AEG angle driver

[jatt]

I bought this item a couple of months ago whilst looking around for a dedicated angle drill. Got a bit of a shock when I started seeing prices in the high $300 plus for a corded unit.

So when the sales guy pulled this one out I must confess I had my doubts. Said I would not buy it unless I could test it out first. So I removed and refitted some screws that held his counter together. It definetely can handle a decent torque load and is easy to keep control of. The castings look like they are of reasonable quality and it actually feels sturdy when you pick it up.

Since then I have been screwing/unscrewing metal tecks into thin wall SHS with no troubles at all. Also use it quite a bit to fit cross tip self tappers.

The position of the red handle is adjustable simply by unscrewing it slightly and moving it up and down as indicated by the unlock arrow on the side. Then one simply retightens the screw onto the locking teeth. In most instances tho I find it is easy enough to hold on to the right angled portion of the casting where the bevel gears are situated. The handle can also swivel a full 360 degress by simply raising the handle fully into the unlock position and rotating the collar beneith the gear assembly.

The bit holder is a spring loaded assembly; a hex shaped affair with a magnet inside.

The unit also comes with a couple of basic hex tips and a drill bit that actually has a hex machined (all in one piece) on the other end. Would like to get my hands on a few more of these. Before this I had only come across this kind of bit with a force fit/glued hex fitting. On a couple of occasions I have managed to separate the two .

With a 65 mm clearance (includes the handle folded up) this unit has been very useful fitting screws into those hard to reach places.

Its not cheap. Mine cost $130, but it has gotten me outta of trouble heaps. I would steer away from the elcheapo $30 version (also put out by AEG) , which I also have. Found it to be pretty crappy, I guess what do u expect for the price.

The biggest problem I have is keeping it away from the boss. He is not normally known for returning things

[seriola]

Thanks for the review jatt, I have the el cheapo as it was all that was available at our local store when I was in need of something in a hurry. It has done all I have asked of it and been a handy addittion to the tool collection. Didn't know they made this other version, certainly would have snaffled one had it been in stock at the time.

[Batpig]

Dear Jatt,

Yes, I've got one of those little babies as well (but "Milwaukee"-branded...), and they are the "Duck's Guts" in situations where you need to get in extremely close to a corner, and believe me - I had a very good look around at what was available at the time I bought it. The obvious caveat is something that you have already mentioned - that the Chuck is a Bit-driving hex-socket. This means that if you want to drill holes with it, you have to use either hex-shanked Drill Bits, or normal round-shanked units in Adaptors of some sort...

Anyhow, in my case, the need arose when I realised that all of the Ceiling Battens that ran directly alongside the East-West walls in the Flat, had been fastened with too much overlap above the tops of the walls, with the result being that there wasn't enough sideways overhang of the Battens off the tops of the walls to allow self-drilling plasterboard-screws to be driven home into them through the plasterboard with the drill. By not having a thicker conventional Chuck, the Milwaukee/AEG unit enabled me to get much closer against the walls before drilling upwards, but at the expense of having to use hex-shanked and round-to-hex Adaptors for the Drill Bits.

And in case some of you are thinking to yourselves "Why didn't you just drive your self-drilling screws home through the plasterboard with a Phillips-Head Bit?", the reason is that when you use a Right-Angle Attachment, you lose your spare hand to the task of pushing on the back of the Attachment. Now, in the case of driving screws through plasterboard, the spare hand is usually used to prop the plasterboard, because it can crack locally if it is unsupported during the drive due to riding-down (or out) on the thread of the screw as the screw is spinning around as it drills itself into the support timber. So when using a Right-Angle Attachment (at least with plasterboard), you have to predrill a clearance hole for the screw first so that the plasterboard wont ride down on the thread, and then drive the screw home by allowing it to drill its own way into the timber. It's not as bad as it sounds because the spring-loaded-collar-type Chuck makes short work of changing from hex-shanked Drill-Bits to Screwdriver-Bits, and back again.

From left to right in the photo below, you can see the said Milwaukee right-angler (which was $99 at Trade Tools about 4 months ago), a small Bosch multi-construction Bit in a U.S.-made "Snappy"-brand round-to-hex Adaptor (I needed a Masonry-Bit because some of the drilling was through cement-sheeting, and I needed an Adaptor because you can't buy hex-shanked Masonry Bits...), and a normal twist-Bit with a hex-shank. My other right-angle Attachment - an Ozito "Orbitor - rounds out the line-up in the photo. I'm not sure whether they are still available, but the Ozito is the most versatile of the conventional Chuck type right-anglers, because you can adjust and lock it into any angle at all between 90 and 180deg.

The AEG/Milwaukee is certainly a quality unit, Jatt. If my memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall that the packaging said that they were made in the U.S. -albeit with some of the components being imported.

Two final points for the readers:

1) Quite obviously - as with all right-anglers - you can't hammer-drill with them (just thought I'd better say that, especially given the price of the thing...)

2) Think twice before you go out and spend big on a set of good hex-shanked Drill-Bits in order to suit both your Drill's normal Chuck, and the Milwaukee/AEG right-angler, because you wont be able to secure the hex-shanks (at least of the smaller Bits) into the Chuck of a Drill Doctor if you ever want to sharpen them that way. In such a situation, you'll be better off with a removable round-shank Bit in a "Snappy" brand round-to-hex Adaptor.

Best Wishes,
Batpig.

[jatt]

Well there u go. Who knows where stuff is actually sourced from these days. First time I have seen my AEG angle attachment rebadged as somethin else, or is that the other way around?

Quite obviously - as with all right-anglers - you can't hammer-drill with them (just thought I'd better say that, especially given the price of the thing...

Cant say I that using it with hammer function has crossed my mind, but I'm sure someone has tried it.

The Ozito one looks quite interesting.

[mikm]

Nice group-review there, peoples.

Interesting.