SDS drill for general DIY?

[Kooky45]

I want an SDS drill for some work on brick and concrete, but I want one that'll be very good for general DIY as well. I'm considering one from the Metabo range as they have a very good quick change mechanism for swapping the SDS chuck with a conventional one (better than Makita I believe). I first thought I'd get a BHE24 drill but I know they don't have a rotation lock and chiseling might be useful in the future

- wish I had one when I was hacking off tiles last year. I then thought I'd get a KHE24 though they're more expensive (rotation and percussion locks, but only one gear), and then I noticed the UHE range are good for screw driving as well with their two speed gear box, but they're the most expensive of all. I'm also concerned that all of these SDS drills might not be good on wood with the percussion stop as I've seen they have lower rotation speeds than normal hammer drills.

Can anyone with SDS experience for general DIY work tell advise me on which one to buy please?

Many thanks,

Ken

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All in one tools are rarely a good idea as they always involve compromise.

Why not just get the SDS of your choice and a basic non hammer mains drill for everything else - they're cheap as chips.

[Ian Stirling]

In general, a SDS drill will be much heavier than a conventional hammer drill. This can make it awkward for some tasks.

[Ed Rear]

Can't give you any advice on which model, but mine is very heavy, and I wouldn't want to use it for general work. It's only a cheap one but I believe they are all quite heavy. Worth thinking about. Ed

[Set Square]

Rather than spending a lot of money on *one* drill which does a lot of things (some badly!), I would recommend buying *three* drills - but spending far less on each. Get a cheapish SDS drill - but with rotation and persussion locks - and use it just for drilling brick/concrete and chiselling. Get a 2-speed conventional (mains) drill for general wood and metal drilling. [It will probably come with hammer action - but ignore that!]. Finally, get a rechargeable drill for light drilling and screwdriving. That way, you will always have the best tool for each particular job - without endless chuck and bit changing.

[G&M]

The DeWalt 566 is quite light and very well balanced. I use it one-handed all the time almost as one would a battery powered drill.

Highly recommended providing you don't do a Grunff on it :-)

There is also a quite small Bosch (can't remember the number but B&Q have it).

[mike ring]

"Set Square" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I think that's pretty good advice - I've got a cheapish old SDS which does me, but I can't imagine how I would use it with a convebntional chuck and a smallish bit.

I'd be interested to know if anyone who has a replacement chuck woould use in with a 2-3mm HS bit, or to drill a pilot for a #8 woodscrew

mike

[Alex]

I don't think 'Metabo' 'better than' and 'Makita' are 3 things you'll hear together very often!!

Alex

[G&M]

Best chuck swap I've seen is the Bosch PBH240. Excellent drill as well but Bosch servicing is (choose 4 letter word) so when it died again I gave up and got a DeWalt.

[RichardS]

Why's that then? (just interested)

The only Metabo product I've had frequent operational experience of is my SXE450Duo sander, and that's the dogs nuts. The other stuff that I have picked up and handled struck me as similarly well made.

Metabo stuff's pricey though. Interesting to see their mains drills have now got a remote control device to activate them (you stick it on your keyring and every time you plug the drill in you need to "unlock" the drill...). Handy for site "shrinkage".

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Lurch]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 21:25:16 +0000 (UTC), mike ring strung together this:

With a SDS to conventional 3 jaw chuck adapter.

Eh? Replace what chuck with what?

[Lurch]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 23:01:07 +0100, "Alex" strung together this:

Depends in which order!

[Grunff]

It's funny, since buying my Makita 18V combi, I've only used my Bosch mains hammer drill once - and that was for mixing tile adhesive. It's always either the DeWalt for drilling holes in walls/chiseling etc, or the Makita for everything else.

[Alex]

Oh dear oh dear, I have made a 'whoopsy' yet again. At this late hour I had, for some unbeknown reason, related Metabo to those typically cheep but cheerful tools. Desperately trying to think of where I had used Metabo stuff recently, I entered it into google. As I was greeted by 'Metabo and Electra Bekum worldwide' my heart began to sink!

I think now would be a time to tactfully withdraw my previous comment :)

Alex

[Lurch]

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 23:48:01 +0100, "Alex" strung together this:

That explains it, I did wonder which tool you were referring to as inferior as I would be happy to use either make.

[Andy Hall]

Metabo stuff is generally good. I have one of their random orbital sanders which is very good.

I don't think that you would be disappointed with Bosch, Makita or DeWalt for this.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[John Rumm]

Many of the cheaper "shed specials" are in the 4 kg+ weight range. The better made beasties (Bosch, Makita, DeWalt etc) are typically a approx

2 kg... A case of not getting what you pay for ;-)

[John Rumm]

Not sure I follow that... there is no such thing as an SDS chuck as such - SDS bits just plug straight into the end of the drill. A conventional chuck for a SDS drill is to all intents and purposes just a special SDS bit that plugs in like any other.

I have used my Makita SDS for screwdriving. It has the power and low speed torque, but the main problem is actually the length - by the time you have a conventional chuck in there with a hex bit holder the end of the drill is a long way away. Hence less natural to use for this task.

They will work - but slower! ;-) They do work very well with big auger bits.

Something about 2kg with roto and hammer stop.

[Kooky45]

What you're recommending then points me at most expensive UHE24 which is around 2Kg, has roto and hammer stop, and two gears for either high torque driving or high speed drilling. Your point about the chuck and the extra length doesn't apply to the Metabo as you replace the existing SDS bit holder (chuck?) with a conventional chuck so the length and weight stays the same.

No-one has commented on drill bit speed for wood. I've already got a

12V Power Devil cordless drill which is fine for thin wood and plasterboard but it's not very fast. I noticed the mains powered drills have much higher speeds than either a cordless or SDS. Does the high speed have any advantage for drilling or is torque more important? Can you give me an example of wood drilling where the SDS wasn't very good? I've a job on at the moment where I have to drill a lot of 5mm holes all the way through 70mm timbers and my cordless isn't up to the job.

[RichardS]

If I were in your position I probably wouldn;'t be considering the Metabo for general purpose work purely because of the cost, and the fact that I could get two very good quality branded drills for the same price.

Didnt' have prices for any of the xxx24 drills in the catalogues that I have, but the UHE28 is close on £300, so I'm guessing that UHE24 may well be

Many in this group rate DeWalt's 566K drill very highly, and there is an equivalent Makita 2450, both have chisel stop, both deliver similar energy to the bit in hammer mode, and both around £115. I think you'd need to be doing some pretty serious heavy duty work before stretching these drills beyond their limits (or covering the air vents, Grunff!! :-) )

This would leave not far off £100 that you could spend on getting a damned good 12V class cordless drill with a 2 speed gearbox. They have considerably more guts than the cheapies - I have an Atlas Copco 9.6v drill/driver and it has gone through joists without too much complaint using an 18mm auger bit. You should get at least 2 batteries and a 60 minute intelligent charger for drills in this price bracket.

That would mean that you don't need to worry unduly about the ease of swapping to the conventional chuck, you'll probably only infrequently need to do this. Don't bother with the normal chuck for masonry drilling - get a set of SDS bits and you'll be using the drill to it's full potential.

I've never found the speed of my cordless to be a problem with drilling wood, and with SDS I can't see maximum speed being a problem for masonry either.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not against Metabo, they produce some damned fine kit IME. It's just that I think you can get two very good drills for the same price (this is NOT the same argument as IMM's "you can get three cheapies and take them back when they fail").

anyway, just IMHO...

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk