Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Dewalt). This thread is read-only.
Hi – this is my first post.
It’s time to replace my 14-year old deWalt cordless drill and I’m deciding between corded and cordless. An important decider for me is how comfortable the drill feels in my hand.
I hoisted a cordless deWalt with an 18 volt battery, and it wasn’t too bad. I thought a corded drill would be lighter, since there’s no battery to lug around, but I was in for a surprise. The corded deWalt I held had a pistol grip, so most of the weight was in front of my hand, rather than on top of my hand. That made it harder to keep the drill level and it was not comfortable.
Am I misunderstanding something here? Like, is a corded drill supposed to be used with both hands? I learned that you should keep your hand well back of the chuck when drilling. And with both hands supporting the drill, I can’t push on it from behind when additional pressure is needed.
Pistol grip you’re describing is generally used only in high torque models and tasks. Hammer drills always come with them, and while I can’t recall for sure I believe the non hammer drill varieties of premium drill drivers also come with forward handles, for their torque as well. Depending on your needs and expected usage, you can get plenty of more ergonomic, light weight, single handled or otherwise drills. Forward handle on the big premiums is also removable. I personally have my dcd996 for capability such as for auger bits and bigger hole saws, but much more often I’m using my compact dcd791or my makita subcompact drill/driver. Also to consider, the non hammer drill models are almost always shorter than the hammer drill versions. I say almost always, because I believe the gen 3 fuel claims to have the same dimensions for both the drill/driver and the hammer drill/driver. Hope some of that helps[emoji106]Hometooled wrote:
Hi – this is my first post.
It’s time to replace my 14-year old deWalt cordless drill and I’m deciding between corded and cordless. An important decider for me is how comfortable the drill feels in my hand.
I hoisted a cordless deWalt with an 18 volt battery, and it wasn’t too bad. I thought a corded drill would be lighter, since there’s no battery to lug around, but I was in for a surprise. The corded deWalt I held had a pistol grip, so most of the weight was in front of my hand, rather than on top of my hand. That made it harder to keep the drill level and it was not comfortable.
Am I misunderstanding something here? Like, is a corded drill supposed to be used with both hands? I learned that you should keep your hand well back of the chuck when drilling. And with both hands supporting the drill, I can’t push on it from behind when additional pressure is needed.
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Thanks for your help. Looking back at the deWalt website I can see that almost all their corded drills have a forward handle. The one I held did not, but perhaps the forward handle was removed.
The one I held looked very much like DWD112. Even in that picture it looks like most of the weight is forward of where your hand goes. Maybe that model is not designed to be aimed parallel to the floor – the other pictures of the drill being used have the drill pointed down.
When you say 18 volt do you mean ni cd stick pack 18 volt or lithium ion slide pack 18 volt (20 volt max in North America)?
It was a lithium ion 18 volt battery – don’t know if slide pack or not.
Hometooled wrote:
On 4/14/2019 at 1:39 PM, Hometooled said:It was a lithium ion 18 volt battery – don’t know if slide pack or not.
did it look like picture 1 or picture 2? 
