SDS for hole on concrete path

[JoeZ]

Is an SDS drill the thing to use to drill a 5/8" hole though a (mighty hard) concrete path? I don't actually have an SDS - but if it'll do the job I'll see if I can hire one. Thanks

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Is an SDS drill the thing to use to drill a 5/8" hole though a (mighty hard) |concrete path? I don't actually have an SDS - but if it'll do the job I'll see |if I can hire one.

No problem I tested mine drilling a 1 inch hole in a concrete doorstep, no problem.

I would buy an SDS. Cheepie ones are heavy @ 6kg which is no problem for occasional work, but a bit much if you may use it a lot.

[Harry Bloomfield]

JoeZ used his keyboard to write :

It certainly is.

For what you pay for the hire, you could buy an SDS drill. The cheap ones can be had for £20 - £30 and are perfectly usable.

[Rick]

I'd expect my dewalt 18V hammer drill/driver to do it - but only with a decent bit.

IMHO the drill bit makes more difference than the drill, assuming you ignore the truly crap PPro drills.

Rick

[Weatherlawyer]

I think the biggest problem with the cheap ones is that the gangsters making them, skimp on the quality of the materials used in them. It's the sort of penny pinching English manufacturing was once famous for.

And still is.

The over the top pricey ones are usually given top quality parts but the actual business of putting them together costs the same which-ever tool. So for the sake of a few pennies the Chinese could put Makita, Hitatchi, Dewalt and the rest of them out of business.

I just can't see them doing it. It's a psychological thing. Some nationalities never miss an opportunity to f*ck-up big time.

Like Britain coming up with a sweet fast easily produced motorcycle engine and putting it in a chrome stallion and the world can't get enough of them. So what do they do?

Fill the order books with shoddy parts. And turn them out worse and worse every year until Japan pulls the rug out from under them. Triumph were still using 20 and 30 year old machines in the late 60's after 15 or 20 years of producing the Bonneville.

Same with the RangeRover. 10 or 20 years before the rest of the world produce anything like the saloon off roadster and what happens?

20 year waiting lists.

So one day someone is going to produce decent SDS drills that last a long time and are fairly cheap. Probably the Innuit.

Anyway, what to look for whatever you get. Obviously lightness. It's no good having a cheap occasional SDS if the next time you use it -in maybe 4 or 5 years, you need to hold it up over your head for 10 or 20 minutes while you stretch out on a ladder.

Whatever else you need, a reverse is next on the list.

If it jams in a deep hole it is a real pain to get out with no reverse. After that there is just the other controls: hammer only, drill only... stuff like that. You may only need the thing once but it will be a big regret not having it.

Then there is the USA:

Britain that bad when it had an empire?

[Weatherlawyer]

The bad news is they are probably 110.

[Jim Alexander]

nonsense, the drain covers and signs were of the highest quality....

Jim A

[Rick]

You need a clutch, if it jams up the ladder, and there is no clutch, you will rotate arround the drill, untill you let go and fall.

Rick

[Harry Bloomfield]

Rick explained on 08/04/2006 :

I have one of the cheap ones I bought about a couple of years ago, which I paid £20 for complete with a few bits in the case. I later added an additional pack of cheap bits. I then found I needed to bore through a 1m wall and added some cheap long bits. It has a clutch and choice of hammer/rotate plus hammer/rotate only. It doesn't have reverse. It has had a fair bit of use, with no problems and has probably paid for itself several times over.

I suppose it is one of the heavy ones, but then I have used much heavier hand tools. None of the bits have given any trouble despite going through 1m of extremely hard concrete wall. The shorter bits have also been used too.

Its a case of having something to hand, where previously I would have found other ways to resolve problems.

[Chris Cowley]

Yes, like a hot knife through butter. Don't bother hiring one though as they're dirt cheap to buy (well, the cheap ones are!):-

should be fine.

I bought a 40 quid Ferm SDS+ drill from Screwfix a couple of years ago and it's drilled countless holes in very hard concrete, dug several long cable channels in a concrete floor with a chisel bit, and generally worked very hard, and it's still going strong.