15 Handy Uses for Your Cordless Drill at Home

Everyone knows that drills can be used to drill into all sorts of surfaces. This is important for both DIY and home repairs. However, did you know that your cordless drill can also be used for various household tasks? These little machines are amazingly versatile.

We’ll take a look at some of the most surprising and useful uses for cordless drills in this article.

1. Portable Electric Mixer

With the right attachment, it is easy to turn one of these drills into a portable electric mixer. Since cordless drills don’t need to be plugged in, this means you can easily use them on the go when electricity is not available. Furthermore, if you don’t have an electric mixer, you can settle on using your cordless drill all the time.

All you need to do is slot the appropriate whisk or spoon onto the cordless drill and get mixing.

2. Peeling Fruit and Veggies

If you’re tired of manually peeling fruit and veggies, use a cordless drill instead. Peeling fruit can be incredibly time-consuming. However, if you attach a peeler to a drill, you can save your wrist and time. For bulk peeling jobs, you can throw apples and potatoes into a bucket of water. Then, use a hard bristled brush to remove much of the skin quickly.

Both of these peeling options are way faster than trying to do it by hand.

3. Planting Seeds

With a large auger bit, cordless drills can quickly make perfectly-sized holes in the ground for drilling. Take it out into your garden to speed up your planting game. Not only does this save you a bit of time, but it also helps improve the accuracy and size of the holes.

4. Paint Mixer

This is one of the most commonly known uses of a cordless drill, but it is also a more useful option. Mixing paint can take longer than you’d like and be quite messy. You can never precisely mix the paint thoroughly by hand, either.

To start, drill a hole in the paint with a drill. Then connect a paint stirrer attachment through the paint lid. Close the lid and turn on the drill. It’ll mix the paint up without making a mess in a fraction of the time it takes to mix it by hand.

5. Generator

In emergencies, you can use a drill to create a small amount of power. This can be used to power a cell phone to make an emergency phone call, for instance, or provide a small amount of light. To accomplish this, first, take out the battery pack. Use a pair of alligator wires to connect the battery connector inside, and then use a zip tie to keep the power drill switched.

Connect a hand crank to the drill chuck and the other end of the alligator wires to whatever you want to power. Then, start cranking away to produce power.

6. Pet Toy

You can also DIY your cordless drill into a pet toy. Get some lure toy – those connected to a string on a stick. Attach this toy to the cordless drill and let it go! Cats particularly love this, and their smaller toys are more suited to the cordless drills.

7. Potato Mashing

Potato mashing is something else that can take way too long and use up quite a lot of elbow grease. Luckily, you can mash boiled potatoes with a power drill. Just attach a mixer to the power drill and use the tool to get the potatoes into a nice, creamy texture.

You can even achieve better results using this method than you can by hand, and you don’t have to purchase an electric potato masher.

8. Pea Shelling

Pea shelling can take a long time, even if you’re using a pea shelling machine. Luckily, you can speed it up a bit and save your arm by attaching a drill to the end of your pea sheller. All you have to do is turn the drill on and drop the pea pods into the sheller. The peas will get shelled at a much faster rate using this method.

9. Shoe Shining

If you need to shine any of your shoes, a drill is the fastest and easiest way to accomplish this. Attach a shoe buffer, add some shoe polish, and turn the drill onto low speed. It will polish the dirt away extremely fast.

You will need to be cautious when using liquid shoe polish, as the rotation of the drill can sling some of the liquid off. Just be aware!

10. Scrubber

If there is any mildew or algae you need a scrub away, a cordless drill can be beneficial. A drill brush and a cordless drill can effectively move many algae and mildew types, virtually eliminating the need for you to pull out heavier machinery.

11. Corkscrew

If you’ve forgotten your corkscrew or find yourself somewhere without one, you can use a cordless drill and a screw in a pinch. Fit the large screw into the drill bit and screw it into the cork. Then, gently pull it out. It will require a bit more work than a corkscrew, but the chance of breaking the bottle or the cork is relatively small.

12. Pumpkin Carver

You can get through pumpkin carving very quickly this year with a cordless drill. You don’t even need any special gear for this. Instead, you can use regular drill bits in the pattern you want on your pumpkin. Smaller drill bits are probably your best option. After making many smaller holes, you can pop out the shape or pattern.

13. Coffee Grinder

Many people grind their coffee, which helps bring out the richness and flavor. However, this can take quite a bit of time and requires special equipment. Instead, you can use your cordless grill. All you need to do is put the coffee inside the grinder and attach the grinding shaft onto the drill. Then, turn the drill on the slow speed and ground all the coffee in only a few moments.

You can use this system to grind just about anything, including spices and pepper.

You should not grind at higher speeds, as this can break the grinder and smush the coffee.

14. Pencil Sharpener

If you’re tired of hand-sharpening pencils, you can make your electric pencil sharpener. Attach the pencil’s eraser-end to your electric drill, shove it in a sharpener, and turn on the drill.

This is most convenient when you need to sharpen a lot of pencils. You may not want to drag the cordless drill out for only one pencil.

15. Remove Rust

Usually, an angle grinder is necessary for removing rust from metal tools and surfaces. However, with the right attachment, you can also scrub off rust with a cordless drill. The easiest way to do this is to use a brush bit, but you can also use the accessories meant for angle grinders.

See Also:

• How Long Do Cordless Drill Batteries Last?

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay