I'm not quibbling the choice of SDS drill, but do you really need to spend £160 for one?
I just spent £79 in a Homebase shed for the following:
I'm wondering whether paying double will actually buy you something better?
Andrew
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BES do a Hitachi or Makita or something similar for £100
The rotary (tct-studded drill) bit makes a hell of a lot of dust, and isn't that quick. I haven't used it since the time I did a dozen or so boxes in one room followed by a couple of hours cleaning (the room and myself) up afterwards! (If you want to buy a slightly used one I'm up for offers :-).
I didn't buy the box-shaped bit.
They (SF) were also doing a sort of bed-of-nails-on-a-stick tool a while back, but it doesn't seem to be in the catalogue now. Don't know if they were any good.
They work, but the first one I had broke off at the SDS end of the shank after a while, followed by the drill I was using breaking at the chuck!
Because of the way the tool shank curves ...
--------- \ \ chisel ------|____
... it generates a lot of sideways impact force which I suspect was what did for chisel and hammer. If they'd designed it with a straight shank ...
------------------\____
... and with the chisel end slightly offset (imagine a slight rake upwards - impossible to show with ascii art!) I think it'd be more robust.
For box sinking I tend to put in a few holes for the the corners and to break up the body of the cut (and to set the depth) and use a straight chisel to cut out the rest.
cheers
-- John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+ Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making someone else look bad. And I'm tired of making other people feel good about themselves!
I think everyone is confused he means this
In the case of an SDS drill, if you are going to use it regularly, absolutely it's worth buying a good one like a Bosch.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
After hand chiselling about half the sockets in my house I started to seriously consider one. Thought about it, but someone suggested this to me one day, and it works for me. If you have a 110m core drill (cheap £20 type) sink this to box depth then knock out the core. Two holes like a venn diagram for a 2 gang box. Less dust than the box sinker as the core normally stays intact. I thought the hand method was neater, I could fix a box without breakout around the edges most times, but seeing as you've got to plaster the trunking anyway you may as well plaster round the box.
Toby.
I can't see any of them being worth the money - I can make a neat (neat in the sense that it takes a rubber mallet to seat the box) cavity in less than five minutes just using an SDS drill, followed by a 20mm SDS chisel.
I use a 22mm SDS gouge, from Axminster. It is as you describe, does the channelling beautifully, and cost £4.95.
This is the method that I use (see above),
Do you mean this?
Axminster > Power tools > SDS Accessories G310B4 20mm SDS Channelling Chisel £24.31 excl VAT £28.56 incl VAT
Well I've just clicked the above link and gone straight to the page describing the SDS drill! Obviously something to do with cookies or whatever I suppose.
Andrew
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This is the SDS gouge:
Toby.
I bought one of these cheap ones a few months ago and it didn't last at all well - went blunt very quickly and started making a big mess of the chases.
I replaced it with the other one that was identified (G310B4). This is UK made by a company called Armeg and is a different proposition altogether - very smooth results and no sign of wear after quite a bit of use.
I also bought their mortar rake (G175B4) which has proved to be a great tool for electrical and other work where neatly removing a brick etc. is required.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
for double boxes) very well, but quite suddenly became ineffective when it wore out (cutting edge became rounded). The square piece in the kit was completely useless and would get stuck in the hole -- squaring off the round hole was much more easily done with a chisel attachment. So, the cost was something over £2 per box, or £5 for doubles, which looking back isn't cheap.
Yup - I've never seen the point in making a neat hole in a solid wall. Plasterboard where the cables go behind it, yes.
In article , Martin Angove writes
Mine is the original Screwfix one, and it is good, including in the engineering-hardness bricks we have here.
I've largely solved the dust problem: Bin-liner sized clear plastic bags taped to the wall with masking tape - cut off one bottom corner to pass the drill's plug through, then tape up, with around 1m of cable inside for ease of manipulation. You hold the drill through the plastic bag. I did this in one of the children's bedrooms, and hardly needed to run the hoover over the carpet where I'd been working afterwards.
Pros and cons (YMMV):
- The square cutter *does* jam, but not a disaster
- using it for double boxes is tricky, so I made up a MDF template to drill pilot holes - works a treat.
- the square cutter can slip round when you start (although it's SDS mounting can rotate WRT the cutter, you *must* have rotary stop for safety, in case it jams). It helps to have an 'assistant' hold a straight edge horizontal on the top of the cutter as you start to cut. Once it's started it's fine.
Mine has done around 50-60 boxes so far. It doesn't look blunt yet, and I'd be tempted to try grinding it carefully when it eventually goes.
On balance, I like it a lot. In block/weaker brickwork, it would be even better. It's not cheap, but IMHO, the ease of doing an irritatingly awkward job makes it worth it. Having said that, the core drill method suggested elsewhere sounds brilliant to get the depth. If you're going for a good quality, clutch-equipped SDS drill it might be worth it.
Regards,
Simonm.
See
-- Phil Addison The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at
Great responses, thanks everyone. Just to confirm, the £160 I'm worried about *isn't* the cost of the drill (though not far off - I've been looking at a 620W Bosch), it's the combined cost of the sinker set (single, double, rotary, pilot) from Screwfix.
If I read things right, it seems there are two camps on this matter. First camp says they're brilliant for making a hole and doing it neatly, second says there are cheaper ways that don't make as much dust.
I think I'm beginning to lean towards the idea of using a core drill and squaring it off with a chisel.
Seriously short of powertool catalogues though. Maybe a request to Axminster is in order :-)
Hwyl!
Martin.
Oh dear. You mean you haven't got six of them?
Other useful ones are from Rutlands and DM Tools who have some things that Axminster doesn't.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
It certainly is heavy. I have no idea if it is a rebadged NuTool but I dare say that is a strong possibility.
To be perfectly honest with this being my first ever experience of an SDS drill I'm happy to write off the cost if it proves unreliable, because any future replacement will be made on the basis of direct experience which I didn't have previously :)
Andrew
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Core drills are quite capable of producing lots of dust :)
Andrew
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