Boat Drill

Another satisfied Makita user here, but I agree they are not cheap and perhaps hard to justify for occasional use only.
I've got a (non hammer) drill and separate impact driver, angle grinder, sander, and circular saw ( the last one doesn't see much use on the boat mind!). I looked into the 12v vehicle charger but they are very expensive- I bought an inverter for half the price and can use it for other things too. Yes it's inefficient but I'm not recharging batteries so often that it flattens the boat's batteries.
Somebody mentioned rigging up a DC-DC converter- I would avoid doing this with Makita stuff as it is quite complex, with microprocessors in the batteries to detect overheating and prevent over-discharge etc; I doubt these would like being zapped with a simple homemade charger.
 
Another Makita fanboy here. Had our Lxt 18v for, l think, four years now. Love the uber-quick battery charging which makes up for the poor availability /price of the larger 5 ah batts. We've a small suite of other Makita stuff so we're a bit locked in now. At the price dropping a tool/battery combo over the side would be somewhat spoil one's day.
 
What sort of current do the Makita mains chargers pull? If they can charge a 5Ah battery in less than an hour I'm suspecting my nominal 750W inverter won't suffice so maybe rather than buying a nice boxed thing with a mains charger I'd be better off buying everything separately with a automotive charger
 
Exactly; Makita is good stuff for professional tradesmen, I don't see any sense in paying Rolls Royce prices for an occasional boat tool; maybe I've been lucky but my cheapo Neilsen job has done anything a Makita can do inc some quite serious work over the years.

What I don't know is what a modern good value equivalent might be, but I'd suggest looking for 18V stuff in Screwfix.
 
laika said:
What sort of current do the Makita mains chargers pull? If they can charge a 5Ah battery in less than an hour I'm suspecting my nominal 750W inverter won't suffice so maybe rather than buying a nice boxed thing with a mains charger I'd be better off buying everything separately with a automotive charger
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I can tell you that my 150w inverter could NOT power the Makita charger, but a 300w (600 peak) one CAN.

Also- I found Screwfix prices weren't competitive, at least on Makita stuff- best deals from power sellers on eBay. I ended up getting mine from Germany as the postage was cheaper to the Highlands than the UK sellers would offer!
 
Screwfix is just a shopfront for B&Q who are not often cheaper than, say, Wickes. But as always they do sometimes have some good prices - the last but one time that I bought Sikkens they were cheaper by a margin, as of today they are not. The dynamic pricing policy most major retailers adopt these days makes price checking a real faff..
 
Kwik Decision said:
I'd be surprised if you need a hammer drill on a boat, but if they are cheaper than the non hammer ones......

PBO did a test on drills a couple of months ago, possibly worth a read, but didn't test their longevity.

I've had an 18 v Makita Combi drill for about 5 yrs, which is used at home and on the boat, and have been very pleased with it. About £100 from screwfix with 2 lithium batteries. The downsides for boat use is that you need shore power to charge the batteries, (but they seem to last ages, and this will be the same with all 18 v drills) and the carry case is huge.
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Or a small inverter to charge the battery .
 
I have a Makita on Rampage bought as a set with two batteries. Had it for six years now and it's great. I charge it off a 150 watt inverter, which copes with the current.

However, when I was in UK over winter, I needed a drill for work on the project boat. I simply couldn't afford the Makita prices so took a risk and bought one of Argos' own brand, again with two batteries, for about £30. I was prepared for it to be a bit Micky Mouse but to my surprise it turned out to be at least as good as the Makita for a third of the price. The batteries are surprisingly good, lasting much longer than I'd expected, the drill has a good 'feel' to it and it works well as a driver as well as a drill. The only down side to the drill is the charging arrangement which doesn't have battery full indicator and it also takes several hours to fully recharge but given the limited number of jobs I've got to use the drill for and the excellent battery life, this isn't a show stopper. So I'd not be in a hurry to dismiss the cheaper end of the market, especially if you're not going to be using the drill a great deal.

Edit: this is the one I bought: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2580580.htm
 
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Although I am not totally incompetent technically, my use of a drill is only intermittent and I can go for months without needing one, so a battery drill is of little use to me. I have a hand drill on the boat, and an old mains-powered one at home which cost me £15 when new. It has a hammer function and variable speed, and I use it as a rotary sander occasionally, and as a buffer on the boat because it is much lighter than dedicated ones. If I need a battery drill, as when fitting a fender to my pontoon over water, I borrow one.
 
KellysEye said:
For long distance saailing we had a Bosch 240v drill and a Bosch 18v battery drill and still have them.
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I've also been very pleased with my old Bosch portable despite it having an old fashioned nicad battery. I find it is fine if I let it completely discharge and then recharge for 3hrs max.
 
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