Drilling problems into concrete

I've a feeling there were pneumatic 'hammer' drills around before SDS but fiendishly expensive.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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horses for courses shurely?

My ancient cheapo heavy SDS is only really called out for biggish/ roughish drilling jobs - say 10mm up, or chiselling out bigger holes,,breaking small amounts of concrete etc... anything smaller - cordless or mains ordinary hammer drills (equally cheapo)

Indeed a mate has a lightweight Dewalt SDS mains drill and I had a go with it whilst helping him on a job - TBH I thought it was sh1te compared to my big cheapo one or was I missing something?

IMHO if a job *needs* SDS you will usually want some weight behind it.

Cheers JimK

Reply to
JimK

I wanted to drill just one 6mm hole in sandstone outside yesterday. Tried my battery drill with "hammer" action and a 4mm drill (had 6mm bit to open it out later), it scratched the surface and made the bit hot. Dragged out the mains 2kg SDS 10s of drilling later I had my 6mm hole in one hit. That hole "needed" the SDS but it didn't "need" a massive one.

Made me think I could use a battery SDS drill, until I (briefly) looked at prices, seem to start at a couple of hundred quid... B-(

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Dave Plowman (News) brought next idea :

The only candidate I can think of, was the Red Head. That had hammer, but no rotation - you supplied the rotation.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

erm.... when other drills won't do it? ;>)))

JimK

Reply to
JimK

There were. A mate of mine had a Kango hand drill that has hammer and rotation, with the bit held by a morse taper. He also has an old Hilti rotary hammer with a bespoke chuck (in fact they still make the same model today but sell it with a SDS chuck).

Reply to
John Rumm

I'm the opposite, I use a 18V Ryobi and some Bosh drills. Seldom need to even turn the hammer on, although I did for doing some very hard bricks today.

I only use the SDS for breaking things.

Reply to
dennis

Its unlikely to crack it - the hammer blow is about 30 times that of the "blow" from a normal percussion drill - but still relatively light in absolute terms. (think tap from a small cross-peen hammer, rather than whack with a club hammer))

You can get SDS bits down to a few mm.

Reply to
John Rumm

The main thing to watch is your exit - go slow and light as you break out, and you won't take a lump out the wall!

Reply to
John Rumm

Completely contrary to my experience it seems. My 2kg ish Makita will sale through drilling jobs a normal drill would not touch, and yet needs practically no additional weight behind it at all. The trick with effective SDS drilling being to keep just enough force on the drill to enable the machine to "float" on the hammer action.

Case in point - I needed to drill through a 9" solid wall with render yesterday. The difficulty was this was through a restricted access hatch adjacent to the wall which forced me to do so while laying on the floor with my arms outstretched in front of me. A situation where it is impossible to put any significant push on the drill (its hard enough supporting the weight of the drill and a 400mm drill bit in that position!).

Reply to
John Rumm

The early nu tool SDS machines had a famous party trick where the rotation stop selector would drift during use. Hence quite a number of folks found the their cost that you could be driving a nice wide chisel into some masonry, then the drill would decide that switching to rotation mode would be fun!

Reply to
John Rumm

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

The cheap ones are OK if you don't mind the weight.

Yes. You're missing the thrilling experience of having to heft the weighty cheapy one around all day long. Half or a third of the weight makes a helluva difference to usage.

Not so. My old Bosch green SDS is about ten years old now (only needed a set of brushes two years ago) and is still packing the same punch it did when new. It happily chomps away at 10" thick walls with 25mm drill or chisel. Of course, for the big stuff I have an Bosch SDS-Max jobby. Got a bit of a knackered positive stop, but it works well for proper demolition or gouging/chasing. That was a bargain purchase- because of 110V site rules, it wasn't wanted by builders so I picked it up dirt cheap.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

you forgot the "IMHO" but I'll let you off if you promise to use it in future....

JimK

Reply to
JimK

Same here. My lightweight DeWalt sails through concrete or engineering bricks etc with little pressure. Of course you do need to keep the bits reasonably clean and greased - if they can't move easily, the percussion won't be so effective.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Indeed - but don't worry too much about spending on decent bits for it.

I've a mix of decent bits and cheap bits (right down to a few market stall jobs). Can't say I see any real difference tbh. They've all taken plenty of abuse :)

Darren

Reply to
D.M.Chapman

You can get mortar raking bits for angle grinders that can be used like a short drill bit. Theyre abrasive coated, TC IIRC, so one ought to do the job if you take care not to let it wander sideways.

I've drilled asbestos panels using a no-hammer drill years ago, it was slow but did work. I've a feeling it was done with a twist drill, not a masonry bit.

NT

Good idea. I'll keep an eye out for some. Won't be drilling any asbestos though! (Mind you it's amazing when I recall how as kids we used to 'help' dad by rolling up 'sausages' from his tin of lovely fluffy Rawlplug asbestos!)

Cheers, S

Reply to
spamlet

Dave Plowman (News) used his keyboard to write :

When I first used SDS, I did wonder what the small pot of grease was for. It seemed counter-intuitive that it was for the bit - where it would attract all of the grit.

I agree with the comments about pressure on the drill. You have to push with just the right pressure, to get best performance. Not too hard, not too gentle. The right pressure to get maximum bounce on the tip.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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

My opinion ain't humble.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

odd... given that they work by a weight banging on the end of a turning drill bit, I would expect a heavier machine to perform better (larger weight & equal & opposite forces etc) - this "light pressure" and "floating" technique - is that, I wonder, because with the lighter ones, even when you lean on 'em, won't drill any faster??

The one i tried just seemed to "rattle" like a normal hammer - I had to double check that it was SDS.

Ultimately I spose if OP is dragging it round all day a lighter one could be advantageous....

cheers JimK

Reply to
JimK

mmmm

Reply to
JimK

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