Hello all,
I want to attach an outside socket (a nice IP66 spec one) to a wall made of Whitby sandstone blocks. I need a hole 6mm or 8mm to take a suitable plug and screw.
Do I specifically need a diamond-tipped masonry bit for this?
An ordinary masonry bit clearly won't get anywhere!
Any recommendation? I don't particularly need something that will last for more than four holes as I won't be doing any more after this...
Michael
I'm surprised you're getting nowhere with an ordinary masonry bit. I assume you are using hammer or sds? SDS is certainly way more effective. Is the bit totally knackered?
NT
Sandstone? I would have thought a rusty nail would have done the job. Have you tried a new masonry drill?
Tim
I read it that the OP hasn't actually tried...
SDS probably wouldn't bat an eye lid, ordinary hammer might take a while but with a new bit should do the job. Sandstone does vary in hardness from poke it with a screwdriver to really needs an SDS. I don't know where on that scale Whitby Sandstone sits.
Think I'd get one of those Bosh multi material jobbies, and if needing an
8 mm hole drill a 5 or 6 mm first and open out to 8 mm. Four fixings for a socket seems a bit OTT though, two in diagonal corners should do.
If it is sandstone, just about any drill will do. Certainly any masonry one. Now if you were talking granite...
I have. I suspect the bits I've got a pretty crappy! I got about a quarter of an inch in!
The stone:
What I've done (for now) is to drill three holes into the mortar (which can be filled later) to afix the box at three corners but this isn't a good solution as mortar is liable to crumble. At least I've finally got power in the garden. (Yuk, working on armoured cables and glands is not fun!)
This box was the last one of the lot and isn't currently connected as a socket but is blanked off for now until I get a decent drill bit. When I do I'll move the box one inch diagonally downwards to where one of the blocks has a good flat area to take the box, and attach it properly there, then replace the blank cover with a socket cover. Then touch up the mortar if the old holes show.
Michael
Wonder if that is real stone or re-constituted?
Lidl has its cheap SDS drill on offer about now. SDS are good for the hardest stone.
And if the box is not level then that makes you a pro electrician;-)
an inch in!
How about a photo of your drill point? ;-)
Tim
"Ooo-err" as they say...
Michael
Actually, I have to say that it is unusually level, which rather surprised me. No doubt when I get my proper stone bit and drill into the blocks, rather than this temporary mortar-job, the results will be irreparably inferior!
Michael
you are using hammer or sds? SDS is certainly way more effective. Is the bit totally knackered?
+1hammer and a tungsten bit plus cooling (water) should chew through sandstone. I have only ever need a diamond core drill on quartzite and occasionally marble (not because its hard, but because it is fragile).
diamond core drills are not that expensive tho.
Whitby is at the harder end IIRC.
Sandstone varies a great deal. The (good) stuff local to us is very hard and will take a polish:
The bad stuff delaminates and weathers rather quickly.
The good stuff is hard enough to make drilling it with an ordinary hammer drill and masonary bit rather slow and tedious. I just get the SDS out if I find a bit where I want a hole...
I've used ice cubes as a handy source of "solid" water when drilling hard tiles.
Some sand stone has pieces of quartz/other hard pebbles in it. If you hit one you are in trouble.
If you hit one you are in rubble?
Jim K
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