What is a Drill Driver Used for?

Posted by Katy | Toolstop on 1st Jan 2021

This Toolstop guide has been created to show you how to use a driver drill as well as what is a drill driver. Drill drivers are a popular addition to any tradesmans kit, allowing you to drill and screw with the one tool. These tools are slightly different to a combi drill, so be sure to read all the way through to find out why.

What is a Drill Driver?

In this Toolstop guide, we’ll answer the frequently asked question “What is a Drill Driver?"

A drill driver is a power tool, typically powered by a battery, that has two modes; drilling and screw driving.

It will usually have at least two speeds. The low-speed setting is for screw driving mode, and it will have a torque selection ring near the chuck. This allows you to select low or high torque, which determines the amount of force used by the drill to drive the screw.

You can watch our guide here on how to use a drill driver:

However, small screws into softwood can be driven at higher speeds, but lower torque. The high speed is for drilling holes into wood or plastic, and the mode selection ring should be set to drilling mode.

Drill drivers will either have a metal or plastic chuck.

Metal chucks are more durable but they do add more weight to the tool. The chuck will accept drill and screwdriver bits, depending on the job you’re doing. The maximum size of the bit you can use will depend on the chuck. For example, most professional grade drill drivers accept up to 13mm bits.

A standard cordless drill driver will have a “keyless” chuck. This means the sleeve of the chuck doesn’t require a key to tighten the bit in place.