Star drill?

[BobK207]

Bill-

People who answered your question with alternatives were trying to give you the benefit of their experience.

I have drilled 100's of holes in concrete over the years. I'm even old enough to have used a star drill (my dad made you use one when a concrete / masonry bit in a regular electric drill wouldn't do the job)

So I was one of the guys who had experience with: electric drill star drill star drill used in conjunction with electric drill battery powered rotary hammer electric rotary hammer (Bosch, Hilti, Milwaukee)

based on this experience I know the method I would use

So after hundreds of holes with all sorts of tools / methods......I see a question from a guy wanting to get a star drill to use in conjunction with an electic drill to drill 40 holes x 3/4" diameter of unspecified depth in concrete of specified thickness & reinforcement.

I think "wow'....he's headed for a lot work with that star drill. I think I give him the benefit of my experience.

Sorry if you didn't like my answer or the similar ones supplied by others.

in that time frame for some reason? What if I got called away for an emergency, or it started to rain?

[PeterD]

Some people don't get it. Never will...

You asked for help, and everyone gave you some. Instead you jumped on us because you didn't like the answers. All the answers were good and viable. If you knew what you were going to do anyway, why ask? After all, Google only returns 1.4 million hits on the topic, and the first ten or so will give all the needed information.

[George]

I share your disgust. What is the world coming to when people offer polite, helpful and accurate suggestions to someone who appeared to have chosen a bad path to follow?

[SteveB]

Go a step further and get a rotohammer. I bought a good Makita the other day for $25 at a yard sale. It has a SDS bit system, and has both the demo hammer and rotohammer mode.

A hammer drill will get it done. A rotohammer will get it done in less than half the time. They can be had at pawn shops, in the local Quick Quarter rags, and at yard sales for prices that make it so that if you don't use it much, you don't lose a lot of money.

The other day, we were ripping out caliche from where we want to put a walkway. I needed a trench about three feet long and a foot deep and wide for a French drain. I got out the Makita, and was done in a couple of hours.

Get the rotohammer. You'll be glad you did.

Steve

[The Other Funk]

Finding the keyboard operational willshak entered:

Ok, easy solution then. Go back to the kid in tool world and have him get a Dasco

1/2" cold chisel item 142071. You are going to have to hit then turn more then a real star drill but for less then $5 it will do. Bob

--

-- Coffee worth staying up for ? NY Times

[trader4]

I guess I can see both sides of this discussion. I know there have been times when someone has asked a simple straightforward question that does have a direct answer and instead got lots of uneeded advice without answering the basic question. In this case, the answer was that HD stocks them. I bought one there earlier this year. In my case, I just had to enlarge an existing a hole a little bit to be able to fit a 1/2 water pipe. It took about 2 mins.

On the other hand, I've used masonry drills, star bits, and hammer drills. And the hammer drill will make holes so much faster and easier that the posters suggesting that being the best solution were only trying to share their experience and make the OP's job easier. When the OP said that one issue with renting a hammer drill would be what if he didn't get all the holes drilled in one day, I had to wonder if he's ever used one. If a hammer drill can't do the holes in a day, IMO, I can't imagine doing the job with a regular drill and star bit with hammer.

[Rudy]

Eggsactly ! and you can rent one from HD (Bosch Hammer drill or rotary hammer) for the 4 hr minimum for about 25 bucks and get the job done in less than an hour..or "tinker" around with ancient technology and spend all day at it.

[PeterD]

Reliving one's youth is one thing, 40 holes is another! Even in my youth I'd not have wanted to drill 40 holes by hand...

[SteveB]

I was a Teamster for 37 years. We had a saying that if you give a lazy man a job to do, he'll find the quickest easiest way to do it. I think even a Teamster would go rent a rotohammer.

Steve ;-)

[Harry K]

Even a dumb one would wise up after a few holes. Me, I heat with wood, have a hydraulic splitter but do all my splitting with wedge/ sledge/maul except for the knots/crotches. One the face of it it looks stupid but I am retired and it is the only real excercise I get. Going through 6 cord every year keeps me from blowing up like a balloon.

Harry K

[SteveB]

I'm blessed with good genes, I guess. I'm 59, 5-10, 180#, and can outdo younger men. But after an 8 1/2 hour heart surgery, I choose to use power a lot. I'm still pretty strong, but nothing like when I was younger. I still do a lot, but the pain of having your sternum sawed in half never goes away totally, and I live in constant pain. But it's like working out where it's cold and wet and dirty. Most of the time I would just tell the young whiners, "What makes you think I'm not cold, wet, dirty, hungry, and have water running down the crack of MY ass, too? Now quit your whining, shut the f*ck up and go to work like the rest of us."

Hope I don't have my sister's genes. She's 63 and had a heart transplant in June. Got the heart of a 25 year old man. Says she feels better than she has in years. I'll bet. For the last year, she's been lugging around a left ventricular assist machine.

Look that up in your Google.

Steve

[MackDGiddens]

Don't know if you found it yet but you can get them from ACE or other hardware stores. There listed under chisels as a star drill. I got a few at home but havent tried them out yet. I didn't see where anyone answered you yet and couldn't tell if you got an answer.

good luck

[mkirsch1]

Bill,

I know "rent a hammer drill" is not the answer you're looking for.

Still, it is the best advice for your situation. With a hammer drill, you will NEVER have to stop to bust up the aggregate. A hammer drill will bust right through on its own.

The amount of time and money you spend running around looking for a star bit will more than offset a 4-hour rental on a hammer drill.

Drill 20 holes with your regular drill, using the star bit every time you run into a pebble. Then drill the other 20 with a hammer drill. You'll wonder why you even bothered with the star bit.

[SteveB]

As an aside, and in the vein of this thread ..........

I have used star drills when I hit a hard piece of aggregate when drilling with a hammer drill. It fractures the piece of aggregate and gets the drill penetrating again.

One of the best was a 3/16" rod that came as a tensioner for a wrought iron gate. I believe it was cold rolled, or whatever makes it not bend. I would grind the end to a screwdriver point, and just put that in the hole and hit it with a hammer a few times, turning it as one would do with a star drill. Actually, the handmade tool was better than the factory job.

Steve

[willshak]

on 10/10/2007 1:08 PM [e-mail] said the following:

Thanks. The job is finished. Thanks to some others, I used only the tools I had at home. Nothing spent but my energy.

[willshak]

on 10/10/2007 1:40 PM [e-mail] said the following:

Thanks. The job was finished with the tools at hand.

[RicodJour]

Not quite. You also spent a lot of other people's energy who were being helpful.

I'm glad that you got the job done, that there were only half as many holes as you thought, that you learned to step up drill bit sizes as you drill larger holes in tougher material if you don't have the right tool, etc. I still don't understand the selective thanks bit. Everyone was trying to be helpful - scratch that - everyone _was_ helpful, you just didn't like what you were reading. Advice is funny like that.

Next time you run across a thread where the OP flat out refuses to listen to advice you know is right, and argues about it, think - that could be me.

R

[willshak]

If someone asks for advice, and I have advice to offer, I will offer it, unless someone else has already offered the same advice. If someone is asking where to buy a certain item, and I know where, I will offer locations, unless others have already given the same locations. No sense having a bunch of people repeating the same thing. Especially when it is not the answer to the question asked. A lot of the fault lies with me. I should have sent the message after just asking where to get the tool, rather than continuing on with the purpose of the tool.

[willshak]

on 10/11/2007 11:10 AM SteveB said the following:

Wasn't it you that asked a question last month about tool handles? I count 28 responses to that question, but you only replied to 1 of them, and that was a snide remark about new handles on an antique ax. BTW, how did that handle repair work out for you?

[Harry K]

Yes, a lot of it is your fault. The main one is your rudeness. To ask a question, get what you want and then bitch about other advice that is offered is...well...

Harry K