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Comment by skorgu | Hacker News Reader

A cordless drill won't last you a 'lifetime' it'll last until the battery pack dies and you discover they no longer make compatible ones.

Buy a good corded drill and extension cords and it really will last a lifetime.

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I don't know how often you drive/remove screws with a drill, but a cordless model is far superior. All of the corded drills I've used put out far too much power and have limited throttle control.

A DeWalt drill, like the article recommends, and like the one I have in my toolbox, will give you adjustments for torque (so you don't over-tighten screws or drive them too deep) and power output (so you don't strip the heads). They also stop spinning as soon as you remove your finger from the trigger, unlike a corded drill which can continue driving the screw in with the built-up inertia. The torque setting really is what makes it so versatile; I regularly use mine to assemble furniture and work on the car, both applications where a corded drill would either damage the part I'm working on, or wreck my wrist when the fastener tightens.

If you're serious about home improvement and can afford it, I'd suggest getting both a nicer cordless and a medium-priced corded drill. The cordless drill will get used ten times as often as the corded drill because it's so much easier to use and easier to control. The corded drill will do a better job on the heavy duty jobs like drilling through floor joists, plus the corded drill will be lighter, smaller, and more powerful.

One other note: we just replaced our Makita 12 volt drill with a Dewalt 18 volt drill. The added power and battery life are nice, but my wrists definitely feel the weight difference after a day of work. If you're shopping around, consider the weight of the cordless drill and what it would feel like to lift that weight a hundred times over the course of a project.

And if you need a hammer drill but only occasionally, make it the corded one and get a non-hammering cordless drill, as the latter will be quite a bit lighter which is an advantage for everyday use, the hammer drill will be more powerful, and you will probably come out ahead on cost to boot.

A corded drill is also useful when you go to make an Afghan lathe.

This is good advice. A not-too-heavy, high-quality cordless drill is excellent for driving screws, turning bolts, etc., as well as drilling small holes. If you ever have to get into tight spaces or work in attics, crawl spaces, or outdoors far from an outlet, it's great. And often, especially in tight quarters, you don't even want all the torque a good-quality plug-in drill develops -- it can smash your hand if it catches on something.

And having a plug-in, high-power drill (preferably with a hammer feature if you might be going thru block, stucco, or concrete) is an excellent complement.

Cordless drills are one of the few purchases in life that bring real happiness. They're not perfect, but drilling a small hole or driving a screw in seconds as opposed to fiddling with extension cords is bliss.

They also work well as a freshly-ground pepper gun as opposed to fiddling with manually grinding your pepper. :)

I am still to this day happy with my $300 18v cordless dewalt with an easy self locking chuck. I thought I'd have buyers remorse with that price tag, but I tell you, when you end up needing to frame a basement, put up sheetrock or basically do anything past a simple job, it's money well spent.

When I wore out a battery and found out how expensive replacements were I just bought individual cells and rebuilt the battery pack myself. I don't know if it is still the case but my 14.4v DeWalt packs are screwed together rather than glued so I can easily disassemble and rebuild.

I lucked out and have a handy dad (he is an elevator mechanic). Those replacements dewalt battery packs are spendy, more than half the cost of some of their drills. As a result he just buys a new drill when they start to wear out. My first dewalt had like 6 25% battery packs that came with it :)

Personally I suggest a corded hammer drill and a cordless drill without hammer action. This makes the cordless much lighter and it become aa joy working with plasterboard or wood.

I agree... and I keep a corded drill around. But, I also own a cheap cordless drill. Because I know that the thing will only last 5 years because of the battery pack issue, I buy a cheap cordless drill... I got mine at the local "Lowe's" for around forty bucks. I mean, I wouldn't use it for heavy work, but like I said, I have a reasonable corded drill and an extension cord for that. The cordless, though, is great for 90% of the jobs.

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