Power tools are, by my definition, any tool that has some sort of a power source and is driven by an electric or base fuel motor. This can be a drill, a circular saw, a chain saw, or something as little as a Dremel tool. Of course there are MANY other types of power tools but we will keep it sort of simple for now. Women will say that there is nothing worse than a man in a power tool section with a locked and loaded credit card. I know from experience that there is nothing more gratifying than coming home with a new power tool and dreams of building ….. ,well anything, with it.

Drills

A drill is one of the first tools anyone should own. They can bore holes, have adapters to drive screws, and come battery powered or electric 120vac. There are air drills also, but we are going to keep it simple like I stated.

A standard drill is usually an electric motor that drives a mini gear box which in turn drives the chuck. The chuck is the place that the drill bit goes. The bit is then locked in place by a key (chuck key) OR the new fangled ones have a reverse lock that allows the user to simply tighten up the chuck with their hand alone. The chucks are measured by the size of the shank of any bit. There are 1/4″ chucks, 3/8″ chucks, and 1/2″ chucks. The most common one being the 1/2″ because, well, bigger is better in the tool world. Not really, it’s kind of hard to use a 1/16″ bit in a big 1/2″ drill. Although it can be done, usually drill users have a tendency to drill a hole as fast as possible. I know because I’m as guilty as the next guy. There is just something about that stream of curly metal that comes whizzing out of a drilled hole that makes you feel like you are the dominating force here. But this ends up with a snapped off drill bit. Especially the little drill bits.

If you get a drill that has a power cord or plugs in and you just had to get the big one (or larger than normal), make sure you use the side handle that comes with it. There is a reason for these handles. The reason is that this drill is telling you ‘I can’t stop’. Any DIY can tell you that they have at LEAST one time used a drill without the handle and twisted their wrist when the drill decided to take off on its own. This is not fun and takes you totally by surprise when it happens. Be safe! Use the handle or a smaller drill if possible.

Lastly

When drilling metal make sure to use cutting oil. This makes the drilling a lot easier and keeps the bit sharper longer. It also cools the bit tip. Not using oil or a cutting agent of some sort can burn the tip of the bit and remove the temper making the bit useless. Nothing worse than a set of useless bits…