Black & Decker FSD122K-2 12-Volt FireStorm Cordless Drill Kit

I bought this after Christmas and was snagged by the price. Only Craftman comes close to this price for a 12v.

I needed to drill and torque down a banister. After charging both batteries (over 6 hours for both). I started on the project but the drill lacked the needed torque for the lag bolts and the batteries were quickly depleted and needed another charage.

The real issue of a serious drill is torque and "Durability" of the battery(s)... With this B&D the battery charge took a very long time and then the batteries were not, using the definition for "durable" > "able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration".

IF you are a serious a serious home repair person spend the extra [price] and move up to B&D 14.4volt Firestorm Drill - both torque and battery durablity will be significantly better.

For a 12V drill, it certainly lacks sufficient power for common drilling tasks. With the clutch torqued all the way down, the drill choked trying to bore out a 2 1/8" hole through a hollow-core door. After five minutes of backing the bit out and back in, the chuck started slipping, rendering it useless. A two-minute job eventually took 20 minutes. It works great as a screwdriver, though. A bright orange, $70 screwdriver. For people installing bookshelves and hanging pictures, it's a fine tool, but for serious users, go buy a Milwaukee.

I got this tool for Christmas 2001 and I've used it a lot. I have used it for a variety of home repair uses and found it to be very well suited for those projects such as furniture assembly, hanging curtain rods, hanging blinds, bathroom fixtures such as towel racks, hanging flower boxes with larger screws into my home. Batteries work fine and last a reasonable time. I have not tried anything super heavy duty. I am very pleased witht this and plan to buy one for my sister as a house warming gift. It is heavy enough for everything I've tried but light enough to be easy to handle.