Drilling Lintels

[Cool Mart]

Hi,

Trying to put up a curtain rail and have come up against a stee lintel. I've been down to Homebase and bought myself a steel drill bu it's making no impact on the lintel. I have a powerful drill operatin atthe recommended speed but no luck ...... any ideas ?

Thanks in advance

Mar

-- Cool Mart

[The Natural Philosopher]

Use epoxy or polyester reson glues (car body filler etc) and glue the buggers up.

Or chip out whatever covers the steel, fill with body filler and push a rawlplug in while its still damp - or even a threaded bush and use bolts.

You can in general them skim and repaint befor epuyuyting the rail up into the now rock solid points you have created.

[John Stumbles]

gripfill a thin batten to the wall and screw into that?

[Rob Morley]

Stop running the drill in reverse.

[RichardS]

LOL!

I'm sure we've all done that at some point...

[mark b]

Are you sure it is steel? You can see through the plaster/render coating? Last year I had this same problem, thinking it was steel I too tried the HSS drill method to no avail. Turned out to be a concrete lintel which required an SDS type drill (a cheap one for about £30). Problem solved.

mark b

[Andrew Gabriel]

I quite often do it with HSS bits -- it's a good way to start and make sure the hole is going to be exactly where you want it before reversing direction to actually start cutting.

The other reason to do it is I found if I almost never run the drill in reverse, the reverse drive switch seizes up (with masonary dust probably) -- I had to send my Metabo back under warantee to have this fixed.

[Cool Mart]

Yep, first thing I did was check the drill was running forward !

I have my suspicions that it might not be a steel lintel as well ... difficult to see down a 6mm diameter 25mm long hole though even with torch.

I've bought a posh masonary bit to try, if that doesn't work what's a SDS type drill ?

-- Cool Mart

[Cool Mart]

Ok, tried the new drill - no good

Tried an old metal drill - no good, but when I checked to hol afterwards there were what looked like iron filings on the end of m screwdriver ??

This 'lintel' is above a patio door, do you think it might be an RS I'm trying to drill ? And if so what do I need to drill it

-- Cool Mart

[Dave]

Here's what to do.

The following assumes that your HSS twist drills are sharp. After you drill through the lintel, they will need re-sharpening due to them hitting plaster/brick etc.

Using a masonry drill, drill a hole bigger than you want, down to the level of the lintel. Clear out the little bit of plaster that the masonry drill failed to remove on the face of the lintel. This will prevent the HSS drill from blunting, due to the abrasivness of the plaster, when you come to use it.

Using a HSS twist drill of about 3 to 4mm in diam. drill a hole through the steel. Don't let the drill revolve any faster than you can see to count the revolutions. This way, the drill will not blunt itself. Use plenty of pressure, but don't apply it from the handle of the drill. Use your other hand directly behind the chuck, at the back of the drill. This will prevent you from applying any side pressure to the twist drill and avoid it wandering or breaking. Now take you final size HSS drill and open the hole in the lintel.

Put you masonry drill back into your power drill and deepen the hole to the depth you require.

Put a plug in almost flush with the lintel, put a matchstick in the plug and repair the plaster. Remove the matchstick before the repair goes off. When the repair has hardened, carefully drill out again, using the masonry drill, down the hole left by the matchstick, until you hit the plug.

Job done.

I have done this before, so I know it works.

HTH

Dave

[Broadback]

What a succinct clear instruction, I will remember that Dave, thanks.