How much cordless drill do you need for drywall?

 Issue 1

Harbor Freighr had a number of cordless drills that were inexpensive,
but I noticed many had no amp rating listed on the box. Even though
they were 18 and 19 v, the drill bodies seemed small, which I assume
in indicative of a small, low powered motor and the fact that the amps
aren't listed anywhere on the drill or the owners manual probably
isn't an accident.

Since I was in a hurry I picked up a corded 4.2 amp Chicago electric
drywall screwdriver - I'm guessing a Harbor Freight store brand? - by
its shape it loos to have a reduction gear assembly for increasing
torque.

Out of curiosity, how much cordless drill do you feel is enough to do
drywall? Not going to be doing it daily/commercially, at the moment
have a couple of walls that need drywalling. I built a sound booth out
of 2x4's, drywall and R-13 insulation using a B&D 4.5 amp 1350 RPM
corded drill I got at a pawn shop and got a drywall attachment from
Home Depot. Seemed to have more than enough power. I've never owned a
cordless so I don't know how the specs translate compared to a corded
drill.

Issue 2

The reason I went on a quest for another drill is that the
aforementioned B&D 4.5 Amp drill has gotten to where it only wanta to
run when the drill is held at a certain rotation, typically with the
handle parallel to the floor. I took it apart to see if there was
anything obvious broken or out of place, I pulled the center armature
section apart from the rest of it. What I noticed were sections where
the armature has what look like wear marks.

Any theories on why the drill is behaving this way and what bearing
the worn spots might have? I assume this isn't a drill that's worth
sinking a lot of time into to fix.

Thanks for all info.

      Harbor Freight usually has less expensive and lower quality tools.  They
may be fine for some uses, I buy them on occasion, but keep that in mind.

    It is difficult to compare drills  based on specs.  Find someone who has
one and ask them.  It appears you do a lot of work, I would look for
quality, not price.  If it is something you are going to use a lot, it
generally pays to buy the best quality tools.

--
Joseph Meehan

 Dia 's Muire duit

 An 18V cordless drill is probably overkill for installing drywall, but
it would certainly work. Several years ago, I remodeled three rooms in
my house and used a 9.6V Makita drill (6095D) to install the drywall.
I don't know what the current rating is for the motor as it's not
listed on the drill or in the manual. Anyway, it did just fine driving
1-1/4" screws, but I do admit that I own and used two batteries for
it. Each battery lasted longer than the 1 hour recharge time, so there
was no waiting for fresh battery.

I didn't even bother with a drywall clutch attachment. I started out
trying to use the 5-position clutch on the drill, but each stud or
ceiling joist seemed to have different densities, so that didn't work
very well. I ended up setting the Phillips bit almost all the way into
the Jacobs keyless chuck and set the clutch to the drill position.
This resulted in the screws going just far enough into the drywall to
be 'below' the surface without breaking the paper.

Generally, B&D tools tend to be 'handy homeowner' disposables. That's
not necessarily a bad thing because they are relatively inexpensive. I
would just pitch it and buy another brand new one for $30 or so if I
wanted a corded drill.

Regarding Harbor Freight electric tools, I also consider them to be
disposables. I bought a Chicago Electric reciprocating saw from them
for $20 so I would have one that I could beat to death and not worry
about punishing my nicer one.

 On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:06:42 -0700 (PDT), RosemontCrest


You get a drywall cup bit. It has the phillips in a cup so it bottoms
on the drywall when the screw is set and spins free.

BTW I have 2 of those 9v Makitas and I have built all sorts of stuff
with them, shooting 3" scews and more. The biggest difference between
these and the bigger ones is how long you can work without swapping
batteries.

 On Mar 19, 10:00 pm, gfretw...@aol.com wrote:

Why bother when my solution worked flawlessly and produced the same
result? ;-) All kidding aside, thanks for the suggestion.