Woo hoo! I got to buy some new tools, and since we're all builders here of one sort or another, I thought I'd share my views.
My old reliable Craftsman 3/8" cordless drill is on its last leg. Actually, the drill is doing fine except for some whine from the motor, but the batteries aren't doing well at all. That's to be expected with NiCad batteries that are four years old, especially when they've been used hard like these. So why don't I just replace the batteries? Glad you asked! A pair of batteries is $40. That's not much, but a new drill like this one, *with* two batteries and a charger is only $60, so I couldn't see buying a pair of batteries.
As some of you may know, I'm prone to wandering, and this decision not to buy batteries led me to the obvious conclusion that I needed a new drill. Of course, if i was going to buy a new drill, I wanted one of the new-fangled lithium-ion cordless wonders I've been drooling over.
The Craftsman Nextec 3/8" lithium-ion cordless kit with two batteries and a charger is only $90. I bought it. I took it back. Don't buy it. Enough said.
My next pick was the Milwaukee M12. Spoiler alert: It is flat awesome. It cost $129 and I consider it the best money I've spent in a long time.
Hard to tell from this pic, but this little thing is amazing. More info:
The light is perfectly placed and easily bright enough. The battery indicator is a feature I won't do without again. These lithium-ion batteries will run at full power until they are almost dead and then stop. No gradual power-down like NiCad batteries, so this feature is almost a necessity. For me, in fact, it is a necessity, for reasons I'll get to. (Oooo, suspense!)
A single-sleeve chuck is the only way to go. They're just easier. What's more, this drill comes with a metal chuck! That's hard to find, they're usually plastic. It's got a 24-position clutch if you're into that kind of thing. I'm not judging, what you do with your tools in your own time is your business. I never had a use for them myself, but this one does have a excellent feel to it, the settings are easy to turn but have nice positive stops.
Did I mention this thing's size? I had no idea I was using such a huge heavy uncomfortable tool until I grabbed this thing. Wow, what a difference!
Teeny tiny little battery packs more power than that big 12v NiCad by a good margin, and you can buy a bigger battery pack for it. If you like the big batteries on the bottom of your drill so you can stand it upright, these are for you. They're also supposed to double run-time, but they're pricey. I can lay my drill down, thanks.
Yes, a 30-minute charger that actually charges a battery in 30 minutes. Not only that, but it will detect and alert you to a faulty battery, and if it's too cold (as happens to me with a detached shop with no heat), it will let you know it's too cold and won't start charging it until it warms up. I'm not sure if it actually starts a trickle charge then to warm it up or not, but if the battery can be damaged by charging it cold then this is a good feature.
Ok, so this thing is awesome. We've established that. I managed to make it even better. This M12 is a whole line of tools from Milwaukee that use the same battery packs. I found a matching cordless screwdriver on Ebay for $42.
The driver was tool-only, meaning exactly that: no batteries, no charger, not even any documentation, but it was advertised as brand new and as far as I can tell it is. The RPM is slower than the drill's high speed but faster than it's low, and the torque is somewhere between them also, making it the perfect sidekick to this drill. It's got a 1/4" hex chuck on it that's made to operate with one hand, meaning that you don't have to hold it down (or up) to remove the bit you're using. Just pull the outer sleeve up it stays in place. Pull the bit out, put the new one in and it pops back down automatically. Very nice. The only bad thing I can say about the chuck is that it's made to use the long bits:
And the short ones don't even stay in it. Not to fear, though, just pop in your handy magnetic bit-holder!
Harbor freight has a set of "bits" that fit this style chuck that are made to put sockets on. 1/4" drive, 3/8" drive and even 1/2" drive, all in the same set. Now I can put almost every socket I own on this driver, from 4mm to 1 1/2".
This second tool is why I need the battery indicators (the driver has the indicator and the light also). I keep a battery in both of them all the time, so they are both ready to go and easily at hand. I can check the battery condition on either any time and drop a low battery in the charger. That's another advantage of lithium-ion batteries: they don't develop a "memory" like NiCad's do so you can charge them any time, at any level of current charge.
Together these two tools cost me just under $175. With the versatility, comfort and power they provide, they're worth twice that. If you need either of these tools, these are the ones to get!