I drilled through brick to take a 22mm gas pipe; I found a plastic water pipe that was a fairly snug fit to the 22mm copper, but its external diameter was something like 28mm ( can't remember - that gives a wall thickness of about
I need to make holes in a single brick thick solid plastered wall to run both 15mm and 22mm copper pipe.
Just using a hammer and chisel in the past has always resulted in a huge hole plus lots of plaster dropping off the wall/cracks etc. These holes are going to be seen so they need to be neat.
Does anyone have any advice on the best way to this?
1) What size plastic pipe should I use to sleeve the 15mm and 22mm copper pipe ? Can you get special pipe sleeves for the job ?2) All I have at the moment is a 570W B&D Hammer drill. Is it worth investing in a cheap SDS drill (e.g. £30 Ferm model in Screwfix) or hiring a decent one? Can you get anything decent for around the £100 mark as it's likely to be used for other jobs in the future but I don't want to spend £500.
3) What size bit would I need for above holes ? Previous posts indicate you usually end up with a bigger hole than the bit you use for the job. Do I need a core drill bit or just a standard drill bit ?4) Previous posts indicate drilling a small pilot hole first and then going in half way from both sides. Any improvement on this method ?
Any help much appreciated with this.
Andy.
Can you still get plastic coated copper tube? I remember it in 15mm, not sure about 22mm ...
20mm plastic electrical conduit works well for 15mm. I don't think I've ever needed to do 22mm. 32 or 40mm (can't remember which, probably 32mm) waste pipe works well for 28mm copper pipe.
You would probably burn out the B&D drill. When you buy an SDS drill, certainly for first time use, make sure it has a clutch. Otherwise you'll likely end up in casulty with dislocated wrist, or in and case of a friend of mine, having stiches in your chin. SDS drills don't stop turning just because the bit jams in the hole -- it's the drill body and parts of your body which start going round instead if it's got no clutch.
Also, for use with a large heavy bit, I would suggest some gloves. I use my gell padded cycling gloves which absorb some of the vibration from the drill.
20mm SDS bit works for 20mm electrical conduit IME. Yes, the hole ends up slightly bigger, but otherwise you won't get the conduit in. Vacuum out all the dust or you might get the conduit jammed half way in.Standard SDS will do for these sizes. For anything bigger than
20mm, I would suggest drilling the hole out with smaller bits first.In a 9" brick wall with a big drill, you can end up with a large bit just pushing the rear brick right out rather than drilling through it. You might avoid this by drilling through halfway from each side, but you'll have to be careful making sure the hole is straight enough to get the sleeving and pipe in, or you drill it sufficiently bigger that this isn't an issue. You might also try drilling progressively larger holes in a few goes, but I suspect this increases the chance of the bit sticking on something.
You can hire larger SDS bits. They are normally for SDS max chucks, and you'll need an adaptor to go into an SDS plus chuck, which is normally free loan with the bit. Note that you'll need one adaptor per bit, as you probably won't be able to separate it from the bit afterwards -- it needs a special tool which the hire shop has.
Firstly does it need to be a plastic pipe sleeve? Or would Denso tape do the trick? (Would need to be a propper sleeve for a gas pipe, but for water just protecting the pipe from corrosion is enough. You could also get away with unsleeved plastic barrier pipe for water if you wanted.
Yes. Even a cheap one will give you a hole much quicker than you though possible before.
A top end drill like the Makita H2450 is typically under 120 quid and well worth it...
You can get 15mm copper through a hole drilled with a 16mm SDS bit. A
25mm bit will do it for 22mm. If you want another sleeving pipe then you will need correspondingly bigger holes.Once you get to holes larger than about 25mm, you can get larger SDS bits, but they start getting harder to find and more expensive. You may find a core drill a cheaper option. If you are going to use a core drill then get a SDS with at least 700W, and make sure it has a safety clutch because core bits tend to snag from time to time. With the safety clutch this is no more dramatic than reaching the torque limiter on a cordless drill when putting in a screw. Without it you may find yourself flying off a ladder or with a clearly defined outline of a drill handle on your right gonad!
Many of the sub 30 quid SDS units omit the safety clutch. Having a good speed controller is also worth having especially when using the drill for chiselling (chisel mode is not present on all drills, so check for this)
Not necessary - even a 25mm diameter 400mm long SDS bit will romp through brickwork etc without any problem.
Heat-shrink sleeving should do the job nicely. It's thick enough to protect the pipe against the very mild fretting that might occur inside the hole, but without hugely increasing the hole diameter. (Unless the regs require some specific type of sleeve?)
My old B&D and I just barely managed a double solid wall with a brand-new 18mm bit, but we both ended up stinking hot and badly shaken. Every action has an equal and opposite thingy, and a 22-25mm hole would definitely have wrecked both of us.
SDS was a revelation! This might be just the right moment to invest in an SDS drill, but do heed what people say about buying a drill that has a rotary stop, hammer stop - and above all, a safety clutch. I thoroughly agree about the Makita H2450, which has all of those. It's a very nice piece of kit, and one of those tools that is a real pleasure to use.
A few thoughts about pilot holes... Yes, an SDS drill probably will let you blast straight through with a 25mm bit, but don't forget that your final objective is to have that pipe coming out at exactly the right location and angle. Going gently through with a 12mm bit gives you a lot more control. When you move up to the full-size bit, it will go through much more easily. However, it won't follow the pilot hole exactly. To avoid a step inside the hole, the final bit needs to be long enough to go well past half-way.
if you are drilling large holes through brick / concrete a cheapo SDS drill will do the job BUT if and when the drill bit bites, particularly with core bits, you will wish you had bought/hired a decent quality drill with a clutch mechanism.
broken wrist bones are not uncommon, you have been warned :)
RT
Get an SDS drill. I have a couple of quite huge drill bits that will go straight through even a thick brick wall. Don't sleeve copper with plastic. Cut out the middle man and just stick plastic through the wall. No need for copper at all. If you must run the pipework before/after in copper then it is easy to swap between with a compression/pushfit joint.
Christian.
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Others have addressed your main points, and I'll just confirm that for £100 you get a respectable SDS drill. There have been many discussion's here on SDS drills, cheap and expensive, but I wouldn't bother Googling as you'll have to wade through a fair pile of crap,as to get the decent info.
I've got the Bosch SDS that is available in Argos for about £90, and am very happy with it. Spend the money and buy this or something similar ,and you will soon find yourself wondering why you never got around to purchasing it sooner.
cheers
David
I thought that it what I said? ;-)
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