David

Is there such a thing as a kid's golf bag? For some reason I'm thinking that it would be awesome to have a miniaturized golf bag for such a thing, depending on how long the bits you're working with are.

I hope you made the right choice. It always comes down to what applications you're using your drill for. If you drill into masonry work, you need to have a hammer drill, but if you never need to drill into brick, there's no reason to carry around the extra weight that the percussion clutch adds to the tool. The Milwaukee is definitely a good option if you want expandability through bare tools, since they have a ton of tools on their platform, though with a 12V drill you will not be able to do the really strenuous tasks like drilling and setting lag bolts if you need to do any deck repair or the like. Conversely, if you're using it for home repair such as hanging blinds, or installing lights or other hardware, you'll like how compact and light the 12V tools are; though I am still skeptical of the usefulness of a hammer function on a 12V drill, but who knows, maybe I'd like it once I tried it.

Davekyn, From my understanding, NiCd batteries have a pretty reliable chemistry, so running down to low voltage doesn't damage the cells like it does in, say, Lithium Ion. I think you should be fine if you charge them once they show a noticeable power fade, but since they're prone to developing memories you don't really want to charge them half-way down, nor do you want to charge it only half-way back up before using it again.

My guess would be TechTronic Industries, which makes Ryobi and Milwaukee (and Ridgid maybe?). If you look at the 12V MasterForce batteries they're nearly identical to the ones in Milwaukee's 12V line-up. Though I think their bandsaw is made by Stout tools.

RCrosby, I'm not sure what would be causing multiple shorts in that charger; perhaps your batteries have oxidized to the point where the amount of current and heat needed to successfully charge them is causing the short. As for a recommendation of what to replace them with, if you haven't already... if you're looking at sticking with Hitachi, the DS18DSAL is a good bet. If you keep your eyes open you can find a good deal on one, but they'll generally run around $169. It's an 18V lithium ion drill with "compact" 1.5 Ah batteries. My neighbor has one and loves it. I personally like the higher amp hour hammer drills, but they're expensive and heavy (which can be annoying if you're doing small jobs like installing blinds or towel racks, etc.)