I would have thought that a good one will stand up to masonary work just fine. As long as the bearings and switch gear are well sealed against the dust they ought to last well. I have a 2kW Hitachi 9" grinder that has done nothing but cut masonary, slabs, roof tiles, concrete paths etc for the last 3 years - still working as good as new.
What is more it actually cost less in real terms than a number of the cheapie options - got it from a local trade supplier (alas now closed it seems) who specialied in Hitachi kit - it was 72 quid but that included about 30 quids worth of diamond disc! (must admit I asked the girl behind the counter to check that the disc really was included in the price!)
I bought the Makita HR2450X based on newsgroup reccomendations as well as personal preferences. It came with the conventional chuck adaptor and can say that the machine is awesome!
Just to test it out I used a 35mm frostner bit and it went clean through the 3" wood I was massacring Youre right about the slight play in the chuck as with all sds bits it has that slight give but once youre in about 1/4-1/2" this is no longer a problem as the pressure and walls of the hole keep it from wandering. I can only imagine that with auger bits it will be even better and much smoother. By comparison the 18v cordless Makita went through the wood also with apparent ease (slightly less) but the SDS won just on the basis of much higher torque. Speed did not seem to play that big a part as with big holes you really need the torque which I assume will drop once you set the metabo on the higer speed setting.
The speed is definitely not an issue with smaller bits i.e. anything less than 15mm bit in wood. Also for making holes (with hole saws) in wood, chipboard, mdf etc this drill is more than up to the job.
However, one very crucial point to note is that often with these types of holes it relates to waste pipes in kitchens etc and the size of the drill needs to be considered. Often you will find that in those situations youre better off with a small but powerful cordless or mains drill. Just on this reason alone I would opt for two drills. An SDS and a cordless.
By the way do you have a cordless drill driver already? As there is no way the SDS would be suited for anything other than coach bolts IMHO. You definitely need a cordless driver with torque control (if you dont have one) as I would not even consider manual screwing anymore (did I just say that?!!) and the SDS is just too big for such jobs.
The HR2450 comes in three flavours:
1 HR2450 - no conventional chuck adapter included £116
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HR2450X - With keyless Conventional chuck adapter £116
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HR2450T - With interchangeable chuck from SDS+ to keyless conventional @ £185
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the extra £70 for a fancy chuck system does not seem worth it. The keyless adapter works just fine unless you are overly concerned about the bit moving around.
ON the Lawson website the metabo range is also there but not sure which one you want but £280 for the UHE38 !! If I were you I'd buy the Hr2450X (with keyless adapter) and a cordless 12v as a screwdriver for general drilling and driving. Both will be top quality and give you greater flexibility AND still have £60 left over for all the new SDS bits you could want.
Save the SDS beast for brick ,concrete Chiselling, Chanelling etc.
The Makita comes with 3m of thick cable in an excellent case with storage for enough of the sds bits that you may need.
Intake vent holes on the side and on top (not sure if that is the same for the Dewalt) which may prevent accidents previously debated. ;-)
Even if this is true, would I really want to get nasty stone/concrete dust on my lovely metal working tools? I might do maybe 1 days worth of masonry work per year, compared to several weeks worth of metal work.
I'd rather use my cheapie grinder for this, keeping my good ones relatively dust free.
FWIW, Makro are doing a JCB twin pack for UKP54.99+VAT (64.60) in their promotion starting on 7th July. This consists of an 18v cordless drill with
2 batteries and 1 hour charger, together with a corded hammer drill (admittedly only one mechanical speed, but electronic speed control). The same pack is in the current Argos catalogue for UKP79.99 - so the Makro deal looks quite good. I would be sorely tempted if I didn't already have equivalent drills.
Hope it's better than the JCB 1/2 sheet orbital sander I mistakenly bought. Even the smaller 1/3 sheet B&Q Performance (non-pro) one is better than it.
Erbauer appears to be Screwfix own brand with all of the usual limitations of questionnable quality and no service backup.
Skil products are pretty reasonable (for example their circular saws are solid although basic.
I'm not sure about the Ryobi SDS drill specifically, but generally their tools are not reviewed well. For example, I was looking at a review of 18v cordless drills in a wood working magazine this morning where products were scored on performance and value for money. Ryobi came bottom of the list on both counts.
If you are looking for a 2kg budget product, Bosch is pretty good. If "budget" means in the £100 area then you are into the realms of much better quality products like Makita and DeWalt.
Cheapest Bosch is £88 at both toolstation and screwfix. Doesnt say f they have rotostop thugh.
How they expect to seel stuff without basic info like that I dont know.
I like the price of the Skil one at £100, that includes a complete bit set. Its still far more than I'm convinced I need to spend though, its not liek I'm using it on a business basis.
On Sat, 3 Jul 2004 23:10:53 +0100, "IMM" strung together this:
Even though I couldn't read your reply without scrolling, (and usually I just skip to the next message at this point because it's probably not worth the effort of scrolling down to read a one liner), I thought to myself "I bet he mentions something about PPPoo in his one liner" so out of idle curiosity scrolled down this time. Well, you're predictable if nothing else.
Ah - mine holds on for grim death - even when trying to get it out :-) Aren't production tolerances wonderful :-)
I also notice the gearbox needs re-filling with grease every five hours and the pot of grease they supply isn't full but has about five helpings in it. I assume this means the drill is designed to never get to 30 hours before it dies :-)
Wow, you've bothered opening the gearbox? I intend to run it dry, see how long it lasts.
On a similar note, we have an H reg Metro bought for £50 which we use as a powered wheelbarrow around the place (good value, eh?). About 2 years ago it developed a major oil leak, and lost all of its oil. I thought it would be interesting to see how long it can go on running with no oil. Today it left us on a flatbed, 2 years and 250 miles later.
Watch out for those descriptions as well. I've seen SDS drills described as "rotostop" and I suppose technically they were. A control could be used to stop the tool being rotated by the motor.
However on several cheap makes, the tool is still free to rotate. NuTool drills are particularly bad for this. It may sound trivial, but when using a chisel it's impossible to control if it starts to rotate with the vibration of the drill. Since I wanted an SDS drill mostly for chasing in electrical sockets, the NuTool was inappropriate.
Particularly bad if you want to use the corner of the chisel and it won't stay put I would expect.
Another aspect of the budget drills that is often overlooked is the need to keep re-greasing them. After a while they end up covered in the stuff and start gobbing black gunk out all over the place.
(the better tools normally only recommend that you lightly grease the shank of the SDS bit once in a while!)
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