I have a Dewalt 24 volt hammer drill. The word hammer has been used rather loosely in the cordless industry though. The Dewalt has what is called an SDS chuck which doesn't require you to tighten the bit. There is a lever on the side to convert from hammer to regular drilling. With the larger hammer drills like this one, the action is more like a jack hammer than a drill. If you do a search for SDS bits you'll find coal chisels pointed ends and bits you don't want spinning in a circle.
The smaller more typical drill that has hammer settings is more like an impact gun. As you drill in the normal way the bit will vibrate or it feels more like clattering as the bit spins. It helps somewhat in concrete but it drives me crazy in wood. Those that know me will tell you I don't need a drive to go crazy, it's more like a short putt these days. But there is a short description on hammer drills. You mentioned 36 volt tools. I think the price alone is enough to keep most away from that class right now. True you can get a saw that runs the regular 7 1/4 blade, but some circular saws along are going for over $400. That is in the range of a decent sliding compound miter saw. I think I'll keep my generator and run a line if I need to be portable and need more than 18 volts. ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Howell To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 4:34 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Exploring Lithium-Ion Power Tools You know this is rather timely. I have a four piece Milwaukee tool kit that uses 18-volt NICAD batteries. I was checking into what it would cost to get the Lithium-Ion packs and learned that all three battery packs were recalled. Of course switching to the Lithium-Ion was goin to cost me a small chunk, like $250 for two packs and charger from a distributor. Still going to check into this elsewhere. Now what all the babbling means is that I started looking at what an entirely new set of tools would cost me since in the end it would be more economical to purchase new tools if I wanted to go with the Lithium- Ion batteries. I found that Ridgit who is a pretty decent brand, has 24-volt Lithium kits for around $379 which gives you if I remember a hammer drill, drill driver, recip saw, and a flashlight. So, what was attractive with Ridgit is that they provide a life-time waranty on the tools and battery packs. That exceeds even Milwaukee who makes soem fine tools. So, gee, maybe I'll get those new NICAD packs and sell off the Milwaukee on Ebay and get me the Ridgit. See I don't use those tools everyday so I found more time than not my packs would be dead when I did go to use them and I didn't like keeping them on the charger. So for me the Lithium-Ion would actually make sense. I wonder though if there's much difference between 18-volt and 24- volt. Obviously 36-volt woudl be best. Also, one other question, what is the real difference with having a hammer drill and jus a drill driver. The drill driver obviously has a different chuck and isn't suited really for drilling holes do to its speed and torque. I understand that a driver really isn't all that necessary unless your doing a massive aount of screw work, but curious what others think. tnx [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
