Lost in the baffling Makita range

[Andy Burns]

Either ITS, or buyaparcel.com

[Robin]

On 16/12/2020 09:32, [e-mail] wrote: <snip>

you must have one FO big letter box...

or you've bought scale models designed for Barbie's Ken in his construction worker role :)

[nothanks]

Who's to say that I don't have Barbie screwing and drilling for me ;-) (brought back memories of "Hello Barbie, Let's go party", one of those awful songs that maggot around the head

[Andy Burns]

UR "benny benassi" AICM£5

[The Natural Philosopher]

I cant work out whether that is a work of genius or utter shit, really.

[nothanks]

The cheque is in the post :-)

[nothanks]

After much helpful input from JR and others I went for the DHP481 and DTD154, which arrived today. Here are some first impressions in case anyone else is contemplating a similar present to themselves. Ergonomics and "feel of quality" are excellent. Size is good without battery, but the drill is a bit cumbersome with the battery and surprisingly heavy (I read the specs but it's different when the weight is in the hand). Power, performance and controllability are all superb (much better than my ancient DeWalt ID and drills) but the very long side handle on the drill suggests that the torque may lead to care being needed at times. The ID is so good that I doubt I'll use anything else for screw driving. I haven't tried the hammer function on the drill yet but will order some of the Bosch drills. HTH.

[Andy Burns]

As well as various 3.0/5.0/6.0Ah batteries, I have one 2.0Ah battery for times when a light tool+battery combo is welcome.

[nothanks]

I saw that the 3, 4, 5, and 6Ah batteries were all essentially the same weight and that the 2Ah battery is about 0.22kg less - that doesn't seem much of a difference. I've got a couple of Metabo 10.8V drill drivers (highly recommended!) and will keep those for when the new Mak is a bit too much. I've spent the afternoon making and fitting a hob extractor (more to do) and am very impressed with the Mak ID - a wonderful beast.

[nothanks]

A quick update in case anyone is interested ... On JR's recommendation I bought the Bosch Multi-material bits in the hope that the Mak hammer function would be useful; it isn't. The bits just rattle against the dense blocks in my 30s house whereas the elderly

2kg DeWalt SDS sails through them fairly easily. It might be some use in modern blockwork, but not mine.

[Murmansk]

In my experience Bosch Multimaterial bits are indeed very good, but not good enough to drill into the bricks found in a 1930s semi - you need and SDS drill for that as the bricks are so incredibly hard

[John Rumm]

They must be impressive blocks then!

(I can drill a blue engineering brick (slowly) with a multi material bit in a 18V combi drill)

[alan_m]

+1

I've just tried it with a very hard brick. 18V cordless drill, not on hammer, inch deep hole in under 5 seconds.

I've also drilled through concrete paving slabs using these bits with relative ease, again with a 18V cordless (not SDS)

[nothanks]

AFAIK they're unique to this area: the English side of the Welsh borders.

[John Rumm]

Sounds like they must be close to porcelain in hardness then. You may find those miniature[1] grit edged hole saws will cut them in which case.

[1] available in typical drill diameters like 6, 7, 8 mm etc.

[nothanks]

They cut, chisel and (SDS) drill just like other dense blocks, so stitch-drilling and then SDS chisel is the best way to cut in situ; diamond-tipped hole saws work fine. The slightly odd thing is that they're about 32" long (9" high) - when I took the first wall down I discovered they're also f...'ing heavy.

[nothanks]

A further update (in the unlikely case that someone is still interested ;-) ): I've changed my opinion, slightly. With old-style hammer drills and masonry bits it was usual to use a low speed, so that's what I tried with the Mak and Bosch bits. Recently I had to do something that would have been awkward with the mains SDS so I tried the Mak+Bosch bits again, but at high speed - they worked quite well but it needed a lot of pressure. There was a small amount of "wander" once they'd gone through the plaster and before they'd started in the blocks, but I dealt with this by starting with a small bit and then using the final size.

[John Rumm]

Still listening :-)

Ah, yes good point about the speed, my fault, I had not thought to mention it.

(I always found "percussion" hammer drilling to work better at high speeds, so would not normally use the combination of low speed and hammer).