John Rumm wrote:
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.
Pound for pound the mains drill wins hands down
yes the biggest cordlesses can outperform the smallest mains
Usenet, the home of pedantry.
Power however in many cases is a bit like oxygen, you
only need "enough" for the task.
I think you need enough for every task youll ever do with it. Codlesses
are often inadequate, especially the cheaper ones.
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.
so pound for pound much more speed.
much longer tool life expectancy
Not convinced... the batteries will need replacing from time to time,
but the drill should last equally well.
precisely, the batteries go. I've used too much rechargeable based kit
in the past to want to go back to it when not necessary.
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.
no, pointing out they do have downsides, and that all in all the cheap
mains drill is a much better tool than a cheap codless.
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)
I always thought of B&D kit as adequate, if not great, but buying a
megapack of their drill bits really lifted that illusion from my eyes.
A =A31 set of bits from teh cheapshop left them for dust. A bit that
cant even make a hole in soft pine is a joke.
Codlessness is something you pay extra for and compromise for: only go
codless if you specifically need codlessness.
NT