It'd still get nicked, by the low life that raid vans, sites etc, even some boys on the tools cannot be trusted, though they take their chances with future employment (and procreation)....
Niel.
There's a 1500 watt 1/4", 8mm, 1/2" router (JCB iirc) going for 40 quid at the moment, thats not bad value for the money! I'm also tempted by the sawzall at 35 quid, again branded JCB...If the blades are long enough for chopping 4x2's the thick way.
I don't think this one has been aired for a while, and since the options seem to vary with time, I hope you don't mind me bringing the topic up again.
I'm looking at buying a SDS drill, bottom end of the range, as it will only be used for domestic work. Looking through the Screwfix catalogue, the options seem fairly wide, in the 2Kg range we seem to have 4 different models all offering broadly the same features and performance, however power ratings vary from 600 to 780w, and prices range from £90 to £140. So what does the jury think, should I go for the Erbauer, Bosch, DeWalt or Makita ?.
Any other advice for an SDS novice appreciated.
TIA
Adrian
Look on your news server for my post on 25 Sept titled "Which SDS?", I got a lot of help before choosing the Makita. Yet to put it to serious use, but happy with my decision.
Colin M
I can't comment on the types listed, but I wonder whether if it is intended only for domestic use you might be better considering one of the heavier lumps? These lighter jobbies are good for tradesmen who are drilling holes all day long, but a bit of overkill for occasional domestic use.
I bought a Homebase special several months ago and it probably weighs about 5Kg - which is heavy if you are going to be holding it aloft for a while.
However it does me just fine for the occasional elevated drilling. I do use it occasionally in a "professional" sense, but it's not as if it is up high every day for hours on end. The other thing is that an SDS drill cuts into brickwork like a hot knife through butter, so it tends to be used for a couple of seconds at a time - literally.
If you haven't used an SDS before and are comparing its potential use with a regular domestic-type hammer drill, forget it - the difference in drilling holes in brickwork is very significant indeed, and especially where hard bricks are concerned.
You can get the heavier lumps for about £30 now - and that would leave you with £100 or more to spend on other tools which might be used more frequently.
PoP
Nutool 800w with roto stop and tools £29.99 Woolworths + 5 year warranty
Broke my Bosch one so bought the DeWalt one. ;-)
Wouldn't be without either one. :-)
Mark S.
Go to Makro and get any of the cheap NuTool brand ones. Should be about £30 plus VAT and will come with case and some bits.
The useful thing is to look for 'roto-stop' so you could use it for chiselling should you wish.
NuTool have proved to be good power tools with me. I had an SDS drill break on me last week, due partly to mis-use. I bought it 17 months ago and it has seen some heavy use. I took it back to Makro and then refunded without question on the 2 year guarantee, so I bought a later model for £20 less.
Some will say to pay more for these tools, but I will happily replace them frequently at these prices, especially since tools seem to get mislaid or stolen often. Frankly, I think a two year guarantee is worth that nowadays. Bargain. Screwfix offer the Ferm brand with a 3 year guarantee. Let's hope we see more of this.
Those are nearer top of the range these days. Prices start from about 30 quid now. I've no direct experience of the cheapies, though, but they might well be ok if a little heavy.
I've had good service out of my DeWalt, which when bought about 5 years ago was near the bottom of the range. Others have had problems, though.
For occasional DIY use, nothing beats the NuTool. It is so cheap, that you can regard it as disposible. Mine still works after several years. I even know several builders who use them. They'd rather have one of these (which works fine) than an expensive model that gets half inched off the building site within a week.
Christian.
I have the JCB/Argos which has sat in its box after 3 hours of use on the first day. What do people actually use them for? Drilling into lintels? Yes. Removing tiles? Quicker with a bolster and hammer. Breaking concrete? Forget that if it's anything over an inch thick. My neighbour wanted to borrow mine the other day to take his concrete drive up. I gave him a club hammer and wrecking bar instead and he did the whole thing in a day.
Cheap tools get nicked too. Thieves are rarely fussy.
Even if true, would you prefer to lose a 30 quid NuTool or a 300 quid Makita?
Christian.
I disagree. When removing tiles, my chisel and hammer was taking 2 minutes per tile and reducing them to shards embedded in lumps of adhesive. With the SDS chisel, each tile popped off complete and almost undamaged in approximately 2 seconds per tile.
Christian.
The cheap and hefty generic types are not much good for sinking a 5.5mm hole for a rawlplug, they're just too brutish, and a bit of a liability if up a ladder fixing the guttering. There is no speed control, no clutch, require grease, and seem designed to burn out their brushes. (Why else would spares be included?)
If I was choosing again I would pick something like the Bosch PBH2200RE (£95 at Argos so it would be easy to sample & includes bits), or the GBH2-20SRE £90 at Screwfix.
stuart noble wrote
I bought one recently (cheapie Argos) after the new garage was completed, I had all the electrical sockets, shelves, brackets, hooks etc to fit. Drilled around 200 holes - it must have saved me hours of work.
I might rarely use it in future but IMO it was worth the £35
Well, I buy tools to use and hopefully enjoy, not have them stolen. So I'm not the person to ask.
I'd get awfully bored and tired using one of those clodhoppers all day rather than my DeWalt, though.
If I worked on a building site, I'd engrave every part of my drill with identification.
I think the specification for replacement brushes is something like 50 hours of use - I read a figure somewhere anyway, and it wasn't 10 minutes.
50 hours use for a domestic user is likely to translate to years of ownership, unless they are doing a full scale demolition job or something. It takes literally seconds to hammer holes into the hardest of brick. And if they are doing some major work then the higher price would be more sensible, but wouldn't fit the "domestic" category anyway.Being a liability up a ladder is fair enough, but guttering tends to be fixed to woodwork rather than brick (if we are talking about the guttering mounted on the eaves). So you wouldn't use an SDS for that job, more likely a small rechargeable drill.
If you are fixing down pipes and the like these would be fixed to brickwork. But downpipes tend to have only 2-3 fixing points so it's hardly a big deal.
PoP
Having tried the original NuTool and the X-Pro I can say that almost anything would beat it. I reported on my experience here previously. In one week I went through four NuTool SDS drills.
The chuck exploded on three of them. A big bang, springs and ball bearings all over the place.
One overheated and died.
I got my money back so I wasn't too disappoitned, but as an SDS drill it was pants. The rotostop doesn't work properly, engage rotostop and the tool is free to rotate. Bloody useless if one is trying to remove tiles.
On the plus points as a drill it's a heavier hitter than my Wickes/Kress SDS drill. But the lighter Wickes SDS has a proper rotostop and used side by side with the NuTool it saw all of them off and is still workign fine a year later despite very heavy usage. It was worth the extra £30. I came close to spending that £30 in petrol driving back to Makro to get a replacement NuTool.
stuart noble
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