Makita has come out with a new 12V Max cordless right angle drill, model AD02W. The new drill delivers up to 100 in-lbs of torque and features a 0-800 RPM gearbox. With a compact 3-1/2″ head length, it helps you drill holes in tighter spots.
Street price: $135 for the Li-ion 1-battery kit.
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Recommended Alternatives: Bosch PS11 RA drill, Milwaukee M12 RA drill
First Impression
To be honest, Makita’s new right angle drill doesn’t seem too competitive to me. Bosch’s PS11 right angle cordless drill is more powerful, has an adjustable pivoting head, and higher speed gearbox (1300 vs. 800 RPM max), while Milwaukee’s M12 right angle drill is almost as compact (3-3/4″ vs 3-1/2″ head length) but is more versatile thanks to its adjustable clutch settings.
Bosch and Milwaukee’s right angle drill kits are also less expensive.
Jerry
I like the “recommended alternatives” bar. Let’s a person check out other similar tools before purchasing.
Makita owners I know tend to like their tools, and I believe it will sell well. One die hard Makita fan I know of says he knows they aren’t the very top performers most of the time, but are solid performers, and sem to run forever. I would tend to agree, but wish the batteries were cheaper.
On a side note, I see two colors of Makitas now. Is it for different battery types or voltages, is ine more “industrial”, or are they just transitioning to white?
Stuart
Makita’s “white” tools are sometimes considered by many to be their “DIYer/consumer” tools, but as far as I’m aware all of their tools are primarily aimed at professional users. With the 12V line, white is the only color they come in. With Makita’s 18V line, the white tools are their compact and lighter duty tools and the teal ones are their LXT tools which only work with their higher capacity LXT batteries and not the compact ones.
Some of the LXT tools don’t even work with all of their LXT batteries, as recently discussed here. Makita USA has chosen not to discuss details about this, but some early adopters have reported having to modify their new 4.0Ah battery packs to fit their tools.
I think they could have done more to make the 12V right angle drill a little more competitive, at least on paper. As it is, the mentioned Bosch and Milwaukee products seem to be better options for users not exclusively devoted to Makita’s 12V Max battery platform. It would surprise me if the Makita delivered phenomenally better performance in practice.
Nicholas
Hou come so few right angle drills have only one speed? I would buy one if it was a two speed.
Stuart
Right angle drills are designed to fit into tight areas where other drills won’t fit. Designing them with 2-speed gearboxes without substantially increasing tool size might be too much of a challenge.
Additionally, right angle drills typically cannot deliver very high torque. With 12V tools, the limit seems to be ~100-125 in-lbs. Increasing the speed might correspond with a decrease in torque, which might make the tools too weak to be practically usable.
fred
While I don’t think I ever saw a torque specification to the corded right angle drills we used (Milwaukee 1680 Super Hole Hawg) and it was probably less than the Milwaukee 1854 we brought out for some timber framing jobs – it still had plenty of toque to drive even the biggest self-feeds. Although I expect that Toolguyd readers are more savvy, I’m always amazed by some folks who think that cordless tools are the one and only option – and then wonder when they are not up to the task.
matt
I dont get comparing any of the cordless right angles to a hole hawg. These are for tight and hard to access area’s. cabinets, kick panels, mechanical’s equipment, ETC. Not for framing, heavy timber, or driving large hardware.
Nicholas
The dewalt one is two speed. I would rather have the drill be a little bigger for a high torque gear. I mainly do metalworking and it would come in handy but the ones on the market don’t have enough torque to be useful to me.
Jerry
I have a DeWalt 18v right angle drill that is the exception to that rule. Two speed gearbox, and enough torque in low to drive a 3 inch deck screw. It is not nearly as compact as this one, though.
John Blair
I look at these tools and wonder what they are thinking. I have an old Skil Power Wrench. It was dirt cheap and the head is only like 1 inch before you put on an attachment. It fits 1/4″ socket sets and has a 1/4″ socket to hex adapter that I use with phillips head screws. It fits in space I can’t even get my hand and a stubby screw driver into.
Makita’s right angle drill looks pretty and yes, its head is smaller than Milwaukee’s, but its just not small enough. I would love to see a version with a 1/4″ socket head. Have it come with a 1/4″ socket to hex adapter and a 1/4″ to drill chuck attachment and you could sell me one.
Jason Smith
Makita is really starting to lose it in the cordless tool market. They need to step it up! They really need to fix the issues with the 18v batteries.
Monte
in Europe they sell the blue version with a keyed chuck which reduces the height.
http://www.makita.de/704.0.html
The tool says “Made in Japan” which might explain the higher price.