wrote:

Mains has the advantages over battery:
much cheaper

yup

much more power

Not always, a good 18V cordless will develop the same sort of power as a
small mains drill. Power however in many cases is a bit like oxygen, you
only need "enough" for the task.

much more speed

True of the smaller cordless drills, but decent cordless drills will
often run around 1500 rpm. A Mains SDS will normally do upto 1100, a
conventional gearbox mains drill will max out at 2500 - 3000. For most
materials 1500 is more than adequate. The exception is when hammer
drilling in which case the extra speed of the mains drill gets more
blows per min, which makes better use fo the (feeble) hammer action.

much longer tool life expectancy

Not convinced... the batteries will need replacing from time to time,
but the drill should last equally well.

But the downside is that for scrweing, they work, in fact they work
better, but are crude to handle, with poor speed control, no instant
stop and no torque control.

You seem to demolish the "work better" claim by explaining all the
reasons they are not so good for screwing.

If I were buying just one tool, it would definitely be a mains drill
with speed control.

Depends on what you are doing I suppose. If I were putting up shelves
then yes, if I were refitting a kitchen then I would rather have the
cordless.

And dont buy B&D drill bits.

agreed!

(or any 120 drill bits for only 10 quid offers you see)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/