I have an electric cordless drill that my father handed down to me. Recently, I needed to drill a hole in a desk to allow for computer cables to pass through. I bought an appropriate drill bit, clamped it in, and got to drilling – to have the drill manage a few rotations before sticking and stuttering and being unable to go any further.
I'm admittedly a novice at this – so my first thought, 'surely I just need a more powerful drill', may not be entirely trustworthy. Can that be safely considered to be my next step? To buy (or more likely, rent) a stronger electric drill to cut this hole?
Best Answer
Cordless drill "handed down from your father" - odds are the battery is toast. They don't last forever. At some point a whole new cordless drill makes more sense than pricy batteries for an older drill. Not knowing what yours is or when it's from, I can't say for sure. My last one I replaced the original two batteries with two new batteries when they crapped out, and when those were toast it was clearly new drill time, given the price of things and the moving on of battery technology.
It would probably be fine (you didn't mention what size hole, or what type of bit) for the job if it was fully functional, but old cordless drills are often not fully functional with their original batteries.