Buying a new drill

[Bruce]

I have been using a 30V cordless "challenge" drill from argos for about

3years and it has served me well. It does struggle a bit when drilling into concrete lintels. I am starting work on building a DIY conservatory, which will involve drilling into concrete and the outside wall to attach the frame.

The amount of DIY I do doesn't justify the more expensive drills, so I have narrowed it down to 2: JCB 800Watt corded hammer drill for £29.99 supplied with case and a few drill bits or Wickes brand 810Watt percussion hammer drill (13mm chuck) for £17.99

any thoughts coments

kind regards Bruce

[Grunff]

If you're doing any amount of drilling into concrete, get an SDS. The amount of time and effort saved on your one project will outweight the cost.

Avoid the £30 SDS range, and go for a DeWalt, Makita or Bosch SDS, all of which can be had at under £100. I (and several others) have a DW566 and am very, very happy with it.

[Christian McArdle]

Whilst undoubtedly of much worse quality, I have a 30 quid (actually 50 quid at the time) SDS NuTool and am still very happy with it. It would certainly have no problem drilling mounting holes in concrete and brick.

Christian.

[Grunff]

Having owned, broken and returned two such tools, you'll understand if I decline to comment ;-)

[Christian McArdle]

There does appear to be new groups of users for these. Some keep breaking 'em, some don't! Maybe I'm not pushing it hard enough!

Christian.

[Dave Plowman]

Any percussion drill will struggle, including powerful mains ones. You need an SDS type - they *really* do go through concrete like a hot knife through butter. You'd be looking at a mains one, though - cordless types are an arm and a leg.

These have been discussed here at great lengths since they can be bought from about 30 quid upwards. I've had a De Walt 566 for many years which cost a fair bit then but can now be bought for around 100 quid.

If you do a Google search on this group on SDS I'd say you'll get a good evening's reading...

[IMM]

Yes, an SDS drill can be had for around £100, and below these days. Well worth it. Then get a god 1 hour charge 12-14v drill./driver, not the hammer combi drills. Wickes do a good line in both drills and reasonable prices and long guarantees.

[Mark Evans]

Depends how big the hole needs to be. With a 6mm hole it will be more or less instant. For a 16mm hole it takes a little while, for anything over

20mm it can take minutes... (With rebar making things difficult.)

The cordless types can also be heavier than the mains, because the battery pack is far from lightweight.

[Dave Plowman]

Well, yes. But I was describing the difference between an SDS and cordless hammer drill. The SDS would still seem like a knife through butter compared to trying to drill a 20mm hole in concrete with a cordless type.

[Lurch]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 00:52:03 +0100, Dave Plowman strung together this:

What, cordless SDS? Mine is as good as the mains SDS at drilling upto

25mm holes, and it''s not that heavy.

[Michael Mcneil]

There does seem to be a difference in the quality that a casual DIYer would not notice I am almost sure. The point being that if they are inadequate they are refundable in the UK under trades description laws.

Since the original poster has a decent 30 V cordless, the cheap SDS mains with a trip switch is the way to go. Drilling into a lintle is not a particularly good idea by the way. Whils a few self tappers into a steel one is not going to do much harm, going through the rebar in a concrete one is a NO! NO!.

Use gripfill or a similar mastic adhesive to stick a strip of baton along a lintle. Hang what you need to from the batton.

I have a makita SDS that I bought second hand and rarely use. I imagine I'd manage with a cheapo one if they made one in 110 v. I've no experience to speak of.

All the plumbers and the electrician on the site where I am at the moment, use Bosch cordless SDSs. They give them hard use and often.

[Dave Plowman]

No - ordinary percussion cordless. Few DIYers can justify the cost of a cordless SDS.

[Andy Hall]

The various Sale of Goods Acts are the applicable legislation. The Trade Descriptions Act is all about products being as described, especially as regards pricing.

SOGA disputes are resolved on the basis of reasonableness. If you pay £30 for a product in which the range of types and prices go up to £300, then you are not going to get the same result in a court at both ends of this spectrum.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Jerry Built]

I hardly ever need an SDS hammer drill, so I bought one from Aldi for =A325 (including some bits). It's fine. The OP would do well to but a cheapo first off, mains, with rotary stop and non-hammer capability).

You shouldn't "push" an SDS drill - it should sort of "float" on a cushion of blows as you use it. Hold it loosely (but look out for the bit binding, withdraw the bit halfway out of the hole from time to time to clear debris).

J.B.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I went round to a friends a couple of weekends ago to finish off core drilling a hole for a soil pipe just after his 500W B&D turned into an indoor firework display. I used my Metabo but not in SDS hammer mode -- just as a powerful regular drill, which does have an overheat indicator, and is in anycase over twice the power of the smoldering B&D he was using.

Fired up by enthusiasm and my recommendations from this group, he went off to Argos or Aldi and bought a cheap SDS drill. This weekend, he showed me the stiches in his chin, from the moment he discovered it didn't have a safety clutch in it (which my Metabo certainly does have). Fortunately I believe no serious damage done.

[Christian McArdle]

Yes, I wouldn't do any serious core drilling with it. I've done 45mm for waste outlets, but wouldn't fancy a 110mm for the reason you describe.

Christian.

[Jerry Built]

Must've been Argos, Aldi ran out after a couple of days!

Stitches in his *chin*? How...? No, I don't really want to know... I hope he doesn't have any other power tools, or a cooker, or a powered lawnmower, or drive a car, or..... the only drill I've had with a clutch in it is a De Walt cordless drill, which can drive in screws too.

There's no substitute for experience, unless it is a course in how to use hand tools safely, followed by experience. I'm surprised that more practical courses aren't offered more widely, and that otherwise sane people (sans experience) go out and buy tools that can easily do serious harm. What do I know, though - "I always wanted to be a lion tamer". No wonder DIY is a major cause of accidents in the home!

J.B.

[Christian McArdle]

Actually, those large core drills are prone to jamming, causing the drill to rotate instead, which can twist your arm off, amongst other things if there is no safety clutch or torque control. Those flat bladed wood drills are good for it too.

Christian.

[Dave Plowman]

I'm not surprised - what's the quoted capacity in masonry?

[Lurch]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:00:03 +0100, Dave Plowman strung together this:

Ah, gotcha now.