Hammer drill advice

[hoicem]

I have a Bosch 700watt hammer drill that I got from B&Q a couple years ago, mainly used for drilling masonry. Recently I have been using it a lot in our old house and found it not quite up to par. My dad lent my his 15-20 old 500watt hammer, can't recall the brand(not common) and the chuck was broken but it was a million times better than my drill. What took me 30 seconds with my Bosch took 4 seconds with this drill....

So, I'm looking to get a new drill. What exactly makes one drill much better from another? wattage, rpm, brand?...just looking through the screwfix catalogue, it's not 100% clear why drill A costs so much more than drill B......and finally, should I be looking at regular percussion drills or SDS+ drills for drilling masonry? I have about =A375-100 to spend.

[Ageless]

So, I'm looking to get a new drill. What exactly makes one drill much better from another? wattage, rpm, brand?...just looking through the screwfix catalogue, it's not 100% clear why drill A costs so much more than drill B......and finally, should I be looking at regular percussion drills or SDS+ drills for drilling masonry? I have about £75-100 to spend.

Makita HR2450X looks good .......

[Steve Firth]

If you can afford to buy a regular drill for use on anything other than masonry and an SDS drill, then you should. You should be able to afford both on your budget, just make sure you don't buy one of the temptingly cheap, but rubbish, SDS drills such as NuTool.

I have a Ryobi 18V drill, Bosch green, Bosch blue, and two SDS drills (Kress and Black and Decker). No complaints about any of them. I've also got a couple of "proper" B&D drills from the 1970s somewhere, sadly more recent drills from B&D are nowhere near as good.

For masonry a good SDS drill is as far ahead of hammer drill with a chuck as your dad's was ahead of yours.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd go for two. An SDS for drilling masonry, and a plain non hammer one for everything else. For small holes in soft brick etc you don't need hammer - while for tough stuff SDS is simply miles better. But an SDS drill doesn't make a decent general purpose one as well - too slow and often too heavy.

[A.Lee]

SDS is the only way to go for masonry. There is a choice at £100, though you'd be best placed to get one that has a rotary stop, you can then use it for chiselling and breaking. Also, you'll need a new set of bits (the £20 sets from Screwfix are bloody good value), and a chuck adaptor, to allow its use when drilling wood/steel. Alan.

[John Rumm]

screwfix catalogue, it's not 100% clear why drill A costs so much more

Have a look at places like Lawson. Something like the Makita 2450 is in your price range and will totally amaze you with what it can do:

[tony sayer]

In article , Ageless scribeth thus

Is good ... just get it!....

[dtechy]

Screwfix have DeWalt twin pack on offer at the moment SDS mains dril plus 12v drill driver for £100.00. Saw it today at an Edinburg branch. Definetley worth considering

-- dtechy

[Doctor Drivel]

So, I'm looking to get a new drill. What exactly makes one drill much better from another? wattage, rpm, brand?...just looking through the screwfix catalogue, it's not 100% clear why drill A costs so much more than drill B......and finally, should I be looking at regular percussion drills or SDS+ drills for drilling masonry? I have about £75-100 to spend.

[robgraham]

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I have to agree with all that the other posters have said on the have two drill front. But I will give a plug for cheap SDS machines as I don't like spending what little spare cash I have on a new tool when I have no idea how well it is going to work. So I'm an Aldi/Lidl's fan and certainly the SDS drill I got from there has performed superbly - as 'quality' in my book also includes value for money, I regard this as a quality product as it cost little, works fine and has continued to do so through two significant projects in two years. It might die tomorrow and then I will know how useful and how good SDS is and I will possibly buy a better one - possibly.

Rob

[meow2222]

As you know, SDS is _the_ answer to masonry drilling. But theyre almost useless as a gen purp drill, so 2 machines it is. For =A3100 you could just about scrape 3 machines, a cheap codless drill too - very handy.

NT

[Andy Hall]

Would this be for "chipping" away at things? ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've not been impressed with any chuck adaptors I've seen. The plug in types make the drill very long - and slop about so useless for anything other than rough drilling. SDS units tend to be heavier than a basic drill too.

[Andy Hall]

Do you mean the type with the male SDS fitting on the back that fit the main chuck of an SDS drill? If so, I tend to agree.

I have a swappable chuck in my Bosch SDS which works well. However, it doesn't get a lot of use because an 18v cordless will cover most of the general to slightly heavier jobs. Also, the SDS drill is a 4kg one so not an all day use precision instrument, plus max speed is about

700rpm. However, it does have good torque so comes into its own when making large holes with an auger and that type of work.

[meow2222]

Ha. Such salty wit :)

NT

[Stuart B]

Depends on the "scale" of the job How long would it take to "fin"ish it