I’ve been thinking of getting a corded drill, but the drills I’ve tried so far have pistol grips, which puts most of the drill’s weight forward my hand, which feels unbalanced and thus heavier. Cordless drills, by comparison have a t-grip so the weight is more balanced. Is that just the way pistol grips are, so I just have to get used to it? On longer jobs I think my hand will tire out pretty quickly.
I think that they are meant to be held quite differently. The pistol grip corded drill - meant to be “palmed” with fingers expending along the axis of the drill body pointing toward the chuck. Maybe this feels more comfortable or not depending on your hand size. Sometimes using an auxiliary side handle might improve this Corded “D” handle drills (sort of looking like a sawzall with a chuck) were some designers answer to being able to provide a better grip - especially for heavier duty applications.
What you have hit on is a conundrum common to answering the question "what is the best xyz tool? A big factor will often be which drill, saw etc. fits best in your hands and works well with your style of work.
Oh weird, I never noticed that, but yeah, now that I look at it, corded VSR drills are almost all pistol grip! It seems that the majority include a secondary handle up near the chuck, so I wonder if the front-back spacing helps with grip stability or something.
(I’m so accustomed to cordless drills now, which are almost all T-style, I’d forgotten about this quirk of the corded products.)
A quick image search shows a handful of corded drills with the T-style mid grip: The DeWalt DW130V and its top-heavy cousin the DWD115K, the Porter-Cable PC700D, the Ryobi D43K, the Black&Decker DR560, the Makita DS4012, etc. Something there ought to fit your price point and style!
Thanks to Fred and ‘myself’ for pointing out how pistol grip drills are normally held in use. The last time I paid attention to a pistol grip corded drill was when my Dad was using his, and that was a while ago. It’s interesting that the pictures on the DeWalt website for the DWD112 show the user ‘palming’ the drill. That may be a lighter weight drill. The other corded drills on the same web page have those auxiliary handles.
Still, it’s good to know that there are corded drills with a T grip, which is something I might consider.
yes the older style corded drills do feel different but I wouldn’t say they hurt the hand any. Especially the newer ones with the bigger grip sticks.
Also dewalt and someone else market one where the grip handle is more mid space of the drill motor and chuck - I’ve used one and it does help alot.
It’s not as nice as using my cordless dewalt - but I do like it for some things. Like metal drilling I think it works better.