In The Workshop - New Cordless Drill

[Phog Allen]

Gents, this maybe should have went in the score forums but since it is not shave related I posted here.

Today I was mucking around over at Toolguyd.com (btw, a great tool blog that is updated daily) and they pointed an Amazon deal of the day for a 12 volt Bosch cordless drill. Not only their neat little 12 volt model but the brushless version. This normally runs around 14-160 dollars depending upon vendor and day of the week. Amazon had it for $84.99! And Prime members got one day shipping for free. Could.Not.Resist.

These little 12 volt class cordless drills and impacts punch way above their weight class. For day to day tasks their lightweight, power to weight ratio, and compactness is hard to beat. The natural competitor to the Bosch is the Milwaukee M12 and it is a fine piece of kit no doubt. It has a much larger ecosystem of tools as well. At least in the States. But Bosch is no slouch here either and the grip fits me to perfection. And these new models are around six inches long and weigh around 1.6lbs with battery!

 

[Lightcs1776]

That's a great deal on a very nice tool. And you simply can't have too many tools in the workshop.

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

[MrLara]

That's a nice deal.

 

[Phog Allen]

Indeed, I am a bit jazzed to get it in today and see how it works. I have never owned a brushless model before but a few of the guys had them at work as their older models were replaced. I still had the brushed version of a Hilti 18v model and it worked well but you could tell the brush area needed serious cleaning and the commutator was getting pitted. It threw a few sparks from time to time. With no brushes this wear and heat point is gone. And here is somemof the neat stuff Bosch makes in this format. All images belong to Bosch and were linked from their pages. The first one is called FlexIClick and does not come in the brushless version, yet. And the oscillating tool seems to only available in the States.

 

[Phog Allen]

Oh, wanted to add. I noted at Bosch's worldwide pro tool users site they started consolidating the 10.8 and 12 volt lineup of tools with common names and voltage identifiers in 2017. The 10.8 designations have been replaced. There are loads of tools still out there with both voltages on them. In reality they are the same thing. 10.8 is the voltage of three lithium ion cells in a typical state of average charge. Li-Io cells are usually listed as 3.6 volts per cell. So if you add them up, 10.8 volts. However, like most batteries, when you first charge them they run a bit more or about 4.0 or 4.1 volts per cell or 12 volts. It confused people a bit since the 10.8 was used in Europe, UK and India but 12 was used in the States. Both batteries and tools are compatible and so are the chargers. The latter provided your mains voltage matches the requirements of the charger itself. Though most nations do not share physical cord plug layouts, one would not want to plug a 120v charger unit into a 240 volt mains receptacle. Not unless you want to see the magic smoke appear.