Cordless drill driver is one of the handymen's most favorite power tools. Earning a top spot among all the useful tools - saws, grinders, routers, etc - is no small feat. What makes it stand out? What are the special benefits of this tool? Let's see.

What is a Cordless Drill Driver?

Cordless Drill Driver is a power tool that can drill holes and drive screws and bolts. It runs on rechargeable batteries. Sometimes it's called a cordless drill or a screw gun.

It acts as a drill when holding a drill bit. A high-speed setting, present in some models, kicks up the motor speed for quick drilling.

Cordless drill acts as a screwdriver when holding a driver bit. Some models have a low-speed setting for high-torque driving.


Reputable brand names include: Black and Decker, Bosch, Dewalt, Festool, Hilti, Hitachi, Makita, Milwaukee, Panasonic, Porter Cable, Ridgid, Ryobi, Skil.

Why Use a Cordless Drill Driver?

Most jobs, from simple to complex, such as patio furniture assembly, room decoration, Storage shelf construction, employ fasteners like screws or bolts to hold pieces together securely. The cordless drill driver is THE tool to use for handling fasteners. That's why it's the most popular tool. It takes care of a project quickly and easily. No other tools even come close.

Actually, specialized forms of cordless drill drivers have evolved: impact driver, hammer drill, cordless screwdriver, right angle drill. Those tools are designed to perform certain specific tasks better than the cordless drill. But as a general-purpose fastening tool, the cordless drill driver is the best, period.

Advantage of the cordless drill tool:

• Matchless in term of quickness and ease of use.
• Handle all kinds of tasks from simple household repair to serious construction work.
• Safe to operate, get the job done fast.
• Not much need for maintenance.
• Lightweight to carry around. Durable in rough work environment.

• Small projects are done quickly and with excellent results.
• Home improvement DIYer look and act like a pro.
• For complex projects, this tool can quickly make a mock-up model, or a jig, or a support structure, to ensure things are done right.
• Screws and bolts can be removed as easily as they were put in. The cordless drill can take apart the project pieces for reasons of transportation, storage, recycling, or future improvement.

HISTORY AND ALTERNATIVES

The history of drills goes a way back. First it was hand drill. This needs the hand to crank the gear to drill. A separate screwdriver is used to drive screws.

Later, corded drill was invented. This needs a power plug and an extension cord. It improves greatly over the hand drill because it's faster, more powerful, and combined both drilling and driving functions into one unit.

The corded drill driver delivers more torque than the cordless one, and is also cheaper. But it lacks certain features. One is that the chuck needs a key to change the bits. The other is that it lacks clutches and variable speeds. Without which it's difficult to control the amount of torque put to the screws.

Screwing is not all brute force. It needs finesse also. The corded drill driver can do its job quite well in a skilled hand. But most people prefer the cordless one, because the convenience of the cordless drill outweighs the power of corded drill.

Another type of fasteners is nails. This fastener works with hammer, nail guns, or nailers. There are pneumatic nail guns and, recently, cordless nailers. The cordless nailers only accept brad nails. Larger nails still require a hammer or a nail gun that runs on air compressor.

Before modern fasteners were invented, our ancestors used traditional joinery to join pieces together. Mortise-tenon joint is a classic example.

Mortise is a hole (a drill makes round holes). Tenon is a protrusion that fits the hole tightly. Traditional joinery stands up to the test of time. It teaches us patience, skill, and thinking of long-terms. It takes time to learn how to use saw and chisel to make mortise-tenon joint. However, the result is a class above those made from screws or bolts.

From hand-cut, traditional joinery to the quick screwwork by cordless drill drivers, it's a long evolution of tool development. To use an analogy for comparison: a hand drill to a corded drill to a cordless drill is like the feet to a bicycle to a car. We are making things easier for ourselves, and the trend is continuing.