Popular Woodworking 2005-12 № 152, страница 71

BOSCH

This drill feels big in your hand. While its weight is in the middle of the pack and the grip girth isn't the largest, it's still a big drill. Performance was also big in the testing, coming in third in the spade hole test and fourth in the lag screw test. The Bosch drill also has a very quick 30-minute charge, which we like, and it has the highest stated torque in the test (except for the Milwaukee V28).

The model we tested also has the new BlueCore battery designed to dissipate heat. Our temperature readings showed the Bosch at a comfortable level, nearly the coolest of all the drills tested.

The grip and feel of the drill are comfortable (though large) and the nose-up attitude of the motor and chuck is designed to prevent your wrist from maintaining an awkward angle. The single-sleeve locking chuck works well and the carbide teeth in the jaws grab and hold a bit tight.

The Bosch is a good drill and finishes near the top of the pack - but that includes price as well, sitting comfortably as the third-highest price in the category. While finishing just out of the winner's circle, this is a drill to take notice of.

DEWALT

DeWalt shares top honors in the test by placing first in the number of spade holes drilled and second in the number of lag screws drilled. With a one-two punch like that, it's a knockout.

The three-speed drill also fell comfortably in the middle of the competition when it came to grip size and weight. It also finished with pleasantly low temperature readings. The all-metal, locking single-sleeve chuck teams up with carbide jaw pads for a top-quality bit-holding experience.

One slight quibble could be the one-hour charge, but a shorter charge time isn't the norm in

this category, so we can hardly count the longer charge time against it.

We also thought the drill was a little louder (a clacking metallic noise) than was pleasant, but this noise is actually a normal function in DeWalt drills.

As for price, the DC983KA is in a three-way tie for second place, making it a pricier drill, but when it can post winning numbers in the speed and torque tests, we're OK with that price.

The DeWalt is a good drill with a decent feel in the hand, good performance and the nice feature of an extra speed setting.

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FEIN

The Fein ABS 14 is a fairly new model for the company and this drill has nothing to be ashamed of. During testing it scored higher than average in holes drilled and screws driven.

Only two other 14.4v drills were lighter than the Fein (Metabo and Skil) and the performance of those two was nowhere near as good as the ABS 14. Hand-in-hand with that lighter weight is a reasonably small grip that feels good in your hand. Because of this smaller overall feel, we didn't expect as good a showing during the testing and so we were pleasantly surprised.

The chuck is a single-sleeve locking design with good jaws that will hold all but the smallest of bit diameters. The Fein also sports a 35-minute recharge - that's always a plus.

The Fein is priced at the top of the pack (just under $200), but with its combination of good performance and convenient size and feel, it's a drill that we'd comfortably recommend. This same drill is available with 3.0 amp/hour nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) batteries that should enhance the performance even further. Nice job.

HITACHI

We're still trying to decide if the look of the Hitachi drill is cool, or just freaky (Bob votes for freaky). It's definitely different and stands out in a crowd. Unfortunately, it needs a little something extra to make it stand out because its performance in the two tests was decent, but middle-of-the-road. Of course, the cool little light on the hook is fun. I'll stop short of calling it a bright light, but it does chase away the shadows in a dark corner.

The Hitachi is priced down from the top of the pack, about $20 less than the $200 drills. With that savings the slight drop in performance numbers

isn't too scary. It's still a decent tool. It offers a 50-minute charger, which is faster than some and slower than others. The all-metal chuck is decent, but the jaws are average.

The grip girth on the Hitachi is one of the largest in the test group, but the weight is still in the middle of the pack.

Bottom line: It's a good drill with good performance and it's priced slightly less than some of the competitors. Add to that the eye-catching looks of this drill and we're sure they're going to sell a bunch of them.

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Popular Woodworking December 2005