[SOLVED] SDS drill bit stuck in wall Solved

Switch the drill to reverse.

Mike

Try it on just hammer with no rotation to see if it frees anything up.

If the other suggestions don't work, can you get another SDS drill to fit the bit to? If not, try "unscrewing" the bit with a universal socket adaptor and ratchet, such as the one shown at

Failing that, can you unscrew it with a mole wrench clamped onto the end?

Pair of Mole grips to see if it twists backwards. Brian

George Miles submitted this idea :

Angle grinder :-)

Cut it off at the wall face and leave it.

Mole grips plus hit it with a hammer?

I have done that in the past (actually it was into a floor).

Sometimes running another drill bit alongside the stuck drill bit can free it off.

Failing that, remove the drill and use a proper club hammer. Will probably wreck the bit, but it might jar whatver has jammed it out of the way.

I remember reading a short story where a student was working on motorway construction as a summer job with others, and after a series of incidents, two or more of them killed the bullying foreman. They decided to drop him into the concrete shuttering on a bridge support, to stay there for 'posterity'. Unfortubately, when they removed the shuttering, his boot was sticking out. So they used an angle grinder and then patched the area.

This was all told in retrospect, with reference to major redevelopment of the motorway. One politician opposed it, he being the former student and not wanting inquiries to be made.

If anyone knows where I can find this...

I did that - drilling through an 11" cavity wall the cavity wall filling melted around the drill bit, stuck solid. Cut it off with an angle grinder and left the rest in place.

Yup. Of course you might end up with a cluster of jammed bits :)

Always give the bit enough time to clear debris, ie retract it every so often. Pushing ahead without pause invites jams - of course there are other causes too, such as loose infill stones in thick walls. If that's the issue it's going to be hell getting through it.

NT

In old buildings with thick, but hollow, walls with a rubble infill you can't stop now and again to retract the drill. All that does is cause the rubble to fall down and block the hole you've just drilled. A friend of mine had just that problem trying to put a pipe through the 30 inch thick walls of a 17th C house. I think that in the end, after drilling through the wall he left the bit in place, put the pipe up against the end of it, and used a mallet to drive the pipe and bit through and out the other side. The rubble had no opportunity to fall down using that method.

You need that with bungaroosh!

though to be fair if I had a house built in bungaroosh I'd probably have bigger concerns.

Someone with a hosepipe, you mean.

Spot on !! your tip about drilling another hole alongside to free up the main bit just saved my bacon , not to mention my drill and living room wall. Have a pint on me..and thank god for the internet.All the years on the tools Ive never jammed a drill bit so never had to address the problem until today.

Before replying to an old post please read this:

I think though in this case this is some bit of advice which should be preserved forever, maybe in a wiki. I actually unjamed one with a mallet, just tapped it on the end a few times until the compacted plaster and brick fell out of the way a bit. Brian

I got mine out by using a smaller bit and drilling a few holes around the trapped one. It was easy.