Howard Ferstler

I thought I had reviewed this item here previously, but after reading some of the comments about Hitachi tools under another topic header on this site and checking to see when my review appeared, I discovered that I had not reviewed it at all. I must have just filed the photo on my computer and then gotten sidetracked. Anyway, it deserves a review.

I picked this drill up at Lowe’s for $119 quite some time ago when my wife decided I would build an extensive wooden walkway network out in our yard.

Since such things are going to have to be built out of pressure-treated wood I knew I would need a powerful drill to push 1/2-inch bits through wet lumber. I had already drilled lumber like that for a deck job some years back, and I will say that the 3 to 4 amp drills I had on hand to do the work were stressed by the project considerably. The Hitachi is a variable-speed, 9-amp drill, and that says “no-nonsense” in drill lingo.

However, the project did not happen, and so the drill just kind of sat there for a year, being used for the occasional odd job. Fortunately, my wife came up with another project: installing solid-wood doors throughout the house, in place of the tract-home hollow-core versions that had been in place for years. Doing this involved using specialized hole saws to cut spaces for the latching mechanisms, and the 9-amp motor in the Hitachi was just what was needed. I also appreciated the rapid slow-down feature when the trigger is released.

The drill did the job just fine and I recommend this device to anybody who wants a lot of torque and is not afraid of a heavy unit. Just remember to use the auxiliary handle to keep the thing from twisting your arm off if a bit snags.

Howard Ferstler

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