may have asked what you consider to be the most sensible questions, but the rest of us had already worked out where you were coming from.

 

[rsgaz]

For drilling steel, the chuck speed is supposed to be slower for each increase in drill size.

Indeed, and if safety is the OP's main concern and cost is not an issue and regularly uses larger diameter bits in steel, get a 'brushless' driver. It won't do that 'suddenly pulling through and riding up the flutes' thing that usually happens as it breaks through, because the speed control is vastly improved over a normal brushed cordless, done electronically, rather than being affected by the torque it is 'suffering' at the time.

Watch from 5:15 to 5:55...

 

[BML]

I received some good advice that I should be using Cobalt drill bits to go through steel which I will now look for but some regrettable advice that the Titan drill which I was interested in is made in China and since I have come across some absolute rubbish from there I no longer buy from them and look for something from Germany or even America. I do hope that is not to controversial.

 

[JohnD]

An American badge is no sign of anything, though it seems to work as a marketing gimmick on American consumers, judging by the number of patriotic flags and slogans festooning their foreign-made tat.

 

[rsgaz]

I received some good advice that I should be using Cobalt drill bits to go through steel

Search for Ruko or Heller cobalt bits, ideally with a 'split point'. Both made in Germany and really good quality.

 

[SammyInnit]

I received some good advice that I should be using Cobalt drill bits to go through steel which I will now look for but some regrettable advice that the Titan drill which I was interested in is made in China and since I have come across some absolute rubbish from there I no longer buy from them and look for something from Germany or even America. I do hope that is not to controversial.

Not controversial just unrealistic. Majority of power tools are either made in China or made with parts made in China. The only tools that you might find fewer if any Chinese bits in are things like Mafell, Festool, Made in Japan Makita or made in UK makita. And none of it is cheap.

Will mention though, Screwfix have an offer on today. Makita Brushless combi, 2x3ah, charger and case for 170 quid.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dh...dless-combi-drill/6407p?cm_sp=-_-home-_-6407p

 

[BML]

Makita Brushless combi, 2x3ah, charger and case for 170 quid is all very well but I specifically mentioned that I was looking for a mains drill.

 

[lostinthelight]

Makita Brushless combi, 2x3ah, charger and case for 170 quid is all very well but I specifically mentioned that I was looking for a mains drill.

Its hand deep into the pocket then if this will do?
http://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/bos...impact-drill?gclid=CIr15KX_ptQCFUg8GwodMV4G1w
litl

 

[catlad]

BML nobody really buys corded these days unless they really need
to, and by the sounds of it you don't need to, so if money is not an
issue then buy the makita from screwfix and you will be surprised
how far cordless drills have come.