Great heavy-duty corded drill

(pic from the Milwaukee tools website)
As I continue my home improvement adventures and transition into woodworking as well, it seems logical to try to share as much info as possible. So this review I guess is my official end to lurking and beginning of contributing to the community.

My motivation for buying this drill was that I burned out my old Dewalt 3/8” drill trying to mix some thinset for tiling. The Dewalt drill was great, but clearly not geared for this kind of work. So its replacement had to be plenty powerful and able to handle mixing mortar, grout, etc. I’m not too worried about driving screws and such, that’s what the cordless tools are for. This is for power. Purchased for $89.99 on sale from the orange big box store, which was the same price as the comparable Dewalts, Ridgids, etc that I looked at. I bought it because it advertised the biggest amperage (8.0) and RPM range (0-800) that I saw.

In use, it’s done everything I’ve asked of it so far, including a 5 gallon bucket full of mortar and drilling a 2 1/2” hole in an old door like it’s balsa. The keyed chuck holds very well, and closes tightly (not that I ever see myself using a super small drill bit in this drill, but still nice to see). For the applications I’m planning for this drill, I like the added holding power of the keyed chuck. The chuck key attaches nicely to the rubber cord, which is handy. I do wish the cord were a bit longer, I think it’s 8’ right now. No case, but as luck would have it my now empty DeWalt case holds this perfectly with plenty of room for the removable handle.

All in all this is a nice powerful drill that’s doing a great job in my tool kit.

-- Steve -- Cleveland area, Ohio