Buying a new cordless drill

[Mark]

So preceding SDS, holes were never drilled into concrete ?

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[Dave Plowman (News)]

There were other ways of doing it. But anyone with any experience agrees that SDS is the cheapest and easiest way these days of drilling hard brick or concrete, so why bother with alternatives?

[Guy King]

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

Oh, they do, I've done it. But not in a practical time frame with some concretes.

[Guy King]

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

I suspect many of the naysayers have never actually used a £30 SDS drill and found how good they are.

[John Rumm]

To an extent it comes down to how often you meet stuff that is difficult to drill. I probably started using a hammer drill from the age of 12, and from there until my mid 30s I had never encounted anything I could not drill with a ordinary hammer drill. I had heard of SDS, but did not know what all the fuss was about!

Then the time came I tried to drill a hole into the render on the outside of my current house using my "ordinary" bosch hammer drill. After spending 10 to 15 mins per hole, up a ladder making loads of noise and very little progress, I began to appreciate that not all hard stuff is made the same. It was the time I vowed "never again", and ordered a Makita HR2450 from screwfix!

Now having used a decent SDS, I realise just how pathetic and feeble all "hammer" drills are in comparison.

(I have also used a few low end SDS machines, and agree - if all you want is a hole quickly, they will do that very well)

[Guy King]

The message from John Rumm contains these words:

Works for me! I generally glue plugs in anyway, using polyurethane foaming stuff.

[Mark]

Oh im not disputing how good an SDS drill is, its statements like "Cobblers. A hammer action drill will simply not drill into concrete" that I have problems with. How hard is that concrete, have you ever tried drilling into concrete mixed with 40mm ballast or hit a reinforcing bar with an SDS drill, SDS also has its limitations.

Kango, Hilti and Bosch made pneumatic hammer drills long before the SDS chuck was invented, but they never cost £30 or were generally sold in the DIY market.

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[Gogs]

Right I am going to buy one or the other, can anyone advise on the best one to go for.

Either the 24v Bosch like this but for =A380 with One 1.5 battery

this Makita from Lawson HIS which costs about =A325 more but has 2 batteries and a driver set but is only 14.4v

[Chris Bacon]

See other replies. A non-SDS hammer drill will drill into concrete.

[Chris Bacon]

I wonder whether any of the drilling machines available now with SDS chucks have, in fact, a "conventional" mechanism?

[Guy King]

The message from Chris Bacon contains these words:

We did this the other day. There are one or two, but they're rare and expensive. And probably pointless.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sort of depends on the concrete. It's a bit the same as saying bricks. Both come in various degrees of hardness.

A good easy repeatable test is to get a Stafford Blue brick and try drilling that with both. You'll be left in no doubt which works best...

[Mark]

Very unlikely But there is more then one type of "conventional" mechanism" The older cheep B&D type hammer drill used two serrated gear cogs, they will certainly drill into softer bricks and concrete _eventually_. Makita and possibly others made a hammer drill were the chuck was hit by a rotating cam, it was about as powerful as you could get with a 3jaw Jacob's chuck, it would drill into _Almost_ anything a modern SDS drill can. Downside it eats the shank on drill bits before the tip has blunted. Ive still got one, keep an eye on antiques road show in 100 years ;(

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[Chris Bacon]

Of course not. Perhaps you didn't read what I wrote in response to the claim that "A hammer action drill will simply not drill into concrete". I said "A non-SDS hammer drill will drill into concrete". I did not say that it works better than a (to use the term above) "SDS" - just that it *will* drill into concrete. Of course it will. Do you say that it won't, or won't drill into Staffy Blue bricks?

[Chris Bacon]

Sounds like a Toshiba I had... I knwe I should have taken it to bits before theowing it away (the commutator have up the ghost)...

[Gogs]

Fecking hell, why does this always end up in a tit for tat, my drill is bigger than yours, SDS this and SDS that.

If you who are debating this subject are so on the ball with this subject, care to maybe help with my query, thank you please ;)

[Chris Bacon]

It's a friendly discussion.

What query was that, then? Something about how to use Google?

[Chris Bacon]

FWIW go for the one with two batteries.

[Gogs]

A friendly discussion you may thing but its also hi-jacking a thread where I was looking for some help.

Why not start a new thread about what type of concrete a standard non SDS drill will or wont go through.

What query was it, the one you never read or most likely never contributed to!

[Mark]

But your question was like asking what's best, a Vauxhall astra or a ford focus how many people own both and could give a definitive answer. FWIW nether of drills you are looking at will be any better then a cheep mains hammer drill in hard masonry. If you _Really_ need a good battery drill for use in masonry buy this

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