Flutterby™! : Ouch 2008-04-07 03:15:21.887894+00

Ouch

2008-04-07 03:15:21.887894+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

The Festool C12 cordless drill in the low range gearing has way more torque than my DeWalt wired drill. Enough that when a big bit, like, say, a 1¼" Irwin Speedbore bit, binds unexpectedly, it can really !@#$%^&* up a wrist.

That is all.

How do you like the Festool drill? Can you get two hands on it for bigger bits? I am in the market for a new cordless, having worn out two DeWalts and a Milwaukee. I am really looking for a LiIon because of the weight. Having recently had carpal tunnel surgery, dominant hand strength is a problem. But I wonder if the Festool weight distribution would make up for the NiCad/NiMh?

I love it, however, as you can tell my corded drill was kinda wimpy, and this is my first cordless drill.

This is also the first time I've tried bits that big (that I should have really been using in the drill press to begin with). The C12 has two ranges, usually I use the low range for driving screws and the high range for drilling. On high range with this bit it just beeped, which is its indicator for "I don't have power to generate the torque you're asking for", either low battery or high load, and on low range it ripped the drill out of my hands once the bit bound (I should have set the clutch to something reasonable, which I always do when I'm driving screws).

I haven't found the weight to be an issue, and on battery life, the one time I've found myself switching out batteries was disassembling and re-assembling my bike shed, which involved removing and driving screws almost continuously. The alternate battery was always charged well before I needed it.

Some people complain about the trigger design, and it looked weird to me, but I picked up the drill and it worked fine and I actually had to go back and check to see how I used it when I read someone complaining, because it just worked for me. In fact since I tried the wired drill, I found myself wishing it had something to grip with my forefinger so my middle finger could run the trigger.

There's a rumor that Festool will be doing a LiIon drill soon, you might poke around a bit on that if you're actively looking.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-08 19:01:20.925095+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]

And here's the utility table that I was going to do with through tenons, but after that incident decided to drop back to glue and screws:

Looks a little flimsy. Couldn't you make it out of something less temporary? Like forged stainless steel.

Yeah, I thought about steel, but I wanted something that'd absorb vibration and shock...