11

FORGE

We put the Milwaukee M18CBLPD-402C power
drill through its paces to see what you’re likely to get
at the higher end of the market. This is a cordless
combi drill that can exert an arm-bending 63 Nm of
torque. It’s got two speed selectors, a low range that
adjusts between 0 and 500 rpm, and a high speed
option that goes up to 1800. These are selected by a
toggle on the top of the tool.
What particularly impresses us with this drill is
how easy it is to control. Many drills have adjustable
speeds, but trigger-style speed controls can make
it hard to accurately get the speed you want – the
difference between painfully slow and out-of-
control fast is often difficult to hit. The trigger on the
Milwaukee drill moves smoothly enough to make it
easy to find the speed you want. The drill is also well
balanced and easy to hold in a variety of orientations,
and it’s a short drill, which makes it easy to fit inside
awkward spaces.
For a drill this powerful, the Milwaukee is quite
light, but at 1.7 kg, there’s still quite a bit of weight
if using it for a lot of holes, particularly if you need
to drill above head height. Quite a lot of this weight
comes from the whopping 4 Ah batteries, which can
keep the drill going for quite a long time, (unless
you’re constantly drilling, you should get more than
an 80-minute charge time out of each battery, so two
should be enough to drill constantly).
At £199.99, it’s not a cheap tool, but for that price,
you get a quality drill that can take on most jobs
you’re likely to throw at it.

Above

The risk of running out of power is the price you pay for

portability. Make sure you’ve got enough batteries to complete

the jobs you need to do

Above

A Forstner bit, making

a 30 mm hole. These

bits need quite a bit of

power to cut cleanly