I'm only guessing but it sounds like you had an old cordless drill you were trying to fix:
I gonna say there's no substitute for a drill with a cord. I bought an old craftsman corded drill at a flea market for $10 and it is always ready.
But, I almost always use my cordless drills these days. The same soldering skills I learned on this forum to hack stuff and wire panels enabled me to replace my dead batteries for around 11$ (a battery lasts 3-5 years.) I posted a thread a while ago when I rebuilt my ist battery...I was sure proud.
I've recently taken to using two drills for my projects. one with a drill bit and the other for the screws. Perhaps i'm just lazy but it's convenient not to have to swap bits.
my 2¢