I purchased the makita drill/driver kit 3 1/2 years ago pretty much to the day. When i went to use it today i was devastated when i pulled the trigger and just the LED light came on. I couldnt get anything to come out of it, I was pretty bummed and was going to go to HD and buy another kit But i thought i would tear it apart to see if i could do anything to fix it.

Pulled it apart and low and behold the wire came loose from the trigger and also noticed that the positive wire to the motor was loose too, soldered them both back to their terminals and Voila!! worked like the day I bought her.

The Batteries have lasted 3 1/2 years and haven't lost their use time at all! This driver has been through alot, dropped from two stories onto concrete, dropped from a roof into a mud puddle, kicked,consistently dropped from a 4ft ladder height, kicked and tossed around in the back of the van. Also had a 12 ft 6x6 drop dead on it from an incompetent grunt on a job site. Not to mention what i Drive with it; constant lag bolts, concrete anchors etc. Shes just a tank :) I have no doubt i have another 2-3 years more out of the kit

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Is that only impact mode or can you use it as a plain ol' screwdriver?

BTW, thank you for spelling it voilà, and not viola...

lol! no problem :) how do you get the little thing above the A on a keyboard?

no, this is an impact driver only. The kit also came with a drill which is a total tank in its self. I am sometimes blown away what she can get through. Since ive purchased the kit i think ive only used my hole hawg once and that was when both my batteries were dead and left the charger in my garage.

You should get many more years from it. I bought 1 of the first Li-ion drills they came out with (7 years ago?). Anyway, a gear broke in mine the first year (got it replaced) haven't had a single problem since.
I don't think I've replaced the batteries, certainly not in the last 5 years. Still going strong as well.

these are incredible drills especially for the price, im waiting for some of my other cordless stuff to die so i have an excuse to get their entire line up!

I have:
The impact driver (same as yours). [Link: makita.com]
The drill. [Link: makita.com]
The hammer drill. [Link: makita.com]
The circular saw. [Link: makita.com]
The vacuum. [Link: makita.com]
The blower. [Link: makita.com]
The right angle drill. [Link: makita.com]

Plus 2 charging units and 6 batteries

Every tool in the 18v lineup is awesome

The bandsaw is very cool...threaded rod, emt, unistrut

+1000 grammar points for you.


-1000 grammar points for you.


the batteries left the charger in the garage?


I'd like to know, too. It's called an accent grav, sort of pronounced ax-sonn grov. But I can't type it.

And wouldn't you know it: I usually write viola as a joke. I'll stop that. If you tell me how to type an a with an accent grav.

I was gonna buy all that, but no radio? Forget it...

More importantly, thank you for spelling it voilà and not walla or wallah.

Zohan better keep an eye on all of that...complete kits like that love to walk off job sites, or so I hear.

If you need letters like that, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System, Character Map- save it to your Start button or the desktop for easier access. It has all kinds of stuff, like °²³±£¢ΣΩΦΘΔ

When I was doing car audio, I bought two 7.2V Makita Drill-Drivers and a right angle drill. This was in '88 and they all work great. I haven't bought batteries since '97 and only have one remaining, but when I had it tested a couple of years ago, it tested at 40% of capacity. I still use it for overhead stuff like ceiling speakers when I don't want to haul out the Milwaukee 18V hammer-drill.

I read it somewhere that impact mode is actually better for driving screws into wood. Something about the fact that when the driver goes back and forth, it relaxes wood fibers and its more likely to not compress them (wood fibers).
Now that I think about it, I've never trid it myslef, even thought I have that setting on my Rigid 24V drill.

Haha...so I posted that from my ipad after a long day....I knew I was forgetting stuff. Add to the list:

The cut off / grinder [Link: makita.com]

and
The radio! [Link: makita.com]

Bought the first kit as the impact driver and regular drill and just kept adding from there. For each tool you can just buy the tool instead of the whole kit.
I see they now have a multi tool, might have to check that out. Does anyone use one of those multi tools, is it worth it?
[Link: makita.com]

10-4 to that. My only problem in that are is my own helper. No matter how much I tell him, nothing goes back in it's place after he uses something and I have to waste time finding things. As for the other trades, they don't mess with the zohan :)