Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction advise for buying a cordless hammer drill

All you handymen and women...I want to purchase a cordless hammer drill. I am building a cabin by the lake and seem to be doing more and more wood projects. I am currently using a 14 volt dewalt drill but for a lot of 3-4 inch screws I believe I want a hammer drill. Any suggestions for a good one? I have never used one but it should be stronger and faster than my present drill. Any advise?

Oh I am so jumping in on this....As I've stated before, I am a huge Milwaukee fan. Well it just so happens that earlier this week I took delivery of Milwaukee combo kit part #2897-22. Two tools, both utilizing the new 18 volt "Fuel" system. 5.0 ah lithium batteries, (2), a charger, a 1/2" hammer drill (part #2704-20 by itself), and an impact driver (part #2753-20).

The drill features 1200 in. lbs of torque, and the impact driver twists out 1800 in lbs. I've used them both, and they are over the top. Absolutely amazing performance, all wrapped up in a small, lightweight package. Check em' out.

I won't recommend a brand or model but FWIW I would recommend selecting one with a brushless motor. Much lighter, plenty of power and a lot longer battery life.

Edit: Dang! I see Sparkie types faster than me. I bet $3 the one he is recommending is brushless.

Oh yeah....

https://youtu.be/x2vRAcOBquw

Sweet!

Edit: When you get tired of it you know my address!

I would not use a hammer drill on hammer function for screws. It will break too many or ruin the heads.

I don't know about a hammer drill but I'm a big fan of the bluegreen Makita screwgun drills. Had one for 25 years before it bit the dust using a dull hole saw over and over again. Couldn't get the damn hole saw out of the chuck and used a vise. Stripped something out. I was told it was too old to fix.

My dad who is aways trying to cut corners on equipment and ends up regretting it, bought a cheap Black & Decker while in Florida that only has one speed and the batteries seem to not last long and take hours to recharge competely. The thing is irritating to work with if need a second drill. I like to use one drill as a driver and another to drill the pilot holes. Cedar driftwood is some hard stuff!

Recently used some hex head (I think that's what they were) that came with the bit on a treated deck. Sweet!

Even better was the bits that remove a plug on the pastic decking we put in the spa room and when you pop a plug in it's pretty much invisible. Haven't tried it yet but my contractor used them.

I second the motion to get brushless. The impacts are handy too. I have heard good things about the fuel, but all mine are dewalt

Whatever you decide on, it is a LOT more convenient to keep all your cordless tools the same manufacturer and the same voltage. That way you only have to have one type of battery.

I don't know if it's called a hammer drill or an impact driver, but I have a Makita that was given to me and it's worked flawlessly for a number of years. I use both square drive and torx screws, the only ones that I've broken were when I tried to drive one through a knot in the wood without pre-drilling a hole.

The Makita that I have does not have a conventional drill chuck, it only accepts 1/4" shank driver type bits.

Esshup you likely have an impact driver. We use the heck out of those tools for not only wood work with screws and such, but with quarter and 3/8 socket adapters in our service trucks and the shop. They use horizontal impacts to drive or loosen things.

An impact drill uses a vertical impact to drive masonary bits much easier than a regular drill. I have one that I rarely use but it is absolutely wonderful if you need to drill concrete. The smaller ones usually have a regular drill chuck but will have either a drill setting or impact setting. They also usually have an adjustable depth stop on the side of the drill since most drilling concrete involves drilling to a certain depth (like for Tapcon screws) rather than through something.

Ryobi is one of the cheaper brands that we have got very good service out of. If I were owning it myself and only had one set I might choose something different, but we have probably 50 different cordless tools for numerous service trucks, shop as well as my own personal tools. So for the reason you say about battery compatibility the Ryobi cost per tool does not break the bank and like I said, have given us very good service. They do make both an impact driver as well as driver drill.

I owned a 12v Makita impact driver for years. Great tool. Gave it to my son and I think he still uses it. Makita is also good stuff. Have angle grinders and chop saws Makita. Had the old style Makita drills till the batteries started costing more than the tool was worth.

Impact hammer drills are a must have if a person is going to be using Tapcon concrete screws to attach sidewalls to concrete foundations as opposed to using foundation bolts in the concrete.

If you are driving screws, you want an impact driver. If you are drilling concrete, you want an impact drill or otherwise called a hammer drill. Two different beasts. Will try to post a link if I can get it done with this Tab.

Here is a kit with both. The individual descriptions for each tool will explain the difference.

Edit: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt...-P898/205308754

Home Depot is where this particular brand is sold and they always have sales pre-Christmas. Other brands may be better but the Ryobi has held up well for us and the cost is reasonable to own. Their 6 piece ultimate combo is very reasonable. I've given away 14 of those combo sets as Christmas presents in previous years to employees and relatives. Great to have around the house.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-ONE-18-..._-203466936-_-N


If you are going to do any serious work with them, you want the big batteries. We catch them on sale when they are 2 for the price of one and stock up.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt..._-204321540-_-N

An FYI on this particular brand. Company rep I met at a HD store was checking stock and we visited for a while. Same company owns Rigid brand and Ryobi. He said Rigid is their premium brand and that Ryobi gets the Rigid brand technology two to three years behind Rigid's latest and greatest. I have bought so much Ryobi stuff from the store he sent me a box full of T-shirts, hats and goodies for me and employees.

Well we run about 250-500 2.5" screws a day in our shop. We run the dewalt 18v impact drivers with the XR battery's.

We have not had any luck with any lithium ion drills yet. They all cant keep up with the constant discharge and recharge is not fast enough.

With the impact.
#8 screws can break in hard woods but rare to see in Pine and spruce. #10s will never break for us with one part pre drilled.

Would be interested in trying a burshless lithium ion and would give a very good review. We wear out one screw gun each year and find the dewalt 18v to be our best shop gun.

Cheers Don.

I have a couple of both Milwaukee and Dewalt, and like them both. (18V)

If someone stole my Dewalt's, I don't think I would be too upset.

Someone did steal one of my Milwaukee grinders tho, and talk about someone coming unglued!! That's like stealing one of my Bessey clamps - Let's hang that sucker!

From the ones I have, Milwaukee is a much better overall tool, but Dewalt it is quite decent.

Used the Milwaukee impact driver again today, still very impressed. Was sinking 3/8" x 3.5" lag screws into native lumber, started out with pilot holes but didn't take long before it became simpler and quicker to forego the drill bit and just twist em' in for fun. Hard to believe they can get 1800 in lbs in such a small package. The lumber is so hard you struggle to drive a 16 penny in without bending, but the impact driver never struggled.

If you have not already tried them sprkplug, try SPAX screws. I have trouble twisting off regular old #2 lag screws. SPAX are expensive per screw, but oh my how well they work. Made of hardened steel with a thin shank and no pre-drilling.

Make them from small sizes all the way up to not sure how big. 8" long at least. Good for attaching timbers to dock posts, etc.

Edit: picture worth a thousand words http://www.spax.us/

Found some 600mm long for timbers

Snrub,
I have a post and beam barn that was built in 1885 that I have been trying to update a little.Several of the cross beams are too low to drive tractors under so I have removed the beams and installed headers made out of yellow pine.The spax screws work great! The screws do not split the yellow pine and they drive into the native timbers with ease. I have been able to find the spax screws at Menards. They are kind of pricey but work great with an impact driver when I am trying to anchor a 14ft 2" by 10" over my head by myself. I am presently using a Dewalt 18 volt impact driver which works great even after getting dropped off of a 10ft ladder on to concrete a few times.

I don't put much faith in brand names on hammer drills. I have a set of inexpensive Ryobi drills, one is a impact driver, I've used for several years. They are the 18v versions. This last summer I built a dock on my pond, used them under water for several operations, no worse for wear and still running strong.

I did have one of my 18v Lithium battery packs quit on me this year, I have three. The pack was 5 or 6 years old. Oddly the other two packs work as new and I have them numbered to make sure they all get even use. The impact driver didn't work great under water as the clutch would slip due to water lubrication. After it dried out though, it works as new under normal operation.

I imagine that any of the impact drivers would have worked just as well under water though, and still be kicking now.

Oh that yellow pine. When out dollar was way up I bought a truck load of southern yellow pine for my stair company...... what a mistake. The screws liked to follow the softer part of the grain and not run straight through the 2X10. Not just having to pre drill because of the screws following the grain but it doubled the weight of the stairs. Our installation crew had a small party the day the last stair was built with that crap.

Wow. I was always afraid of dropping my tools in the water. Never even imagined using them under water. I fell back to a hand drill, ratchet and socket to do the driving I needed to do under water.

Don't think I am going to try mine under water, but nice to know they are still working.

We are still using several of the old blue Ryobi impact drivers and drills that originally came with Ni-cad batteries, although all the ni-cads have given up the ghost and all we use are the Lithium. I think one of the blue drills had a chuck go bad and they can be bought so cheap in the sets when they are on sale never bothered repairing it. Some of them are getting a lot of years on them. But the majority of the tools we have are the newer green Ryobi's.

We have air piped all over the shop and still use air for the 1" and 3/4" impacts but most of the smaller stuff is now done with the half inch drive Ryobi impact wrench (a great tool to have if you mechanic any) or 3/8" bolts and lower the quarter inch impact drivers (like used for screws) with socket adapter. If it is lots of use (or something stuck really tight) they will still hook up the air impacts but nine times out of ten the mechanics will just pick up the rechargeables. We mostly use the big batteries, but still have the smaller batteries around that came with the sets. They get flashlight use mostly.