I BUILD KITCHENS, BATHROOMS & KAYAKS. THE RYBOIE 18 IS A GREAT BUY.

I currently have 9 cordless drills.  4 DeWalts. 2 Milwaukees, 2 Panasonics, and 1 Ryobi.  My DeWalts are always my "go to" choice.  The Milwaukees are hammer drills, I don't know why I bought the Panasonics, and the Ryobis wouldn't make a good boat anchor.

Here's my favorite cordless drill. 30+ years without a battery purchase, quiet enough to use at 5:00 am without waking up the household or neighbors, variable speed and direction, keyless chuck and pretty darn near zero carbon footprint.

It also gets your wrists and forearms in shape for eventually paddling that boat you're building.

With a sharp drill it goes through okoume like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't drive screws, but that's what Yankee screwdrivers are for.

Laszlo

Thanks CLC.  I really like these real-world reviews.  Laszlo's curmudgeonly contribution was of course appreciated too.

One other thing to consider is whether you may eventually find it useful to have more than one cordless tool in the shop. Having turned my attention mostly to skin-on-frames, I've gotten a lot of use out of cordless circular and saber saws as well as my drill. Even worse than having to store all the bulky cases, is having to have different batteries and multiple chargers cluttering up the bench. You can't just put the chargers in the attic. I've settled on the Makita 18 volt tools and so only have to keep that charger out. (Except for an older Dewalt right angle drill that has its own battery and charger, but that's it I swear!) Whatever tool you like, it is worth considering whether you can use the same charger and batteries for other useful tools in the future.

 eric