Eight Surprisingly Useful Drill Attachments
No matter how handy or handy you are, there’s a good chance you have a power drill somewhere in your home (honestly, it should be part of any basic toolbox). They are useful for a wide range of DIY projects, from furniture assembly to more complex projects.
If you’ve only been using the standard attachments that came with your basic power drill, you’re missing out—your power drill can actually act as multiple tools in one. Some of these uses are obvious, like screwdrivers or paint mixing bits , but there are also some truly unexpected drill bit attachments that can make even the cheapest electric drill an incredibly versatile and useful tool.
Spray gun
Paint sprayers can make painting jobs much faster and easier, resulting in a beautiful, smooth finish without the tedious process of constantly recharging paint brushes and rollers. But if you don’t need it often or only have to deal with small painting projects, having a paint spray attachment will give you the ability to perform professional-grade painting whenever you want. You can see the paint sprayer in action in this video , where it does the job perfectly without the need for a special sprayer.
Roller dryer
Painting is one of the cheapest and easiest updates you can make to any room in your home, but cleaning can be a pain. This is especially true for paint rollers, which are heavily saturated with paint. The paint roller cleaner attachment for your drill makes cleaning incredibly quick and easy. You can see the process in this video : you spin the roller in a bucket to squeeze out as much paint as possible, then spin it in a bucket of water. The end result? A perfectly clean roller, ready for the next job.
Wood splitter
If you have a wood-burning fireplace or stove in your home, you already know that splitting wood can cause real back pain. A wood splitting drill like this will make the job much easier once you get the hang of it (you can see it in action here ).
Ventilation cleaner
There are many complicated ways to clean your dryer vent (and many very wrong ways ), but it should be part of the basic maintenance you perform regularly if you want your dryer to continue to perform at peak efficiency (and last as long as possible) . If you have a power drill, just buy a vent cleaning kit like this and you can have shiny, clean vents in no time .
Metal cutter
Cutting sheet metal with hand shears or shears can be a slow and even painful process (the edges are sharp ) and cutting straight lines is a real challenge. This device for cutting metal makes the job much easier. How much easier? Just watch a similar attachment cut through sheet metal, such as butter, in this video .
Reciprocating saw
Buying new power tools for one-time use is a waste of money, and even having a tool like a reciprocating saw on hand for occasional needs means you have something taking up space and requiring maintenance with very little return. Believe it or not, you can buy an attachment that will turn your drill into a very effective reciprocating saw , ideal for those times when you need to cut something quickly in the middle of a project, but don’t need to wield the saw all the time.
screw
Do you like working in the garden? Need to flood fence posts? An auger attachment for your seeder and your work just got a lot easier . Your drill can actually drive surprisingly huge augers , although if you’re going to be drilling through heavy fence posts, you’re probably better off using a dedicated auger. But for gardening and occasional soaking, a drill attachment is an economical and effective choice.
Pump
The worst time to realize you really need a pump is when you actually need one. Luckily, this attachment turns any drill into a sump pump that can drain or pump liquids through a standard garden hose. Whether you need to pump fuel out of your tank or get rid of standing water, this little gadget can save you the hassle and expense of having a universal pump on hand.