> I
>will confess,
>however, that I also have a cordless drill which I consider to be one of
>God's
>great inventions (along with duct tape, paper towels, yellow post-its, and
>the
>glue gun).
>

I used to hanker for a cordless drill; it seemed that nothing could be as
quick and easy for drilling and driving screws. But when I put my new bench
together (using the 4x4's from 2x4's method discussed a while back) I fould
the assortment of braces, breast drills, push drills and eggbeater drills
to be just fantastic.

With a cordless drill, you only have the one drill (nobody would buy a
half-dozen of them, whereas user braces seem to accumulate in my shop
faster than anything). So you have to change from a drill to a
screwdriver--even if you have some quick-change system, you have to take
the time.

I drilled the pilot holes for screws with my push drill, the screws were
driven with a phillips bit in a brace, holes that needed to be really
straight I did with my breast drill (the handy level makes it really
easy--I haven't seen a cordless drill yet with a built-in level vial!).

If you haven't tried driving screws with a brace, give it a shot. You get
incredibly good torque (and good control over that torque) with a typical
brace, and you can really lean on the handle to keep the bit in the screw
at the same time.

I do agree with you about the duct tape etc!

Anyway, just my .02 worth. Welcome to the porch, Tom!

-Kelly Cox
Madison, WI