Corded Drill Recommendations (Update)

1/2 inch millwalkee. Look no further.

I think most any 1/2 inch corded drill in good condition should get the job done.
It does for me….................

-- mike...............

I second milwauke…for a two inch bit with self feed you should get one of their 450 rpm 1/2 heavy duty drill …look on craigs list for an old one…Mine is 27 years old and still works like it did out of the box(been so long since i bought it i don’t remember if it had a box)Ive bored 2 1/8 inch holes in about 20k doors in that time…alot of them with two holes.
The drill picured above in red ryder’ post is ok but if you are drilling 2 inch holes in hard maple you should look for one that has a screw in addition handle.you’ll have more controll

By the way cool bit for the peg end…where do you get them

1/2 inch Milwaukee – no contest.

-- Roger-R, Republic of Texas. "Always look on the Bright Side of Life" - An eyeball to eyeball confrontation with a blind person is as complete waste of Time.

I third that millwalkee.
MIKE

-- See pictures on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/44216106@N07/ And visit my Facebook page - facebook.com/MTEnterprises

I’ve (my crew) burned up a 1/2” Skill, two Porter cables, an old Makita, and a crapsman. Never owned a Ryobi or any power tool from harbor freight. Dewalt is one of my favorite brands too but they were cordless.

My old Milwaukee has never let me down. Same story with all the sawsalls I’ve owned.

Buy the best and you’ll never regret it.

a draw knife? Man, you are a purist like Underwood.

You have to post some pictures of the benches! Love to see them.

-- mark

I have to go with most of the above – I have a 30 year old Milwaukee drill that works like new. I am going to have to replace the dry rotting cord soon. But the drill is good to go.

-- Mike

It’s hard to imagine another make of corded drill holding up like a Milwaukee, though I’m sure there must be one somewhere. But why risk it, go with the red one (or red and black, if that’s the current color combo)..

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

Wow, thanks for the quick and excellent recommendations. I will definitely be looking for a Milwaukee drill. Here are some poor photos that I took with my cell phone of the first bench I made. The wood for the bench is an interesting story. My brother and I were fishing with my nephew on a small stream in Upstate, NY and “nature called” for my brother haha. He walked over to an overgrown area and when he came back he was dragging this board with him. It was approximately 7 feet long and maybe a foot and a half wide with a big crack that was about 2’ long coming from one end in the center of the board. The board was filthy, had pole barn nails sticking out of it and it looked like it had spent its life outside. We could tell that it had washed down the stream during Irene last year. I took it back to my parent’s house who live nearby and eventually I hand planed one entire side with a Stanley #5. I was pretty sure once I exposed the wood that I had poplar due to the purple “streaks” in the wood. I cleaned up the board, removed the nails and cut a bit of the cracked end off (left part of the crack for that distressed look). The one photo shows the tenons before they were trimmed and sanded down. I finished the bench with a dark gel stain and a few coats of poly. The wood was pretty unattractive and I made some rookie mistakes after I had it mostly done (you’ll see the streaks and marks made by an electric planer I didn’t know how to use). I was going to go back over the bench with the Stanley and smooth it out but my father said “Leave it, gives it character.” Haha, I think he just wanted to see it finished. The most enjoyable part of the process was either the hand planing or shaving the ash legs with a draw knife. Those were also the most time consuming :)

As everyone said above, look no further than the 5.5 amp Milwaukee magnum

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Looks like that Milwaukee Magnum will be the drill I ultimately buy. I am going to scour Craigslist and eBay for a deal and if not, I’ll buy one new. Thanks to everyone for giving me clear recommendations. I wish everything was this easy!

That thing is a deal brand new. That jacobs chuck is worth almost as much as they charge for the drill

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I cast another vote for the Milwaukee Magnum Hole Shooter. It is not without faults but longevity is not one of them. I don’t like the trigger. You cannot grip the handle on mine without pulling the trigger…the entire trigger. It is long. Sometimes I need to release the trigger and hold the handle tightly.
Just doesn’t work that way.

It isn’t often you can get this many Lumberjocks to agree on one product, which should tell you something. I am with the rest. For high torque, low speed applications, you absolutely cannot beat the Milwaukee Magnum.

-- "The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." -- Benjamin Franklin

Might be a dumb question but I am assuming I DON’T want a hammer drill? A guy near me is selling a Milwaukee 1/2” magnum hammer drill for 40$...