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Battery-less Festool drill?

A

Andy Kev.

Nordic Pine
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I'm not too clued up on power tools, hence this question.

I'm thinking of getting a Festool drill (I have one of their sanders and associated vacuum cleaner and am pleased with it when I need it, although it doesn't get too much use).

I would like a drill that can do relatively slow revs for when it is necessary and high revs for normal drilling. I understand that Festool makes variable speed drills. I don't think that I would necessarily gain any advantage from a cordless drill (do they really make that much difference for the non-professional who would never be seen on a building site?) as batteries eventually go kaputt. Therefore two questions:

a. Does Festool still do drills with cables?

b. Which model would you recommend to meet the speed requirements?
 
Just go for the cordless drill, these days they have similar power to a corded drill and they're so much more convenient. Batteries can go kaput, but the amount of work this usually takes is extreme with the Li-Ion batteries and likely an occasional user won't ever have to replace the battery.

If you're dead set on a corded drill, I don't think Festool do them as I've never seen one. I don't think I would buy a new one from most manufacturers as they're likely to be aimed more at the hobbyist market as everyone has gone over to cordless technology now and are investing heavily in that. Buy an old Makita, Metabo, or Bosch, they made excellent corded drills.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am not set against a cordless drill on principle and as the batteries appear to be decent these days, that clearly speaks for a cordless.

Therefore, which model would you recommend, which has a range of speeds?
 
This: https://www.toolstation.com/festool-cxs ... ill/p28048 (May well be cheaper elsewhere).

This 12v drill with snap on chucks is my go to everyday tool. They are super controllable and can easily be made to work at finger rotation speed (ie very slow).

I have corded Makita for timber framing (enough torque to twist your arm off) and heavy duty Milwaukkee Fuel battery drills and impact drivers - but it's horses for courses. The 12v Festool is light, small, batteries last ages, has a built in lamp that you can have on without the drill or driver running (excellent when installing rails in dark kitchen cabinets for example). Highly recommended and flexible tool. Takes about 2 seconds to switch from drill chuck to driver chuck.
 
I know you’ll probably go with a Festool regardless, but here’s my opinion based on a recent purchase. A few weeks ago I treated myself and bought the new generation DeWalt drill and impact driver with two 1.7Ah “PowerStack” batteries and I have been more than impressed with them, the drill is an absolute monster despite being fairly compact, it outperforms my older (2019) DeWalt 796N with a 5Ah, much more power despite the smaller battery, it could drill a 38mm hole using a spade bit into a softwood post with ease whereas the older drill would stall if you pushed too hard. The new impact driver is a marvel too as it’s the smallest I’ve ever used as well as being 18v, being 4” from front to back means it fits into spaces that a typical one would not, it’s a whole 1.5” shorter than my old (also 2019) Dewalt 887 impact driver and the performance is exactly the same between both models, no sacrifice of power or speed. I was skeptical of the 1.7Ah batteries but they last a fair while and output plenty of power, just as much as a 5Ah.

https://ffx.co.uk/product/Get/Dewal...r-Bl-Compact-Combi-Impact-Powerstack-Twin-Kit
 
Looks good Dan.

I've got A DeWalt battery nailer and it's brilliant. Might be 100% wrong here, but I don't think the amp hours of a battery determines the power does it? Just how long it keeps charge.
 
AJB Temple":3mneqf1u said:
Looks good Dan.

I've got A DeWalt battery nailer and it's brilliant. Might be 100% wrong here, but I don't think the amp hours of a battery determines the power does it? Just how long it keeps charge.
Click to expand...

You'll only ever really notice it in extreme situations like the 38mm boring, or trying to drive something like a big lag screw. If you took a regular 5Ah battery and a regular 2Ah battery and did the same you will notice the tool has more of a tendency to stall out on the smaller battery, which from my elementary understanding is that in the 2Ah battery you have five cells and in the 5Ah battery you have ten cells, when you're pushing the tool those five cells have to work twice as hard as the ten cells to output the same current and you lose power and the tool stalls more frequently to prevent overloading of the batteries.

The PowerStack batteries are a fairly new technology in the power tool world as they use pouch cells rather than cylindrical cells, again elementary understanding, I believe they have a lower resistance and a higher surface area for the electric pixies to live and it's much more potent, but interestingly to make a 5Ah battery with pouch cells it ends up being a fair bit larger than the equivalent cylindrical cell battery.
 
Andy Kev.":3g4dnv69 said:
I'm not too clued up on power tools, hence this question.

I'm thinking of getting a Festool drill (I have one of their sanders and associated vacuum cleaner and am pleased with it when I need it, although it doesn't get too much use).

I would like a drill that can do relatively slow revs for when it is necessary and high revs for normal drilling. I understand that Festool makes variable speed drills. I don't think that I would necessarily gain any advantage from a cordless drill (do they really make that much difference for the non-professional who would never be seen on a building site?) as batteries eventually go kaputt. Therefore two questions:

a. Does Festool still do drills with cables?

b. Which model would you recommend to meet the speed requirements?
Click to expand...

Andy, I have the Festool PDC 18/4 Quadrive, which is an 18v battery powered drill. So powerful that you would think it was powered. And it spins up to speeds comparable with a powered drill ...

Festool-PDC-18-4-Quadrive.png


Here is a review: https://www.protoolreviews.com/festool- ... ess-drill/

p.s. I purchased mine used for a third of the new price.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
I've also recently bought the new version of the festool PDC, I can't recommend it highly enough. Lots of control over the speed and torque settings. Metabo also do some great drills, but I'm not sure how available they are in the UK. The professional range aimed at metal workers have some great specs.
I got the festool as a bare unit which came in promotion with an extra battery and extra parts sustained. It was only 40 euros more than the makia equivalent unit, but has far better control.
 
Thank you all very much for the replies.

I had a look at all the recommendations but the review of the PDC 18/4 to which Derek linked was a bit of a clincher. Granted it's not remotely what you could call cheap but it would meet all my domestic as well as woodworking requirements for ever. There's a shop which sells Festool gear about half an hour from me, so I will be able to get down to it and see what one feels like in the hand.

Thanks again.
 
I've got the PDC18/4 , T18+3 and 10.8 volt TXS.
The TXS gets the most use as it's super light and gets in all the small difficult spots.
If you wanted I drill that does most things the PDC is the one, the hammer is noisy but fantastic, it's also heavy.

I also changed my drill bits over to the centrotec system, they are expensive but save so much time.
I use the fisch rather than festool as they are a little cheeper, (from Axminster)
The centrotec masonry bits are excellent.


Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk
 
Ive also got the C15 and C18 - same as the t18 and its predecessor, but with the curved handle. It is my favourite drill. I only bought the PDC because it was on offer with the battery for almost the same as the makita. I needed something with a hammer mode, for general heavy/rough work which is a bit too much for the old C15 (electric clutch is long since dead - again, 10 year old batteries still pretty good). The PDC is heavy, but pretty well weighted and can run a big auger bit reasonably happily.
 
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