Official Luthiers Forum!

Cameron,

Why a hammer drill? I think of those for drilling into concrete or something similar...

Please educate us...thanks.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don,
Any of the bigger mail order/internet sites will carry the Panasonic line-You can try the www.toolnut.com.

Yes, a hammer drill. Sounds strange. It did to me, too. But, I read a bunch of
reviews (might have been on Amazon) and a number of guys said it was the
best for driving screws without stripping them or your bit. I don't know why,
but it works darn near like magic. Then, when the screw is in, but you want
to just snug it in, you press a button and the drill just does a quarter turn or
some such. No chance of stripping the screw out of the wood, or of
stripping the bit/screw. The hammer doesn't kick in right away. It comes in
when necessary. It really is a new way to drill. I think there might have been
a few discussions about it on Woodnet.

A thorough dunking in the briny deep recently destroyed my trusty old Hitachi. It was a good sturdy tool & I really liked the chuck. The gear train locks on the Hitachi drill, so you don't have to use two hands on the chuck. I don't know if other drills are similar, but it's a great feature.
I just bought a small 9.6 V. (i think) Makita to replace the Hitachi & I like it lots. Small & light with a very comfortable grip. It ain't macho, but it's a sweet little tool. I find the chuck less convenient to use than the old Hitachi but for the price (a little over $100.00 CDN) I'm not complaining.