Powerful corded drill for serious users

I picked this drill up at Lowe’s for $119 quite some time ago when my wife decided I would build an extensive wooden walkway network out in our yard.

Since such things are going to have to be built out of pressure-treated wood I knew I would need a powerful drill to push 1/2-inch bits through wet lumber. I had already drilled lumber like that for a deck job some years back, and I will say that the 3/4 amp drills I had on hand to do the work were stressed by the project considerably. The Hitachi is a variable-speed, 9-amp drill, and that says “no-nonsense” in drill lingo.

However, the project did not happen, and so the drill just kind of sat there for a year. Fortunately, my wife came up with another project: installing solid-wood doors throughout the house, in place of the tract-home hollow-core versions that had been in place for years. Doing this involved using specialized hole saws to cut spaces for the latching mechanisms, and the 9-amp motor in the Hitachi was just what was needed. I also appreciated the rapid slow-down feature when the trigger is released.

The drill did the job just fine and I recommend this device to anybody who wants a lot of torque and is not afraid of a heavy unit. Just remember to use the auxiliary handle to keep the thing from twisting your arm off if a bit snags.

Howard Ferstler