This will be my first such purchase, I’ll use it for furniture assembly and the occasional picture hanging. Something which feels nice in the hand as has a decent battery life would be nice.

So far I’ve been advised to get Makita, De Walt or Bosch, does anyone have any other ideas or experiences.

I’ve got my eye on this De Walt.
Cheers

I’d go for one of the 10.8v type things. Much easier to handle and up to drilling the odd hole.

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=172778

Am I right in thinking that the multi-position tools are a bit cack? I get the feeling that the fewer moving parts there are the better.

If its for occasional light DIY, I’d get whatever bargain Homebase / B&Q have in their sales. I got a very nice (non professional) Bosch Drill driver with two 18v Li-ion batteries for £90 last year – very impressed so far with it. If you’re in the trade then DeWalt / Makita etc will last longer but cost a small fortune eg £100 per body, £80-£120 per battery, etc.

If you can live with the pink this a great lightweight drill driver at a great price

makita on amazon

If you ‘need’ to have it in proper Makita blue then its another £25 (still good at that price)

Thanks for the responses, I’m going to nip to Home Depot (in the US) and see what’s on offer.

In that case I won’t recommend the ones in Lidl/ Aldi at the moment, fine value at £40.

Am I right in thinking that the multi-position tools are a bit cack? I get the feeling that the fewer moving parts there are the better.

yeap- keep it simple, those little 10.8v makitas are ace though – AEG and Bosch make very similar one- make sure you get one with a proper chuck though – some of the Bosch ones just have a bit holder which limits their usefulness for drilling (and the special drill bits for them are pricy). Really, the market for drill drivers is so competitive so long as you spend your money on something simple rather than on gimmicks you won’t get anything that won’t function well for your money. Where its worth spending more money is if you will use a driver for hours each day, then the qualities of the build, the battery and the charger matter, but for occasional home use (its reckoned the vast majority of the 20 million drill drivers in the UK have a working life of 12 minutes use) you can’t buy a bad drill driver.

its reckoned the vast majority of the 20 million drill drivers in the UK have a working life of 12 minutes use

Woo! Just call me “Mr Above Average Drill Use”

Bought one hte other day. Logged onto Which, went down the top ten till I got to a price point that seemed reasonable, but score only a couple of % off the top ones, bought that.

Bosch 14v, Lion Battery (ROOAAARRRGH!!) £89 from Argos, with linked half price offer for a drill bit set. Did the trick brilliantly for putting up a security shed in the garden. 100 odd self tapping metal screws.

Double bonus was the little LED that lights up the work/bit in dark corners. I was very glad of that.

I retrospect, I’d have started looking earlier, trawled a few shops, for special offers. There are some good ones out there. Dyas atm.

The little light’s great though! 😀

After much deliberation I plumped for this, 12v, feels really comfortable, solid and evenly weighted and comes with a nice box, NRA style holster, little led light and 2 li-ion batteries all for circa 60 quid.

I’ll try to pick up a set of bits on amazon/ebay.

Thanks for all the advice, time to get drilling.

Nice!

What’s the current ratio of time spent drilling to time spent practising quick-draws in front of the mirror?

1:20 😈

I’ll try to pick up a set of bits on amazon/ebay.

Why didn’t you buy them when you bought the drill – or aren’t you needing it yet?

Where did you get the Makita from? HD a quick look on my phone and they’re nearer £140!

bash – I got it here in Queens, NY.

HD a quick look on my phone and they’re nearer £140!

They are generally sold as a pair (driver and drill) over here for around £140. For some reason the single items are almost the same price.

It comes with a 2x phillips bits, I can get the Makita set on Amazon for half the price of HD.

Bugger, Cheers anyway! Don’t really need an impact driver too.

Don’t really need an impact driver too.

Most people think that before they own one 🙂

The makita drill/driver I linked to above is a good price for a single unit (if you can live with the colour)

Ive just bought the little 10.8v makita set (impact/drill driver and radio) 12v in usa, good little set to go with my 18v makita liion combi, 140 for all 3 bargin!!!!