We recently had the opportunity to try out the new 12V Hammer Drill/Driver PS120-2A ($159, Ohio Power Tool) from Bosch but took the easy way out and let the wife try her hand at hammer drilling.
Rather than just going ahead and taking care of a simple picture hanging honey-do I threw the PS130 in her hands to see how she would do. This one was especially applicable because she would need to utilize the hammer drill function to drill into the basement block wall. As I expected her to be intimidated and shy with the drill I was surprised to see her dive in. Equipped with a ¼” carbide bit and a Powers Tapper the job was done in a seconds. Now that she’s realized hanging pictures in concrete is not much different than drywall, with the right tool, I am a little scared to see what else she’s got planned.
This kit comes with 2 batteries and a 30 minute charger, which means a pretty much endless supply of juice for continued use on a busy Saturday of assembling kid’s toys, hanging pictures, and anything else around the house.
Don’t get us wrong however this drill is also ideal for professional users doing small concrete anchoring, drilling and fastening. We are really surprised how versatile it can be. By no means would this take the place of the Heavy Duty 18V hammer drill for bigger jobs. It is just that many of the most common projects and applications will not require the 700 in.lbs. of torque in an 18V tool. We think however there is enough room in his/her arsenal for both the 18V and 12V tool platforms and good reasons to have tools in both.
For this post however we wanted to think like a regular homeowner / condo-owner / apartment renter looking for 1 tool that was easy to use. With enough power and features to take on 95% of the most basic homeowner projects including drilling into concrete walls this tool really is very impressive and could be a good option even over a more powerful 18V.
Now I can delegate some more of the weekend projects to my lovely wife. Hello? Anybody there? Yea… who am I kidding.
