DIYers - Drill recommendations

What lightweight drill/driver do people like? I want to use it maybe for diy furniture-vivarium conversions. I am not particularly handy but I can take things apart and put IKEA furniture together.

I would recommend going to Home Depot or Lowes to get a feel for what fits your hands best and what feels right regarding weight and balance. Every brand has a "lite duty" or entry level product that will likey fit your particular needs. Good luck with your DIY projects and remember to always wear safety glasses and gloves(if you have soft hands)

Thanks dieselfan esp. the tip about eye protection. What does “balance” mean?

There is a thrift store that gets great stuff in. I want to figure out how to remove the innards and put in sliding doors.

Lately I have been heavily leaning towards DeWalt tools. They are more pricey than some others, but their reputation for quality can't be beat. I like to think when I am buying a tool, that it will last me the rest of my life. Of course, that probably meant more when I was younger....

Originally Posted by OR Hill

Thanks dieselfan esp. the tip about eye protection. What does “balance” mean?

There is a thrift store that gets great stuff in. I want to figure out how to remove the innards and put in sliding doors.

You can buy the motors and drive/ chucks pretty cheap off amazon and resurrect old drills pretty easily. Most motors are just plug and play once you get the cover off.

How the drill is designed will affect how it feels in different positions while in use. Drilling vertically, horizontally, or at various Angels will all "feel" different depending on where the motor is mounted along with the battery. I am assuming you referring to battery operated drills and not corded power drills.

Rich is correct. Dewalt makes an excellent product. You are going to pay a premium for the name though. I used Dewalt for years and never had any problems. With all that said I must say that I am a huge Makita fan. Team Blue baby!!! You can't wrong with anything from Dewalt, Makita, and Milwaukee. I would say to steer clear of Black and Decker and Porta band.. Hell even Ryobi has some cheaper stuff that you can beat the crap out of and they still work well. Good luck with which ever brand you choose and please post pics of your reptile DIY projects here!!!

Milwaukee all the way! Both their 12 and 18 volt fuel brushless series are amazing. I've recently been using the half inch fuel high torque to work on my car, and I've never been so satisfied with a drill

There was a time when I would go way out of my way to buy Craftsman tools. Not any longer. Matter of fact, not for a real good while. I had power tools from them literally just fall apart on me.

Of course, there is a different way of looking at this sort of stuff. If you can buy 10 Harbor Freight drill for one DeWalt drill, will you be ahead of the game or not if you only go through 5 of the Harbor Freight ones in your lifetime?

I'm not a real big fan of Chinese made stuff, but I got to thinking about this the other day, and there are a lot of what normally used to be very expensive tools now available at very reasonable prices that just would not be within reach, financially, of many people before China started making and marketing them. So warts aside, the cheaper Chinese stuff HAS allowed people to be able to do things that they wouldn't have been able to do otherwise in their home workshop or garage. There was a time when practically no one could afford a full sized milling machine and lathe.

Love my Milwaukee going on 6 years of rough abuse.

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I appreciate the opinions. Especially for use in confined spaces have one comfortable to handle is important.

I bought a Harbor Freight cordless drill on sale for $19.99 about 9 months ago and tbh it works great for light work, it even came with a cordless flashlight too.