http://www.milwaukeetool.com/fuel/features/index.html

The short story is that Milwuakee is going to use a brushless motor in their new M18 drill.  Their site says it will come out in spring of 2012, so we have a little wait.  But here’s to hoping this is a game changer.

This is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen anyone do with a tool.  I highly suggest you do NOT try this at home!

It’s a little late for this, but I thought I should mention that I use a Black Friday site to find the deals that all of the various retailers have.  It’s a good place to check everything in one place instead of having to jump everywhere to find the deals.

This year I’ll keep hoping for a Festool drill in the stocking.  I don’t guess I’ll hold my breath though.  It’s been many years of hoping and still no Festool.

But you never know when there will be a Christmas miracle

If you’re bored it’s probably worth checking it out.

The biggest reason to move up to a 24v cordless drill is for more power.  And you can certainly get more power when you have 24 volts to work with.  And there are certainly cases when you need more power than most 18 volt drills will provide, like drilling through concrete and brick.  But the main reason people use a cordless drill rather than a corded one is the convenience of not being tied to an outlet.  If you need lots of power, people have always went with the corded drill.  It’s no longer convenient to have a cordless drill after it gets over a certain size and 24v drills seemed to always be in that no man’s land of too big to be convenient and not powerful enough for how big they are.

But technology tends to change things.  As we pack more power into batteries, we can go towards less weight and size and more power at the same time.  And that’s what Milwaukee has done with the 0724-24.  It’s a 28 volt drill but it certainly belongs in 24 volt “category.”  It won the 24v cordless drill category at bestcordlessdrill.net.  It has the power to justify being a real hammer drill, but it’s not so big and weighty that you don’t want to carry it around with you.

What’s your opinion?

The battery is, perhaps the most important part of a cordless drill.  When it runs out of juice, the drill won’t work anymore.  The power it can deliver will determine how much power the drill itself has.  When the battery wears out, many times that’s the end of the drill.

For more information on the best cordless drills, including information on drill batteries, at the best cordless drill site.

There are three main types of drill baterries still in use.  There is the NiCD (Nickel Cadmium), NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride), and Li-ion (Lithium Ion).  Those are in the order of oldest to newest.  You probably suspect that means they are in order of worst to best.  That’s not necessarily true, although li-ion is the “hands down” winner.  But NiCD and NiMH are mainly just different.

The advantage of NiCD batteries is that they don’t lose their charge much while sitting on the shelf.  NiMH batteries do, significantly.  In case you’re wondering, li-ion batteries lose very little charge while idle too.  How much do NiMH batteries lose.  About 30% the first month, then 20-25% each month after that.  That means that after 3 months of not using you’re drill the battery is almost dead.  After four months it’s completely dead.

But many people don’t let their drills sit for that long, so it’s not a problem.  Or you could just charge the drill again before you use it.  Besides the drainage problem, NiMH batteries are all-around a little better than NiCD.

What makes li-ion batteries better?  They can run through more duty cycles before wearing out.  They hold more charge per weight.  And they don’t lose much charge when idle.  So why not just li-ion batteries all of the time if they’re better.  For one, they’re more expensive.  NiMH batteries are also more mature technology which has some advantages.

For example, my favorite drill the Panasonic 18 which won the best 18v cordless drill award uses a NiMH battery.  So don’t write them off.