Thread: Best Drill/Driver for Joinery/Cabinetmaking

Originally Posted by Ratbag

Everybody seems to have their particular favourites, which I'm sure only adds to your confusion in selecting a particular brand.

However, you've specified "commercial kitchen fabrication" as your intended use, which I believe precludes many of the suggestions previously made.

Having used cordless drills, both my own and borrowed from colleagues, and having noted the use of still others doing just as you specify over some 30 years, here's my take on the matter....

(a) Most drill makes are remarkably similar, and offer similar features and capacities.

(b) Almost all fabricators and installers have BOTH a drill and rattler. The former used exclusively for drilling, and the latter for driving screws. This is the tools' intended purpose, and while a drill can drive, and a rattler, for example, drill with a spade bit, their respective performance is compromised by not being used as intended.

(c) Almost all kitchen installers use 18v tools, and the majority of fabricators use 10.8v tools. The larger tools are all about power and versatility, the smaller about compactness and convenience. The advantage of 18v tools is their speed and power, which often makes them useless at delicate work, such as fabrication. I've destroyed innumerable fixings, and damaged the occasional fitting, by being just a shade too trigger-happy with a rattler.

(d) I'm frequently cursing the large size of my 18v tools when they won't fit into confined spaces.

(e) 90% of larger cordless tools on the commercial sites where I work are Makita, with Hilti & Hitachi-Koki making up the remainder. Makita must be doing something right!

(f) 10.8v tools I've seen are evenly split between Bosch & Makita, with opinions divided on which is best. You rarely see other brands used.

(g) Other manufacturers, however, are coming late to the market with superior featured tools.

(h) Most offer only a 12 month warranty. Others have a 36 month warranty, tool only, thus excluding the batteries, which @ only 1.3-1.5 ah., are not very long lived. Makita & Hitachi-Koki: 12 months
Bosch, Milwaukee, Festo & DeWalt: 36 months, tool only
Metabo: 36 months on tool, batteries, chucks, the lot!

(i) Makita & Hitachi-Koki are much cheaper, Metabo & Festool the dearest. I wonder why?

(j) Makita, Milwaukee & Bosch have slimline "handle batteries", whereas Festool, DeWalt & Hitachi-Koki have the more normal "below handle batteries" of their larger siblings. Slimline handles make the tool pocketable, and more compact for tight locations. Traditional styles are less compact, but much more natural feeling and balanced in the hand, and can be set down and picked up much more easily , sitting on their batteries & not lying in the dust on their side! A guaranteed way to shorten the life of any drill.

(k) Festool & Metabo have absolutely fabulous clip-on angle chuck attachments for getting into otherwise inaccessible corners, with Metabo's being quicker, easier and more versatile.

(l) Festool don't make a rattler.

(m) There's an increasing number of additional useful tools being offered as part of manufacturer's 10.8v systems: Sabre Saws, LED Lamps & Torches, Circular Saws and Vacs. I'm only guessing, but I believe the latter two can be dismissed as mere toys, and as useless as the rest are useful! Bosch & DeWalt also have Thermal Imaging & Remote Sensing Video cameras, useless to all but Engineers & Electricians.

DeWalt, unlike all the others, offer a multi-chemistry multi-voltage charger, allowing ALL batteries from ALL tools to be charged without carrying a ute load of chargers around. This, to me, is the single best selling point of any of these tools. If I had my time over, and hadn't already invested thousands in Bosch, I'd be choosing DeWalt.

However, I'm a commercial & industrial sparky, and you're a cabinetmaker, with entirely different priorities. You really need to talk to your colleagues to find out your own particular needs and preferences. You also probably need to ignore almost all of the (well intentioned) advice offered here, including my own!

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That wasn't write by some ratbag;
it was very well written, thank you.
Cheers, Crowie