Hilti is the shit

Festool. It's German.



Where else can you buy a $500 drill?

We used the Milwaukee for small holes maybe 2-4" deep.
But when we needed to run a 500 pair of com wire 3/4" in diameter, or down through 14" of concrete in the ceiling to set up a POS terminal, the Hilti was the only option. Milwaukee wouldn't have made it. We tried, and then bought the Hilti.

When I worked at The Bon Marche, Seattle I went down to supervise a phone install in a a second floor managers back office.
Drilled through the foot thick concrete floor with the Hilti.
Bit was hitting something, kept drilling, still hitting something. Kept pounding it with a drill bit, still hitting something.
Called one of my techs for assistance.
He walked into the back room, and said "go out front, you gotta hear this"
I walked out on the catwalk and heard "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Sounded like a huge gong! (3-4 foot air intake vent)
Shoppers down below were shuddering and exiting the store.

But ya, Hilti is the heavy duty shit allright.

I had the previous version of the B&D you posted that was 12V lithium.

EASILY the best power tool purchase I ever made. I paid $40 with 2 batteries about 8 years ago, and it is STILL kicking... Not the most powerful drill I have, but it's light and I've beat the shit out of it and it still works.

However, I got a Dewalt at auction for $10, cleaned up the brushes, and it works great, I will need to buy new batteries but they're 2/$30 for upgraded ones on Amazon...BUT, it weighs a ton, and unless I'm driving 3" deck screws, the B&D works great....

I say give the B&D a whirl..

I worked at a rock quarry when I was younger. The boss would tell me to take the Big Milwaukee mag drill out to drill holes anytime we needed to bolt something/skirting to the crushers plates/boxes/feeds.

I am good with a torch. But the boss insisted that I use the mag drills. (mag drills are magnetic drill presses that stick to any steel work surface with the flip of a switch for anyone that didnt know)

You had to use a torch first to cherry up the hardox plate so it would soften enough to drill. So I would take the two mag drills just to keep him happy but I would use them for scaffolding to stand on while I torched the holes!

Those mag drills would hold a person on the side of a crusher feed, no problem! Then I would torch the holes and hammer a drift in while still cherry to make them a perfectly round hole.

Boss never knew!

I've used most big brands when I installed Central office equipment and infrastructure. Dewalt, makita, bosch, porter Cable and Milwaukee are all about equal (except the Milwaukee fuel those are a step up). I would stay away from anything cheaper if you plan on using it more then a couple dozen times. I do tend to put my tools to work though.

The only thing i would suggest is looking at the setup for them. I've noticed things like the placement of the light and the weight and size of the battery are the differences. I used a drill where the light was above the front of the battery instead of above the trigger and it was much better since the shadow was much smaller.

I would also get 20v or 12v over 18v and go for lithium batteries since they are much lighter. I have a Milwaukee m12 set i got for around $100 (impact and drill) and it does almost everything i need it to. I've even used it to drill 1/4" ladder rack and aux bar. One of the 12v makita, Milwaukee, or bosch 12v sets would be my recommendation I think 12v is plenty powerful for household use.

Wow, three pages of replies. Thanks for all the input. I just need a household drill for working on converting my 5x8 trailer to a "camper". I alway thought bigger is better (Tim Taylor is my hero), but it looks like the 12v may be big enough. I still might go 20v if I get the circular saw combo though. At most I'll be working with 1/2 inch plywood.

12v is plenty for anything wood. However if you want more than just a drill/impact go 20v. Then you can have drill, impact , circular saw, sawzall, lights, radio and such that use the same batteries.

Dewalt 20v brushless for me. I use Milwaukee 20v tools at work also, and they are fine too. I prefer the Dewalt line better though, especially the multi-tool.

See we keep agreeing sinus might jump in or some shit. Knock it off.

Sinus is always willing to chat about his tool

There also seems to be more DeWalt tools being sold on OfferUp and Craigslist too so that's a plus. Just stay away from used batteries those you need to buy new.

Thieves only steal the good stuff.

I'd say thieves only steal that which they know they can sell. That is why they steal so many Honda parts.

Black and Decker is the Jennings/Cobra/Davis/Bryco of the tool world