I've had advice elsewhere that SDS drills are not great for dry core drilling. The suggestion is that the run too slowly and this can result in excessive wear (because one compensates for slow cutting by leaning on the drill). Most of the cheap drills look painfully poor (eg Sparky), they also get bad reviews on the Screwfix site. Marcrist drills seem to get good reviews and they look appropriate for the job.
Anyone used one of these?
Depends on the size of the core. Most of the 2kg class machines run about 1000 rpm which ok for the larger cores - might be a bit slow for smaller ones. The usual problems however are lack of power and a clutch that lets go too easily. Some of the better SDSs are running 700W+ these days and that will do a 4" core (cut quite a number with my Makita 2450
720W SDS). You can't lean on them much though because the clutch will drop out.I bought a sparky in a moment of need. Can't say its noticeably better than using the SDS.
alas no. However they are obviously a different proposition to the entry level jobbies.
It also buggers up the SDS fittings if you are using brute force.
Most of the cheap drills look painfully poor
I have not tried the Marcrist, however I have used Makita, DeWalt and Atlas Copco core drills. They were all in the same price range as the Marcrist and they were all superb.
I have used SDS drills for soft bricks and had no problem.
"ARWadsworth" wrote: [snip]
Thanks Adam. I've got a lot of 152mm holes to drill. At least three ventilators with humidistats, two soil stacks, and number of air bricks for open fires. The walls are a mix of soft brick, anti-seismic block, rubble and giant boulders which can be soft or hard enough to need many minutes of cutting.
The plumber was contracted to do the work but is now refusing to do it because he doesn't have the right drill.
I reckon that, given the need to build several more bathrooms and kitchens, I'll get my money out of it. The decision wad whether to get a bigger SDS or something else - I reckon "something else". I can get the Marcrist for £240 a Wickes SDS+ will cost £192. Not that much in it. I'll also value the core drill because the bathroom tiles are porcelain and I also want to install lights on the terrace that will require drilling into concrete.
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