sds breaker

[Fred]

Hi,

I have a 30 year old concrete floor downstairs and the builders decided to bury my CH pipes in it. I read here some debate about copper in cement but I was more concerned about the heat lost into the floor, so I have been trying to excavate the old pipes and re-route the new pipes. The old copper pipe was blackened on the outside but there were no signs of leaks, so I'm not sure what that says about the effects of being buried in the concrete?

It looks as though when they laid the floor, they left channels to fit the pipes into and then filled these channels later. The concrete they used to fill the channels can be chiseled out with an sds drill but the concrete of the main floor is impossible to break into. I presume they must have used a magical, much harder, mix for that?

I've managed to go along with a big 6kg sds drill but it can be slow going. Once I hired a proper 10kg breaker and that was fun but it cost me £50. I can't remember if that was for one or two days now.

I see that Screwfix sells ebaurer breakers. The cheapest is £154, which makes it almost cheaper to buy than hire one. That is for an 8kg model; they also sell a 10kg and 18kg one. Curiously the 10kg one costs more than the 18kg (£235 vs 205).

I know some brand name 2kg sds drills punch as hard as the cheap generic 6klg ones, so I assume that the weight is not the important number; is the impact energy is the thing to look at? The 10kg breaker is rated at 25J max. whereas the 8kg breaker is half this at max 12J, so there is a big difference.

I have read the reviews there but wondered if anyone here had bought their own breaker? I would imagine it would come in very handy, not just for concrete floors but for digging up old patios, digging holes in the drive for posts for a carport, etc.

What do you think? TIA

[dcawkwell]

assume fine. But why waste your time taking up the old pipes they aren't going anywhere. Cement can eat into copper pipe so the pipe should be painted or sealed in tape. Not that it will be a problem probably take 20-30 years to eat into it.

[Steve Walker]

Exactly - just leave them there...!

[AlanD]

I have the Erbauer 18kg one IIRC, I've used it for breaking up several concrete garage bases etc, which it's been fine for. Easily cheaper than hiring, it had paid for itself in the first job.

Alan.

[John Rumm]

From the picture it appears to be the same as the Fairline branded one I bought at Makro a few years ago (might be worth checking if they still have them, since I paid less than the SF price IIRC (£120+VAT perhaps). Again I needed it for a particular job, and it was borderline cheaper to buy than hire. I was not expecting much from it, but was pleasantly surprised that it was actually very effective. Its been used a few times since and has *significantly* more punch than the normal SDS+ type beasties.

[Fred]

True but I have other plans for the breaker if I buy one: that was just one example. I did dig into the concrete in places because I was doing the plumbing on a room by room basis so I needed to cap a few pipes so that the untouched rooms would still work until I got round to doing those as well. Also I did have to go, reluctantly, in the concrete in one or two places to get under doorways. Deviating from the original channels was impossible because the other concrete was too hard.

These have been there for about 35 years. there was no paint or tape but no damage that I could see... yet. Who knows whether in a couple of years they might have started to pinhole though.

[Fred]

So that's two recommendations for the 18kg one. I think I hired a 10kg model. Is the 18kg tiring to handle being much heavier?

I see one Screwfix reviewer talks about buying the smaller model too. I did wonder why he needed a small model when he had the big one but I presume it is for horizontal work? I have been sds chiseling plaster today and found my 6kg drill heavy after prolonged use.

BTW I see there are some wider chisels for sds max; can you only get

50mm chisels for an sds drill?

Thanks again.

[John Rumm]

Depends on what you do with it. For breaking floors, the extra weight is a bonus. If however you wanted to use it horizontally, then you would probably not want to do so for prolonged periods!

Its a case of different tools for different jobs really. Socket boxes etc and chasing work are easy with a 2kg 2 - 3 joule SDS but get tiring with a heavy version. However more serious horizontal breaking - say knocking through a wall or light concrete breaking in confined spaces needs something with more impact. The 4 - 5 J bigger SDS machines may do, but in many ways are only faster versions of the 2kg class. The 10kg machines however would fit the bill nicely. For breaking up slabs and pavings however the short length and lack of impact energy would make for slow going that is also hard on the back.

I suspect its a bit like routers - in the end you work out you need a selection of them.

[YAPH]

looks like the one I've got. It tackles flint walls which my 2kg Bosch SDS will barely look at. My only concern is that the odd size bits seem to be unobtainable so when the 2 supplied are knackered it'll be the end of the road (or return to Screwfix for refund).

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember YAPH saying something like:

>This looks like the one I've got. It tackles flint walls which my 2kg

"17.2mm Hex" sounds like the AEG fitting. I've had no problem getting them in the past.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Grimly Curmudgeon saying something like:

url:

've just seen the end fittings on the pdf - I'll have a look to see if the ends are the same. The hex of the shank certainly is, but afair, the AEG bits have a bit /hex shank/groove/collar/end shank and I unrecall if the ones I bought have a longditudinal groove at the end - which looks very like an SDS fit.

Damn me, there's two different bits shown. In the pdf, 'fitting the chisel', fig 2, it shows what for alll the world looks like an AEG fitting.

[Dave]

Out of curiosity, what sort of bits are you talking about?

Dave