The room of death...for power tools that is

[Chud]

OK - I've not had a good weekend for tools

First of all my cheapo JCB cordless combi drill just died, either the battery or charger is dead rendering it useless. Had it just over 2 years now.

Then as I'm using my router (another cheapy but about 6-8 yrs old now!) it makes a horrendous noise and starts belching smoke...

A couple for the bin methinks!

Budget is very tight but I'm determined to try and get some replacements that are a step up from your normal DIY shed own brand type tools - any recommendations?

 

[xerxes]

Have you checked the contacts on the drill and the battery? (Sorry if that's obvious, but corroded contacts will stop it working.)

If it's indeed dead, I'd spend some money and get a proper tool. My two Bosch blue cordless have given ten years' DIY service, my Makita cordless drill/driver nearly as long, and I've just bought a Bosch GDR 12 impact driver at a bargain price, which so far has been brilliant. You will find plenty of opinions on cordless drills in previous threads on this forum. For a tighter budget many speak highly of Ryobi.

You will also, of course, find plenty of suggestions on routers; much depends on what size you need. Why not consider a secondhand Elu (highly regarded, and they tend to reach relatively high prices if not beaten up), or a Trend clone of the Elu design?

 

[big-all]

this might surprise you but i will say ryobi is ideal fot your requirements

search for "big-all" and" ryobi"

//search.diynot.com/forum_sear...it=drop&since=any&author=&search=Search+Forum

 

[Chud]

Cheers big-all - was thinking about Ryobi, luckily it's my birthday coming up so I think I'll be asking for Screwfix vouchers!

I've checked the contacts on my current drill - they're fine, I went to charge it and the charger lit up like normal but when I pressed the charge button it went dead - checked the fuse and that's OK...

 

[marshman]

did you look for a fuse inside the charger unit ? one of my drill charger's blew this fuse a few times
so I up it to a 4amp fuse and its been good for 18 months now.

 

[Chud]

did you look for a fuse inside the charger unit ? one of my drill charger's blew this fuse a few times
so I up it to a 4amp fuse and its been good for 18 months now.

I'll take a butchers as it is quite a chunky charger...damnit had my eyes on a new drill... :drool:

 

[marshman]

well you do need two, one for the pilot bit and the other to drive in the screws.

 

[Chud]

Just had a look - an internal fuse had blown, changed but it's still toast...

 

[stevebamford]

well you do need two, one for the pilot bit and the other to drive in the screws.

And maybe a 3rd for countersinking ?

 

[Deluks]

well you do need two, one for the pilot bit and the other to drive in the screws.

And maybe a 3rd for countersinking ?

And a fourth for banging nails in with.

 

[Chud]

I already have 3...

1x cordless - knackered
1x corded - little B&D thing like a drywall driver - surprisingly handy due to small size and weight, only pain is the hex chuck.
1x 6kg SDS - for banging in nails!

I think if I can I'll go for the Ryobi 18v twin pack of the combi drill and impact driver...although thinking of it there is another pack (same price) with a combi and an angle drill - which would folks recommend?

 

[big-all]

definatly the impact as its more usefull also costs around £20 more

 

[Chud]

Hmmph well by the time I got my vouchers the offer had ended for the drill and impact driver so I ended up getting this:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/55598/Power-Tools/Kits/Ryobi-CHI-1802L-BG-18V-Combi-Drill

I know there are questions being raised around Li-Ion batteries but I chose it for the following reasons:

1) Li-Ion doesn't suffer from memory effect so the charge can be topped up when needed and doesn't always need to be totally drained before charging.

2) The package includes the 'supercharger' which recharges both Li-Ion and Ni-Cd batteries - the other chargers do one or t'other so if I buy more batteries/tools I'd have to use more than one charger...

3) This will be used periodically so working time isn't such an issue - it should certainly last longer than my old drill with a 1.3ah Ni-Cd battery.

I'll let you know how it does...

 

[big-all]

great choice
the battery has a fully charged part charged and low indicator[green yellow red lights]which seems to work well

in general if its green its charged enough but in your case with a single battery theres no harm in a top up charge because if its well charged it will only take 10 or 15 mins to fully charge