Power Tools

[kosmonooit]

 I dunno hey.... My old house used to eat cheap masonry bits. They knew how to make bricks in the old days! I drilled a few holes in my new house with the hammer drill and it took some effort. With that Rotary hammer and the SDS bits however..... felt like cheating!! I seriously thought that there was something wrong with the bricks! Mounted some equipment in the garage and drilling a few 14MM holes into the slab for rawl bolts was a one handed operation!

 

 

That is true - those old clay facebricks are like rock however most of the bricks nowadays are much softer, Often I have to dumb down my SDS drill into turning mode only so not as to drill an over size hole, but 5 / 6 mm most of the time I used my battery powered Makita in hammer mode,

 

Also should be noted some SDS drills do not have a chopper / non-turning mode, now that is useful especially when you are cut & chasing.

Edited June 19, 2018 by kosmonooit

[porqui]

For rotary hammer drills you don't go cheap - they are expensive because of the internals. There is an air piston in there. Bosch - Makita or Metabo and that is about it. I bought a Metabo more than 25 years ago and it is still going strong.

[Rocket-Boy]

 I dunno hey.... My old house used to eat cheap masonry bits. They knew how to make bricks in the old days! I drilled a few holes in my new house with the hammer drill and it took some effort. With that Rotary hammer and the SDS bits however..... felt like cheating!! I seriously thought that there was something wrong with the bricks! Mounted some equipment in the garage and drilling a few 14MM holes into the slab for rawl bolts was a one handed operation!

From my experience the SDS bits are actually cheaper... normal masonry bits are horrible quality and I end up going through a few of them when drilling normal stuff. The SDS bits last for ages though so you dont go through as many. Its probably because of the rotary hammer driving them though.

 

Honestly you dont need every size of drill bit, there are some common sizes you will use most and its probably 4 or 5 bits and the rest can be filled out later.

[Rocket-Boy]

For rotary hammer drills you don't go cheap - they are expensive because of the internals. There is an air piston in there. Bosch - Makita or Metabo and that is about it. I bought a Metabo more than 25 years ago and it is still going strong.

There is also something to be said for being happy to take the tool out when you are going to use it. Its kinda like bikes, the one you are proud of makes you happy to ride it.

[kosmonooit]

Most the SDS and convention chuck mortar/concrete drill bits have similar carbide tungsten inserts in the tip which are the bulk of the cost no doubt - although the SDS ones typically have a cutting edge in the inserts, the gewone ones are blunt. The branded SDS ones are more expensive but lots of cheapos on the market, can't really go wrong on the DIY front getting a china set

 

Myself, me, a big fan boy of above mentioned brands but honestly for occasional DIY use - a whole kit with bits (and chipper bits) for 1/2 the price of similar branded one, just the drill ???. But if you are going to be drilling 25mm through concrete on a regular basis, then you need the higher quality mechanism and duty cycle of the Metabos, B Blues etc

 

I could really do with a battery powered one - cords and extensions, even having to find a power point is  counter productive when time is money. There is a Makita that takes a double 18V Battery pack that I have my beady eyes on, but that comes in +R5k w/o batteries.

http://www.makitatoolsonline.co.za/image/cache/data/DHR263ZK-228x228.jpg

 

As far as I know the impact mechanism is mechanical, that Canadian AvE character did a tear down on youtube a while back, no pneumatics in that one but there are some hydraulics in the latest impact drivers.

Edited June 19, 2018 by kosmonooit

[Capricorn]

 I dunno hey.... My old house used to eat cheap masonry bits. They knew how to make bricks in the old days! I drilled a few holes in my new house with the hammer drill and it took some effort. With that Rotary hammer and the SDS bits however..... felt like cheating!! I seriously thought that there was something wrong with the bricks! Mounted some equipment in the garage and drilling a few 14MM holes into the slab for rawl bolts was a one handed operation!

 

Initially, I thought my admittedly standard masonry bits were crap too, because I live in a very old house where the masonry looks like it predates the invention of the brick. Anyway, the problem I found was trying to be efficient: trying to drill the desired size in one go.

Those old bricks used very hard, fairly large sized stones with a high iron content as aggregate.

 

The clay holding the brick together was soft enough that any hammer effect was literally bouncing off the hard stone as the clay allowed the stone to rope-a-dope the bit.

The way around it for me, was to go in with the smallest bit first. It would crack and penetrate the stone a lot easier than the larger bits. I'd finish off the hole with the larger, desired sized bit. Bit more work, but for the odd home job, the cost was kept well below needing fancy (aka pricier) tools.

 

But I did end up getting a Bosch concrete destroyer - SDS plus, multi-mode (drill, hammer, chipper) as the poor Skil hammer drill was starting to smell like melting insulation. That thing has been a champ for a very long time now 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Capricorn

[kosmonooit]

Good idea to drill a small pilot hole regardless (if the hole is +10mm), the bigger bits will inevitably drift of the mark otherwise. Guess one can melt any drill if you work it hard enough, my Bosch has smelt a bit of melting plastic at times when it is working hard with those big bits boring concrete, at that point I give it a rest and say well done so far, keep going please.

 

I am on my second Bosch now, although the first was stolen by cunning Chubb repair man who paid my house a visit via the roof to the only room that didn't have a PIR and where I stored some tools & cable.

Edited June 20, 2018 by kosmonooit

[Rocket-Boy]

Most the SDS and convention chuck mortar/concrete drill bits have similar carbide tungsten inserts in the tip which are the bulk of the cost no doubt - although the SDS ones typically have a cutting edge in the inserts, the gewone ones are blunt. The branded SDS ones are more expensive but lots of cheapos on the market, can't really go wrong on the DIY front getting a china set

 

Myself, me, a big fan boy of above mentioned brands but honestly for occasional DIY use - a whole kit with bits (and chipper bits) for 1/2 the price of similar branded one, just the drill ???. But if you are going to be drilling 25mm through concrete on a regular basis, then you need the higher quality mechanism and duty cycle of the Metabos, B Blues etc

 

I could really do with a battery powered one - cords and extensions, even having to find a power point is  counter productive when time is money. There is a Makita that takes a double 18V Battery pack that I have my beady eyes on, but that comes in +R5k w/o batteries.

http://www.makitatoolsonline.co.za/image/cache/data/DHR263ZK-228x228.jpg

 

As far as I know the impact mechanism is mechanical, that Canadian AvE character did a tear down on youtube a while back, no pneumatics in that one but there are some hydraulics in the latest impact drivers.

AvE is a funny guy, his reviews are proper skookum though 

[kosmonooit]

AvE is a funny guy, his reviews are proper skookum though 

 

 

Yes generally he knows his stuff, but can get tedious ranting sometimes, but he has done many a peek-a-boo inside a variety of  power tools including the el cheapos (typically Harbour Freight there), including a couple of SDS type units. I took a look yesterday at his list of videos to see if I could find a link to two but din't really have the headspace to deal with him at that time, there are there though.

[Grebel]

Why not just go rent one for when you need it? Or do you want to spend money on one to have around?

 

I gave Hire-It a call yesterday about hiring a rotary hammer drill.

 

Deposit of R1500 and a hire cost of R235 a day. If I collect after 3:30pm on Friday, they don't charge for that day. I pay for Saturday and seeing as they are closed on Sunday, there is no charge for that day. Drop of on Monday morning. I have to drive past them on my way to and from work so no detour required either!

 

The plan for now is to plan all the drilling jobs in advance and try and get them all done in a weekend. I will probably go and buy the bits I need (5mm, 6mm and 8mm) and borrow my friends 22mm long reach drill to drill through the walls for the outside plugs and plumbing pipes.

 

Maybe hiring is the way to go after all. Keen to see what other tools they have on offer.

[Ed-Zulu]

I gave Hire-It a call yesterday about hiring a rotary hammer drill.

 

Deposit of R1500 and a hire cost of R235 a day. If I collect after 3:30pm on Friday, they don't charge for that day. I pay for Saturday and seeing as they are closed on Sunday, there is no charge for that day. Drop of on Monday morning. I have to drive past them on my way to and from work so no detour required either!

 

The plan for now is to plan all the drilling jobs in advance and try and get them all done in a weekend. I will probably go and buy the bits I need (5mm, 6mm and 8mm) and borrow my friends 22mm long reach drill to drill through the walls for the outside plugs and plumbing pipes.

 

Maybe hiring is the way to go after all. Keen to see what other tools they have on offer.

Great - although I have a good selection of tools the rental companies like Coastal and then some of our local guys have such an array of tools for specialized work and with good planning your time out can be a cheap affair.

 

Once you are on their system they also drop the deposit charges (that is my experience locally) and the whole rental deal makes even more sense.

 

Side note: one of my favorite rentals was a water pump to empty my 100kl pool, the boys and I had an absolute ball that afternoon! About 4 hours later (I let most of the water evaporate) we had a skate park in the back yard

[Rocket-Boy]

I gave Hire-It a call yesterday about hiring a rotary hammer drill.

 

Deposit of R1500 and a hire cost of R235 a day. If I collect after 3:30pm on Friday, they don't charge for that day. I pay for Saturday and seeing as they are closed on Sunday, there is no charge for that day. Drop of on Monday morning. I have to drive past them on my way to and from work so no detour required either!

 

The plan for now is to plan all the drilling jobs in advance and try and get them all done in a weekend. I will probably go and buy the bits I need (5mm, 6mm and 8mm) and borrow my friends 22mm long reach drill to drill through the walls for the outside plugs and plumbing pipes.

 

Maybe hiring is the way to go after all. Keen to see what other tools they have on offer.

The advantage to that is it will be a proper high end unit, they dont rent out any junk.

I have rented a rotary hammer and diamond core drill in the past to cut a 110mm hole for an extractor fan.

The core bit would have cost me around R2k and the type of drill that could power it would have been in the region of R8k but instead it all cost R350 and the job was done.

 

Sometimes it pays to hire and other times it really doesnt.

[porqui]

I gave Hire-It a call yesterday about hiring a rotary hammer drill.

The plan for now is to plan all the drilling jobs in advance and try and get them all done in a weekend. I will probably go and buy the bits I need (5mm, 6mm and 8mm) and borrow my friends 22mm long reach drill to drill through the walls for the outside plugs and plumbing pipes.

 

 

 

Hire-It should have bits too as these bits aren't cheap

[Grebel]

Hire-It should have bits too as these bits aren't cheap

They do have bits as well. Will see what the cost is

[kosmonooit]

The advantage to that is it will be a proper high end unit, they dont rent out any junk.

...

 

Probably Hilti - make sure you are sitting down when you are advised of the replacement price! They mainly deal with professional contractors on a full service basis, where price doesn't really matter. But there is no magic in the drill.

[V12man]

Probably Hilti - make sure you are sitting down when you are advised of the replacement price! They mainly deal with professional contractors on a full service basis, where price doesn't really matter. But there is no magic in the drill.

Hilti drills have a black magic in them...

 

Love mine.