SDS Drill and bits

[sparkysy]

I have the bosch blue 240v and the 36v for no power situations both are excellent at their jobs but the battery ones anti shock handle is excellent when you have been battering holes in concrete for a while or chasing. Damn vibrations do my hands in very quickly these days!

 

[roofman]

Whatever you do or buy, please dont buy cheap SDS bits for heavy use...they mushroom at the top (hammer end) and you cant get em out.

 

[mike os]

even for DIY or occasional use there are only 2 things i would buy from dewalt... sds bits and HSS bits, the rest just does not cut it IME

 

[PTvor]

i am in the market for a new hammer drill and contemplating SDS for the extra versatility. Having never owned one I have a question, can you use standard drill bits in them as well or do I have to by new SDS bits?

They're not quite the same and an alternative to ordinary hammer drills, they do different things.

It depends how much you are going to use it, but Lidl and Aldi are doing them at the moment. The Lidl one is £30. Don't forget you can get an awful lot done, and things you just couldn't do with an ordinary hammer drill, in a few minutes with an SDS drill.

There's usually an SDS to normal shank adaptor chuck, but it's sloppy and you can't use it on the SDS hammer function because it will shake the chuck to bits and wreck the drill bit.

They often throw in a few SDS bits with the drill or you can get sets pretty cheaply. You can even get 1 metre and 1.5 metre SDS bits.

I found a Lidl drill and cheap bits have been fine. I don't use the SDS drill that much, but when I need it, there's nothing like it. I got some cheap 3 for £10 1 metre bits from Aldi because I had to drill through some 2' 6" limestone walls; I thought it would be one drill used up for every ten holes. As it was I drilled about 100 holes and used only one bit, which was as good at the end as at the start. Generally, I've been impressed with the cheap bits.

If I used an SDS drill every day, I'd undoubtedly get something like a Makita, but for the amount I use it, it wouldn't be worth it.

Pretty much, they are brute force machines, where you are not that bothered about accuracy. You need that sort of oomph for going through poured concrete or stone, or for light demolition, but not for the sort of things you'd use an ordinary hammer drill for, drilling holes in brick walls for rawlplugs and that sort of stuff. One thing to remember is that the hammer action doesn't depend on you pushing on the drill like on an ordinary hammer drill. So, you don't need to and shouldn't put a lot of force on an SDS drill, just enough pressure to keep it in contact with the work, and let the drill do the work.

 

[sparkysy]

@PTvor
Pretty much, they are brute force machines, where you are not that bothered about accuracy.

I have to disagree with this bit as I can be damn accurate with mine. even chopping socket boxes in so that the face plate covers the hole with only the capping needing filling! It just comes with experience like everything! Is funny watching the boy wonder (apprentice) with one though especially when he puts a chisel in and forgets to put the rotor stop on!

 

[rikrobson]

I got a 30 quid lidl jobbie its fine for occasional use. Used it for drilling through concrete walls no problem and down into floors too.

 

[brightspark]

if your drilling and chisseling masonary concrete and bricks get a rotor stop sds drill also u realy need a standard 2 speed preferably geared drill for wood bits and twist drills if u want accuracy and the higher speed

 

[rikrobson]

Its Horses for courses. A big sds hammer is for makingholes in concrete. A drill-driver is ok for pilot holes in wood etc. A 240 hammer for brick. An airdrie is good on steel. I find the electrics too fast for my liking.. If it's steel and it fits the the drill press is used.

 

[zx9]

@PTvor
Pretty much, they are brute force machines, where you are not that bothered about accuracy.

I have to disagree with this bit as I can be damn accurate with mine. even chopping socket boxes in so that the face plate covers the hole with only the capping needing filling! It just comes with experience like everything! Is funny watching the boy wonder (apprentice) with one though especially when he puts a chisel in and forgets to put the rotor stop on!

True, I will own up to doing it the other way and briefly wondering why the drill is not going round.

 

[PTvor]

@PTvor
Pretty much, they are brute force machines, where you are not that bothered about accuracy.

I have to disagree with this bit as I can be damn accurate with mine. even chopping socket boxes in so that the face plate covers the hole with only the capping needing filling! It just comes with experience like everything! Is funny watching the boy wonder (apprentice) with one though especially when he puts a chisel in and forgets to put the rotor stop on!

When I put the roto stop on an SDS drill, I always check that the thing is actually on by running the drill out of contact with the work. Once bitten, twice shy. They ought to have a torque limiter so they don't break your wrists, but you never know.

Those attachments for socket boxes look like a godsend, if you are doing them regularly. As I have to cut one about every four years, I do it the hard way. I've also seen wood chisel bits and stirrer bits. I've never seen the need for a wood chisel bit and you can buy special stirrer drills for not very much. As Brightspark says, if you want to use twist drills and wood bits and have accuracy, you're much better off with a nice two speed gear box conventional drill.

The chisel bits can be very useful and I thought almost all SDS drills had a rotostop and neutral so that you can position the angle of a chisel bit where you want it.

The thing I've noticed is that the instructions often don't point out what the tube of grease is for and a lot of people don't work it out and just use the bits dry, which at least will wear the chuck and make it very sloppy, very quickly.

The other thing for the O/P to ponder is that SDS drills come in different weights and different patterns. Mine's a 2kg with a pneumatic hammer which is relatively light, and the hammer action isn't as powerful as the heavier ones, but it still goes through concrete pdq. There are heavier ones with a mechanical hammering action.

The thing I've been impressed with is that they make things possible which you really couldn't do with a conventional drill, like make a 25mm hole through an 80cm stone wall to put a cable through, thus saving a lot of time and materials, routing the cable past the wall. The fact the hole comes out 6" away from where you'd have like it to appeared doesn't really matter.

 

[brightspark]

i use high frequency sds rather than ones that knock six shades of sh..it out of the wall.i have the box sinkers for single and double sockets but i can knock the boxes out just as accurate and faster with a 2inch chissel bit on drilli use the bosch gbh 4dfe drill its powerfull and light https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...57.6312j0j8&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 i have 3 and only paid 60 quid for each