Monday, August 27, 2007



This is my favorite tool. It is a Milwaukee 1/2" right angle drill (0721-20) with a 28 volt battery. It gets over 1000 in/lb torque which is the highest I could find. I got it from Amazon dot com for $372 and it included the case and a spare battery. It operates, without load, at 400RPM and is reversible so that it operates both speeds of a two speed winch. The bit is shaped to fit into the winch and you can get it on EBAY for about $45. The other bit is square and has a circular post which slips under high pressure. It is only about $20 but I don't recommend it. It also comes with a battery charger which takes one hour to fully recharge the battery. Actually I have used it quite a bit and it is still on the first charge.
With this, my wife can hoist me up the mast, trim any sheet, hoist the sunken dinghy on board, etc. etc. I am told that the electric winch handle you get at the boat shows is less than half as powerful and about $2000. Electric winches, at least for the size I need, are about $3500 apiece and, of course, need to be installed. Thanks but no thanks.

3 comments:

Blonde Zilla said...

Men love tools but I think even I can get on board with this one. Yee haw.

daveg said...

Can you tell me where you found the better adapter? I can find the Cranker with the round shank, but not the one with regular winch end & fluted shanks.

Thanks,

David

Florence and Lew Hill said...

The "cranker" can be found on EBAY