The other work horse in the stable, my Ridgid cordless drill. I actually have two cordless drills, a 12V Makita and this one. The 12 Volt Makita is a good all around drill, works for every day use, hanging pictures, putting together kids toys and so on. The Ridgid cordless drill does the heavy lifting, drilling through sill plates, joists, and girders to run electric and plumbing lines. I used it to screw together the grape trellis over the patio last summer. That is made out of Black locust, a very dense heavy wood, so it takes a fair amount of torque to get a 6 inch screw through that.

The Ridgid drill comes with a charger and two batteries. The charger charges a battery in about 30 minutes or so. I found that if I was doing a lot of drilling, I could easily run a battery down in about 15 minutes, so it may be worth while to buy an extra battery or two, if you plan on doing heavy installation work.
It has a key less chuck which works well, if you tighten it up snug, it does not come loose. The torque settings are easy to use also. It is a little more heavy than other cordless drills, but it is easier to deal with than a corded drill, so the convenience factor is high.

This drill is about 3 years old or so, it has had a fair amount of abuse, been dropped off a ladder a few times etc. I don’t remember what I paid for it, I think I need to start keeping receipts or something. I can say that it has saved me many many hours of time by replacing my 1/2 inch corded drill on most of my projects. If you need a good heavy duty cordless drill, this is a good tool to consider.

Unfortunately, this drill appears to be obsolete. A newer model is the Ridged 840011 which is a 1/2 inch drill. For more information on Ridgid tools, visit Ridged.com

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