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SDS Drill..................

Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Recently, there has been some talk of an SDS hammer type drill.

We have two jobs coming up where we need to drill into cement walls. One is painted cement block with about 1/2" or 3/4" cement fascia and the other is decorative bricks.

The block one is going to have about 200 holes or so and the brick maybe about 275 holes. So, I thought I'd invest in a decent SDS drill, since they sound like a good deal for the application. We already have a heavy-duty 1/2" rotary hammer drill.

Anyone have preferences on this kinda drill ?? I've seen cordless and corded. I think I definitely want corded. The Bosch looked good, but so did the DeWalt. Any input would be appreciated.
thanks............
Gino
​
 
nwsigns

nwsigns

New Member
I prefer the Bosch corded - definitely corded. Either will make easy work of the block and brick and work well on solid concrete as well.
 
J

jayhawksigns

New Member
We have a Bosch corded here, on those kind of jobs I wouldn't use anything else. What's fun is pulling out the 36" bit when we have long penetrations to make.
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
definitely corded for intensive drilling projects, like you've posted. A cordless hammer drill, you'll be swapping battery packs allday long and cursing at the chargers that don't seem to recharge them fast enough!

however, i DO love my Hilte Brand drills! We have 4 corded, and 2 cordless, here at the shop and have never needed to service them in the past decade.
 
Bly

Bly

New Member
I've owned a Ramset 342 Dynadrill for years.
It's a big heavy rotary hammer type drill that takes chisel bits too if you need to do a little adjustment of some masonry.
For common brick it's too much drill but it makes short work of solid concrete or hard decorative bricks.
 
Sign Works

Sign Works

New Member
I've been running the Bosch Bulldog for 14 years and it still works great. Fantastic tool for the money.
 

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Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
MikePro said:
definitely corded for intensive drilling projects, like you've posted. A cordless hammer drill, you'll be swapping battery packs allday long and cursing at the chargers that don't seem to recharge them fast enough!

however, i DO love my Hilte Brand drills! We have 4 corded, and 2 cordless, here at the shop and have never needed to service them in the past decade.
Click to expand...

signage said:
Hilti is the best!
Click to expand...

I've heard Bosch or Hilti is the way to go. Any model numbers ??
 
TheSnowman

TheSnowman

New Member
I don't have anything to compare with, but all I know is I have a cordless DeWalt Hammer Drill I'd put up against about anything...except for drilling ALL day...so you have to be right on the corded. The new 20V batteries do last a crazy long time though.
 
signage

signage

New Member
Sign Works said:
Mine is the Bosch 11224VSR, currently only $169 at Lowe's or Home Depot, used to be $199.
Wished all my tools performed this well and for $169 how can you go wrong?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_46161-353-1...rentURL=?Ns=p_product_avg_rating|1&facetInfo=
Click to expand...

I have burnd 2 of those up! I know others in other trades that have also had problems with that model.

Hard to recommend a model without knowing what size holes you plan on drilling. Are you going to use this to drill large holes for post mounting in concrete. What about driving sign posts?
 
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Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
All these holes for these two jobs are 3/16" for Gemini letters about 2" deep.

We had a job a few months ago where we went through about 7 or 8 7/16" drill bits and our hammer drill did the job, but our arms got tired from drilling.

I have another small job coming up where I'm going to have to drill through solid concrete with about 5/8" holes about 4 or more inches deep.

We'll only use it for drilling formed letters for walls and raceways or box signs for walls. Drilling holes for posts..... not my job. That's the regular installers job.
 
David Wright

David Wright

New Member
I have always owned corded and battery hammer drills ( DeWalt, Bosch) but our last job was murder on cement and stone for a Gemini job. Never owned an sds drill before so I bought a cheapy at Harbor Freight. Went ten times as fast with no effort or heavy pushing.
So whatever your budget any sds drill should be fine.
Somebody did post here in the last month about a new Bosch battery drill that really performed. I watched a video on it but can't remember the model.
 
fmg

fmg

New Member
HILTI HILTI HILTI all the way nothing else comes close
Bosch is chinese junk. Once you use Hilti nothing else compares
Try stepping it up to this model if you can spare the extra bucks.Long run you will appreciate the extra power TE 7 + DRS Rotary Hammer Drill.
Also your price looks higher than the list on the Hilti website.
 
signage

signage

New Member
If my memory is correct that drill has a maximum recomended hole size of 1/2". I would recommend a TE-7.
 
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