Power Tools & General Tools Recommendations & Advice

As above. But...

You should avoid building furniture with a drill, especially if it’s made using chipboard/MDF just asking for trouble. One slip with the trigger and the whole thing will be ruined. They are design to be build using manual screwdrivers, I’d recommend sticking to them. That said getting a good drill is essential for other jobs.
 
Hey everyone, Looking for recommendations for a drill and lawnmower. Moving into our first house that will have a garden and my other half is wanting to get quite a lot of new furniture a long the way. I am now refusing to build furniture with screwdrivers. Know nothing about lawn mowers or drills TBH know Makita are good and used a few in my time but its not going to get heavy use so thinking something cheaper might be better for now. Looking to Pay under £100 each if possible.

I have a Champion lawn mower. Always worked and cost about £100. I tend to go for petrol mowers, very handy if you've neglected to mow for a while and the grass is long and wet, just cuts straight through it.

As for drills, cordless I've found DeWalt to be really good. If you not fussed with have a cable you'll get a drill cheaper but I prefer the portability of battery powered. I got a good deal on a DeWalt 18V drill & impact driver, costs a bit up front but well worth the outlay.
 
As above. But...

You should avoid building furniture with a drill, especially if it’s made using chipboard/MDF just asking for trouble. One slip with the trigger and the whole thing will be ruined. They are design to be build using manual screwdrivers, I’d recommend sticking to them. That said getting a good drill is essential for other jobs.

I've found as long as you use a light touch at the lowest settings, and no hammer action or impact drivers, it'll be fine. I'm more likely to chew up the heads of a screw with a manual than a drill/driver because you're always having to take the pressure off and relocate the head of the screwdriver into the screw as you turn your hand. You'd be there all day if you had to screw in a hundred screws by hand. With a driver, you just locate the head once, put some pressure on and drive the screw straight in at one go.
 
I have a small 10v Milwaukee non impact driver and it’s perfect for assembling furniture. It has about 12 torque settings and needs setting 5-7 to get screws in chipboard tight, then I just finish by hand to get them to the right tightness.
 
To add a bit of balance, I thought the erbauer impact bits were awful and disintegrated quite quickly with my impact driver.

I found Milwaukee Shockwave impact bits good. I prefer 50mm bits

https://www.screwfix.com/search?search=Shockwave

Note the difference between impact and screwdriver bits.

Its good to see balanced reviews, used my erbauer impact bits yesterday happily driving 6 inch frame fixings all day with no dramas, I've also been surprised by their multitool blades.
Milwaukee shockwave bits are great too and well priced if you can catch them on deals.

Yup but at least you only have to buy them once and when you do need them, they don't destroy the screw heads which no doubts saves another trip out to get a replacement bit and screw!

I've had expensive kit fail on me with a couple of uses and I've got cheap kit that's still going after years of abuse, you can never tell! my 4 inch Aldi grinder is now about 15 years old and has been abused/dropped/cut everything I've thrown at it and refuses to stop working.
 
I have loads of erbauer multi tool blades and they are on par with my dewalt ones.

Not tried erbauer impact driver bits but bought a pack of (20?) dewalt PZ2 impact driver bits that came with a bit holder. They seem to be lasting very well, only worn out 2 so far and I bought them a few years ago.
 
I have loads of erbauer multi tool blades and they are on par with my dewalt ones.

Not tried erbauer impact driver bits but bought a pack of (20?) dewalt PZ2 impact driver bits that came with a bit holder. They seem to be lasting very well, only worn out 2 so far and I bought them a few years ago.

Just bought an Erbauer grinder to cut some granite setts, I have got a diamond disk as I think it's going to need it!
 
Its good to see balanced reviews, used my erbauer impact bits yesterday happily driving 6 inch frame fixings all day with no dramas, I've also been surprised by their multitool blades.
Milwaukee shockwave bits are great too and well priced if you can catch them on deals.

I would have no issue using erbauer consumables... I'd normally go for mid range.

So far, based on my experiences, I'd pay more for metal and masonry drill bits and impact bits.

YMMV depending on use case and experience. E.g. if your house bricks aren't tough, or you're drilling aluminium, you will probably be fine with erbauer masonry bits.
 
Just bought an Erbauer grinder to cut some granite setts, I have got a diamond disk as I think it's going to need it!

Just been looking for a tile/porcelin cutter blade for cutting bathroom tiles in situ. 4.5" (115mm) diamond blades for this purpose seem to be almost impossible to find click & collect locally before today. Ordered to collect tomorrow.
 
I'm trying to decide on a Dewalt cordless or Makita but I can't make a final decision. I've had an old Bosch drill which has just given up the ghost because I've given it a hard time. I like the idea of the Makita kit all using the same batteries and rarely changing batter design but I work (indirectly) within the construction sector and I see a lot of Dewalt kit on site which I assume is for good reason.

Potentially looking at this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-d...i-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-combi-drill/979hf

or

https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dhp482z-18v-li-ion-lxt-cordless-combi-drill-bare/3180p (and I'll pick up a battery)

Any recommendations?
 
I'm trying to decide on a Dewalt cordless or Makita but I can't make a final decision. I've had an old Bosch drill which has just given up the ghost because I've given it a hard time. I like the idea of the Makita kit all using the same batteries and rarely changing batter design but I work (indirectly) within the construction sector and I see a lot of Dewalt kit on site which I assume is for good reason.

Potentially looking at this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-d...i-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-combi-drill/979hf

or

https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dhp482z-18v-li-ion-lxt-cordless-combi-drill-bare/3180p (and I'll pick up a battery)

Any recommendations?

Whichever takes your fancy, both brands are pretty equal and their range of tools are almost identica, I had Makita Ni-cad tools and replaced with Dewalt Li-lon when the batteries were knackered.
 
I think I've got the dewalt one you linked but with smaller batteries. I have 2 2amp batteries. The drill is really good compared to my older cordless, the battery indicator is handy and the charge doesnt take long. I've used it for drilling into the window mantel so brick then metal and it was fine . I'm not sure I'd want the bigger batterys unless you're onsite all day as they'll be heavy after a while compared to the smaller ones
I've also used makita drills before and had no issues, I have the smaller powered ones for little jobs, i got 3 batteries at the time and over about 5 years or so one battery has given up
 
After around 15 years of using keyless chucks I only just learned last week that you tighten them up as far as you can then you actually turn it back a notch to lock it.

Never knew this either, tried if on my drill yesterday and as you say there's a very noticable click.
 
After around 15 years of using keyless chucks I only just learned last week that you tighten them up as far as you can then you actually turn it back a notch to lock it.

I had to go and try this out, my flabber be gasted !!
 
As if this is what you needed to do, I never realised I even went on youtube to see if anyone one has posted anything about this and this video came up
seems there are two types of keyless chuck around.
 
My keyless kept coming lose so I changed them for keyed chucks - Still got one drill with keyless and will give it a go.

ps - mine do not ratchet so assume non locking.

pps Spoke to soon - just tried my Stanley Fat Max drill and tightening it up by turning chuck. it gets to a tight point then clicks - I can then turn it back and it clicks - it didn't have the ratchet sound like the drill in the video on link above so tomorrow I will go out into garage and try it.
Interesting !
 
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After around 15 years of using keyless chucks I only just learned last week that you tighten them up as far as you can then you actually turn it back a notch to lock it.

Well I'm gobsmacked:eek:, I bet its in the instructions but real men don't read them :rolleyes:
 
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