Discover The 5 Best Cordless Drills For Woodworking

A cordless drill is a type of hand drill that you don’t buy every day.
So, If you buy one, you want to make the best buy, of course.

But what is the best buy? What should you pay attention to?

In this blog I take a closer look at 10 brands of cordless drills and compare them with each other, based on a test on the 5 most important criteria.

As a result of the comparison, you can see which are the 5 best cordless drills for woodworking, 1 cordless drill for each criterion.

By bringing the scores of these cordless drills together in a ranking list, you can discover what the best cordless drill for woodworking is of them all.

If you have specific wishes for a cordless drill, you can use the scores on this blog to determine which cordless drill is most suitable for your woodworking workshop.

Let’s go!

Disclosure: At zero cost to you, I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. I earn from qualifying purchases as an Amazon associate. Products featured are selected based on quality, performance, and reputation, regardless of affiliate relationships.

Best buy cordless drill in this test

What should I look for when buying a cordless drill

Before you can start comparing different cordless drills, it is good to think about the criteria on which you are going to make the comparison.

What is important to you? What drill do you need for your workshop and projects?

Personally, I think it’s a good idea to compare the cordless drills with each other based on 5 criteria:

• Price
• Weight
• RPM
• Torque
• Battery power

Depending on what gets your biggest priority, you can use these 5 points to consider which one is most suitable for you and your workshop.

What is the best woodworking cordless drill for the money

Price is often a decisive factor.

For the first test, I compare these power tools based on their purchase price at the date of writing this blog.

To see their correct purchase price, you can always check them by clicking the view button in the list above.

Cordless drill	Price	Score
Black & Decker LD120VA	$57	10/10
DeWalt DCD771C2	$99	9/10
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	$159	2/10
Makita XFD10R	$135	3/10
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	$232	1/10
Ryobi P215K1	$116.5	6/10
Ridgid R860052K	$129	5/10
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	$115	8/10
Skil DL529302	$131.5	4/10
Einhell TE-CD	$115.5	7/10

The best buy based on price is:

What is the lightest cordless drill for woodworking

If you have to work with a cordless drill for many hours in a row, the weight of this power tool can have a major impact on ergonomics.

The lighter the drill, the less effort it takes to operate.

So if you choose to have a cordless drill with the lowest possible weight, then this comparison is for you.

Cordless drill	Weight	Score
Black & Decker LD120VA	4.19lb / 1.9 kg	7/10
DeWalt DCD771C2	3.64lb / 1.65 kg	9/10
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	3.7lb / 1.67 kg	8/10
Makita XFD10R	10.6lb / 4.8 kg	1/10
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	9lb / 4.08 kg	3/10
Ryobi P215K1	6.18lb / 2.8 kg	5/10
Ridgid R860052K	7.4lb / 3.35 kg	4/10
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	2.75lb / 1.24 kg	10/10
Skil DL529302	5.05lb / 2.29 kg	6/10
Einhell TE-CD	9.04lb / 4.1 kg	2/10

The best buy based on weight is:

What cordless drill has the highest RPM

RPM or Rotations Per Minute, indicates the speed of a motor.

The number indicated by RPM gives the number of revolutions that the crankshaft of the engine of the power tool rotates per unit of time of one minute.

The higher the number, the faster your power tool will run.

If you are looking for a cordless drill that you only want to screw with, then a low RPM is sufficient. 
However, if you also want to drill, you need a cordless drill with a high RPM.

In this test I will assign a score from high RPM to low RPM because I am convinced by experience that a cordless drill with which you can also drill is a useful power tool in the woodworking workshop.

Cordless drill	RPM	Score
Black & Decker LD120VA	750 rpm	4/10
DeWalt DCD771C2	1500 rpm	6/10
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	2100 rpm	10/10
Makita XFD10R	1900 rpm	9/10
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	1800 rpm	8/10
Ryobi P215K1	1750 rpm	7/10
Ridgid R860052K	1500 rpm	6/10
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	450 rpm	3/10
Skil DL529302	1800 rpm	8/10
Einhell TE-CD	1250 rpm	5/10

The best buy based on RPM is:

What cordless drill has the most torque

Torque is a rotational force produced by an engine’s crankshaft. 
The higher the torque of a motor, the better it can perform its job.

The unit in which torque is expressed is One pound-foot (lb ft).

One pound-foot is the torque created by one pound of force acting one foot perpendicular from a pivot point.

Cordless drill	Torque	Score
Black & Decker LD120VA	300 lb-ft	5/10
DeWalt DCD771C2	300 lb-ft	5/10
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	620 lb-ft	10/10
Makita XFD10R	480 lb-ft	8/10
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	500 lb-ft	9/10
Ryobi P215K1	500 lb-ft	9/10
Ridgid R860052K	500 lb-ft	9/10
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	480 lb-ft	8/10
Skil DL529302	450 lb-ft	7/10
Einhell TE-CD	310 lb-ft	6/10

The best buy based on torque is:

What cordless drill has the most Battery power

If you look at a battery of a cordless drill you will see its voltage (V) and ampere hour (Ah).

What is often misunderstood is that the higher the voltage, the more powerful the battery is, which is not quite true!

The voltage determines how long your battery will last. If you want a more powerful battery, you got to have a higher ampere hour. However, if your ampere hour is higher, your battery will run out faster.

So bear in mind: the higher the ampere hour, the more power your battery will provide but the faster it runs out.

Cordless drill	Ah	Score
Black & Decker LD120VA	1.5 Ah	8/10
DeWalt DCD771C2	1.3 Ah	7/10
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	3 Ah	10/10
Makita XFD10R	2 Ah	9/10
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	1.5 Ah	8/10
Ryobi P215K1	1.5 Ah	8/10
Ridgid R860052K	1.5 Ah	8/10
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	1.5 Ah	8/10
Skil DL529302	2 Ah	9/10
Einhell TE-CD	1.5 Ah	8/10

The best buy based on battery power is:

Finding the best cordless drill for woodworking

OK, now that we compared the cordless drills based on the 5 criteria, we were able to determine which was the best buy for each level.

But what if we add up the numbers of these 5 important decision factors and then make a comparison again between the different cordless drills and their overall score.

Theoretically, the most ideal machine should then be visible.
I say, theoretically, but later in this blog, I will go deeper into that.

Counting scores and comparing these power tools with each other

The scores of the 5 tests are added together per cordless drill to form a final score. You can see this final score in the right column.

Cordless drill	Price score	Weight score	RPM score	Torque score	Battery power score	TOTAL SCORE
Black & Decker LD120VA	10	7	4	5	8	34
DeWalt DCD771C2	9	9	6	5	7	36
Metabo DV18DBFL2T	2	8	10	10	10	40
Makita XFD10R	3	1	9	8	9	30
Milwaukee 2606-22CT	1	3	8	9	8	29
Ryobi P215K1	6	5	7	9	8	35
Ridgid R860052K	5	4	6	9	8	32
Bosch GSR18V-190B22	8	10	3	8	8	37
Skil DL529302	4	6	8	7	9	34
Einhell TE-CD	7	2	5	6	8	28

What is the best cordless drill for woodworking

Mathematically, after adding the scores after the comparison test, based on the 5 criteria,

• price,
• weight,
• RPM,
• torque,
• battery power,

the best cordless drill to buy for woodworking is the Metabo DV18DBFL2T.

But there is also a concern.
Is this the best choice for everyone? I clarify it in my conclusion below.

My conclusion

The result of this test is a sum of the scores of the 5 criteria.
This means that each of these criteria has an even large influence on the final score of each drill.

However, not everyone has the same requirements when it comes to choosing a cordless drill. While for one person the price is decisive to make a purchase, another person will give priority to torque or battery power.

So, does this means that this test is worthless? The answer tot that is No!

If you are looking for a cordless drill without having 1 criterion as a priority, then with the Metabo you have a top tool in your workshop.

But if you are looking for something more specific, the scores I give you in this blog will help you find the most ideal drill for you.

Remember: there are no bad drills!
Every brand discussed here in this blog is of good quality, and the best for you is the one that can best meet your personal expectations.