Oh and if you haven't signed up for this contest yet, there's still a little bit more time to do so.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...18796628_n.jpg

Go to Facebook and check out Hilti, they have their full line up of 18v tools up for grabs in a contest. I wish I could win it.
http://on.fb.me/Q8s1kf

I would suggest a tool chuck vs a tooless.. especially if you have to drill in tight spaces.

So I ended up going with:
DEWALT | DeWALT Heavy-Duty 3/8" VSR Pistol Grip Drill with Keyless Chuck | Home Depot Canada

http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/Hom...7.DWD112_4.jpg

It cost me $69.99 instead of the price shown on the site. ("Price and availability may vary by store.")


It would have been nice to get the Milwaukee one that's on sale for $59.99,
but I tried holding the one on display, and with the short handle,
I couldn't figure out how to pick up the drill without using the top two fingers to press down on the trigger every time.

:suspicious:

I noticed many drills have a big trigger for two fingers. Is there an advantage of having a bigger trigger?
Seems like if the machinery inside is doing all the work, why would one need two fingers to push down the trigger?

Anyway, the drill seems to be good. I'll get a drill set another time, as I still have some drill bits lying around.

I don't understand what you mean. Do you mean key chuck vs keyless chuk?
What does that have to do with tight spaces?

Oops yup.. keyless takes up more space in tight corners and since they are wider they can't be pushed in as far. The difference is noticeable when you are trying to run wires in attic etc.

Big trigger is designed for gloved hands.

Makita ftw.

You chose to fail me, despite no one failing you, why?

It's quite clear that you have limited experience with power tools, I'm not sure why you attempted to give advice on them.

Makita is good, but has been surpassed by Milwaukee at the mid-range level of power tools.

Dewalt has been at the bottom of professional grade tools for a long time.

There are multiple professional grade power tool brands: Festool, Hiliti, Milwaukee, Bosch, Makita, Rigid, Dewalt; Why would you only consider Dewalt or Makita?

A homeowner using a power drill ten times a year, accumulates less total usage in that year than the majority of people giving advice in this thread do in an hour while working. Brands like Ryobi exist and are very successful because they suit a homeowners needs perfectly; so tell me, if a homeowner would not feel any limitation using a Ryobi drill, why should they spend more to buy a higher grade one?

if homeowners should not consider anything less than Makita or Dewalt, should I not consider anything less than Festool or Hilti?

I never failed you bud.

Edit: WTF i don't remember failing you? Freakin RS mobile man......

Sorry man genuine mistake didnt mean to fail you. Removed it.

Oh, okay cool. I'll reciporcate and remove my fail later, on mobile atm.

Pretty much since they got bought by Black & Decker and became little more than B&D in a different color scheme.

As far as my hands on use, the dewalt impact/drill combo beats anything home depot sells besides the Milwaukee brushless stuff, they feel the sturdiest and the best IMO

Calling bullshit.

Simply on the fact that you can't fail/thank or even see fail/thanks on RS mobile.
Both the app and the mobile version.

Nigga u owned

I was using UAFaker on my iphone bud. So it was the desktop version of RS on a mobile device

:fullofwin:

So when a drill bit is coated "X" material?
Is that the same as when they say Titanium drill bit, Cobalt drill bit, etc.

Or is "coated" like a marketing trick?

^^Just buy Milwaukee accessory bits. They are the best. They are usually made in the US or Germany.

^Milwaukee has 2 types of qualities for their drill bits + sawzall blades. Once in a while home depot will have a "special" where the bits or blades are much cheaper and those ones are usually the shittier versions. You have to look inside to see if they are different from the usual ones.

No, and no.

Drill bits are coated to inexpensively increase heat resistance, but the coatings wear off or are ground off when sharpened. I suppose, Canadian Tire selling sets of 'titanium' bits is somewhat using the coating as a marketing tool; overall though, coatings have a purpose in the market and will improve the quality of any bit to a degree.

What really differentiates the quality of bits is the material they are made from. Cheap bits are low carbon steel, decent bits are high carbon steel, good bits are high speed steel, very good bits are cobalt, tungsten carbide core bits are good as well, you can get solid tungsten carbide bits but they're extremely expensive machining bits; I could go on for a long time, but you get the idea.

Buy individual Milwaukee bits as you need them. Do not get tempted by one of Canadian Tires 7 million piece kits of low carbon, titanium nitride coated bit sets, because 99% of them will never be of any use and they're low quality.

Anyone have any experience with Ridgid power tools? Looking to see what I can expect from my 18V drill/impact set in the long run, even though there is the lifetime warranty on them.

I had the 18v drill/impact driver combo, the power was alright from them but both of the batteries stopped working about a year into them. This was the first set of lithium ion batteries that came out so hopefully in the newer versions they've fixed those problems.

IMO. Makita and Dewalt, and, Rigid and Ryobi, are pretty close.

Festool > Hilti > Milwaukee > Bosch > Makita > Dewalt > Rigid > Ryobi > Hitachi > MasterCraft > Black and Decker > Panasonic > Jobmate

Realllyyyy hard to answer that question. Depends amount of use, type of use, etc...

Milwaukee 18V Li-Ion 3pc Combo Kit [MILW-269123 ] - $219.95 : KMS Tools & Equipment from Vancouver BC, Selling quality tools at affordable prices all over Canada. Largest powertool, handtool and woodworking machinery retailer in Canada.

What do you guys think? I just ordered it last night. Plan on using it for automotive related applications at work

That's a pretty screamin' deal for Milwaukee. The drill alone I think normally goes for $200 or $250.

As far as Ridgid, I picked up their 12V cordless multi-tool and some extra heads for it, it's been working pretty well... grabbed the 12V driver/flashlight combo as well, that drill has pretty much replaced my oooooold 14.4V Milwaukee - doesn't have the battery life in heavy usage, but keeps up with it power-wise, at a fraction of the size and weight.

http://www.cordless-drill-reviews.co...008-Photo3.jpg

http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/wp-c...b-max-tool.jpg

^Got the impact driver and jigsaw head for it... next will probably be the drill head, maybe the sabre saw.

One neat thing we found: my coworker has an extensive collection of Ryobi One+ tools, including their multi-tool of the same design... the Ridgid and Ryobi heads are interchangeable, so if I ever need more juice out of the jigsaw, I can just snap it on his 18V motor :)

The one thing unique to Ridgid: LIFETIME WARRANTY ON THE BATTERIES.

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Power-Tool-Warranty

http://lumberjocks.com/SeaQuest/blog/27189

Bump back up - looking for a cordless drill for the father. Any thoughts on this one?

Seems like a pretty good deal for $219.95 given the specs.

Makita 18V Lithium Ion 2pc Combo Kit [MAK-LCT200] - $219.95 : KMS Tools & Equipment from Vancouver BC, Largest selection of tools in Canada

I got that same makita combo for $189 a while back, it's awesome great batteries and mine has seen heavy use so far, very happy with it
Posted via RS Mobile

Awesome, thanks. Any idea if there will be any major sales for tools in the next little while? It's going to be a Christmas gift so there's no rush to get one, yet.