Hammer Drill Advise Requested

[Jack Young]

Folks-

I have my first job as a smallish cabinetmaker, interior renovation sort. I have a couple of DeWalt corded drills and a Ryobi cordless, but nothing to make short work of fastening 1x6 boards to an 8' high poured concrete wall as nailers for wainscot TnG below and sheetrock above along a pretty good length. I supposed a hammer drill will do it better and surely I'll need it somewhere along the way again.

HD is now selling Hilti, but there may well be a plenty good enough brand for occasional use and for less dinero. What is your experience on the topic? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jack

[larry merlau]

Folks-

HD is now selling Hilti, but there may well be a plenty good enough brand for occasional use and for less dinero. What is your experience on the topic? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jack

i have the milwaukee. around $169, will have to look up the model, but has a 1/2 chuck. hilti has been around along time is the choice for alot of construction companys. dont know the cost of the hilti but the milwaukee is a solide performer for me. i do remodel work alot and have used both. one thing i would suggest is to use (tap its) if you can find them or tapcons. the
(tap its) are plastic sleeves that have a screw that drives into the plastic sleeve. or you can just drive with a hammer. the tapcons are little more expensive but hold like iron! i think the model of milwaukee is 7538??
(am not advertizing anything just giving an opinion)

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Jack,

Avoid the cheap hammerdralls. The bearing wear out. Hilti is top of the line, the company my brother works for has a DeWalt, I have a Metabo, and the Milwaukee is a a Milwaukee.

I'll second the use of the Tapcon or simular screw. I really like the convience of just drilling the hole and then running in the screw.

[Chris Padilla]

Like Larry, I have a Milwaukee 1/2" drive Hammer drill. Very powerful. Once upon a time, I used to look at and buy nothing but Milwaukee or Makita when it came to heavy duty hand tools like drills (of all sorts), sawzalls, and the heavier duty stuff. I own a Milwaukee Sawzall and Hammer drill and they both are strong, forgiving, solid-built tools.

I put in a small porch on my house and sunk anchors that needed a 5/8" hole drilled. The Milwaukee was a pleasure to use but be sure to outfit her with quality hammer-drill bits. I ended up using Bosch and they were okay (that is all HD had at the time I needed them and it was easy to return drill bits that didn't seem to last long) but I might search out Milwaukee brand bits in the future. Note that the hammer drill you get should be able to work in non-hammering mode, too, so you get some versatility out of it. I think most do.

[larry merlau]

Hi Jack,

Avoid the cheap hammerdralls. The bearing wear out. Hilti is top of the line, the company my brother works for has a DeWalt, I have a Metabo, and the Milwaukee is a a Milwaukee.

I'll second the use of the Tapcon or simular screw. I really like the convience of just drilling the hole and then running in the screw.

are you saying that the milwaukee isnt of good quality? just asking your opinion

[larry merlau]

i second the opinion of chris on the bits. the bits that come with the tapcons arent nearly as good as the hilti bits , but some of the hilti bits have a differnt type of shaft on them so pay attention to that, so it will fit on your drill which ever you get. HD bits are junk, exspecailly if you accidently put it in reversing mode while trying to drill forwward.:eek: only good for one hole. one bad draw back on the milwaukee, the switch is to close to the trigger finger

[Rob Russell]

I have a Hitachi SDS plus hammer drill. It doesn't take regular drill bits, but uses the splined bits. Changing bits is a breeze - just like a quick connect on a pneumatic tool.

It's rated for up to 15/16" in concrete and I've used it to do 3/4" holes in concrete. Goes through it like a hot knife through butter.

For attaching nailing boards to concrete, I'd use TapCon screws. If you use the buglehead style, you shouldn't need to counter sink. If you use the hex head drive (I do), take your board and predrill a slight counter sunk hole for the head to recess into. Drill a full-size hole for the tapcons. You don't want threads biting into the wood (can get gapping in back of the board).

Now - to your situation.

For your first job, I wouldn't buy a new drill. I'd buy a couple of the carbide-tipped concrete bits that will work in a corded drill and use those. The next time you need the hammer drill, buy it.

Also - 1x6 nailers will cause you problems with 1/2" sheetrock and standard 1 5/8" sheetrock screws. You won't be able to bury the sheetrock screws. If this is a basement, I'd use 2x4's and insulate anyway. Besides, is the concrete wall really flat? I'd think you might want to frame in a "real" wall so it's plumb and true.

Just my humble :rolleyes: opinion.

Rob

[Tyler Howell]

Although a turquoise kinda guy I have and love my Milwaukee 1/2" hammer dill. Had it 20 years and it is still punching em through.;)

[Ken Garlock]

Rotary hammers use an SDS type chuck and bit, whereas a hammer drill uses a standard chuck. The rotary hammer is made for harder use.

That being said, I found a company in North Carolina that does factory authorized reconditioning of Milwaukee tools. I bought their 1 1/8 in. rotary hammer at a good price. I came in a metal case along with two chucks, SDS, and standard. Changing chucks is about a 4 second process. Another good feature is that it can operate in three modes, drill, hammer, and hammer drill. Be sure to check the modes on any one yhou consider buying. It works great. I even used it to "drill" a ground rod into the ground, beats the **** out of using a sledge hammer.

Check out Power Tool Services (http://www.powertoolservices.com)

Just a happy customer.

[Wes Bischel]

Jack,

I'll go in a different direction just to be counter culture. :p I need a hammer drill once a year or so for maybe 4 holes - usually in the basement. Last year I finally thought better of using my regular 1/2" drill. So I went over to HF and bought a $24 hammer drill. Is it a great tool - no. But it does the job when it is needed. If I were using it professionally, or more often, I would buy a Milwaukee. I just can't justify big bucks on a tool that sits so long between use. From your post, I'm not sure how big the job is, it may be big enough to justify the expense.

Like I said - counter opinion just because. :rolleyes:

Wes

[Rob Russell]

Rotary hammers use an SDS type chuck and bit, whereas a hammer drill uses a standard chuck. The rotary hammer is made for harder use.

OK - so I have a rotary hammer. One thing it doesn't have is a hammer only mode - it's either hammer drill or drill only.


I'll go in a different direction just to be counter culture.

That's sort of the point I was making with my comment about just buying some concrete bits for this job.

FWIW, the Hitachi I bought was a "recon" at HD, but it really looked like someone bought it, used it for couple of jobs, and returned it. That's worth looking into also. I saw a really serious Bosch rotary hammer at Lowe's within the last couple of weeks, but just didn't need anything that powerful.

[Bill Ryall]

I have a 1/2" Milwaukee. I love it. It will break your wrist if you are not careful. I have drilled countless holes in stone, masonry and metal, and it has never hiccupped.

As with any other cutting tool, use good bits. You will get much better service with a good Hilti carbide tipped hammerdrill bit than you will a cheap B&D bit from Wally World.

Bill R, somewhere in Maine

[Mike Wilkins]

Do you want corded or cordless? Since I am not a full time pro, I opted for
a Metabo 15.6 volt cordless hammer/drill. Lots of power for masonry drilling
and more than enough for going into wood.
Metabo makes a great line of power tools, but are somewhat pricier than
some of the more popular brands.

Fine Homebuilding did an article on hammer drills and gave high marks to the
Bosch line of tools. Do an archive search on the Taunton site for more info.

[Mark Singer]

I have the Bosch about $150....it is super! I have had several before.

[Jack Young]

Hey Guys,

Thanks more than you know. I think I can make a sensible decision now. I'll let your comments fester a bit, as I have a week before needing anything.

Rob, you're correct on the ideal method. I checked the wall carefully and it is surprisingly straight and true. The client, who is rather knowledgeable, opted for 3/4" foam bats between the 3/4 horizontal nailers sealed with spray foam. I will have to find shorter screws for the sheetrock and would use finish nails for the TnG 1x6s, anyway. Also have a second job lined up to build and finish out a conversion of a back porch into a sun-room, which will also require drilling in concrete and brick for the plates, etc. And my concession to occasional use of a hammer drill is more to corded than to overall quality.

Ken, thanks for the web connection. That may be the best way to go.

Hey, I'm in business until December with no more than an announcement at church. Haven't even yet decided on a name, much less get myself a website.

Jack

[Christian Aufreiter]

Hi Jack,

I have a hammer drill and a rotary hammer drill and wouldn't like to use the hammer drill for drilling concrete. A good rotary hammer works way faster and is more efficient.
As you don't need it for chiseling a SDS-Plus type is sufficient IMO. I'd recommend SDS-Max primarily for hard jobs (large dia holes and chiseling). Some small SDS-Plus drills also have a chiseling mode but they are definitely not designed to knock down concrete walls.

Hope this helps,

Christian

[Joe Mioux]

Hi Jack:

I have a little combination Skil drill, does three things drill, hammer, and something else (can't think of it right now). I bought on impulse one day when the lumber yard was discontinuing their Skill products. I think I paid around $70.00. I don't use it much but it comes in handy when needed. I used it when I built a boiler room, a greenhouse and trimmed out a sunroom. This was over a period of 1992-2000. If it had not been so cheap and versatile, I probably would not have bought it.

The point is for occaissional use you might consider renting one.

Although it is more fun buying. LOL

Joe

[Boyd Gathwright]

…. I agree with Mark. I have a German “Bosch SDS PLUS 1 1/8” hammer drill which has three (3) modes of operation: Drill, Hammer, and Drill & Hammer. I also use a cheap Chinese half inch (1/2”) Hammer Drill that busses for it’s hammer for bits under three sixteenth inch (3/16”) and to my surprise does an a OK job.


I try to stick with quality if it’s affordable.

<O:p</O:p

Boyd ;)

.

Folks-

I have my first job as a smallish cabinetmaker, interior renovation sort. I have a couple of DeWalt corded drills and a Ryobi cordless, but nothing to make short work of fastening 1x6 boards to an 8' high poured concrete wall as nailers for wainscot TnG below and sheetrock above along a pretty good length. I supposed a hammer drill will do it better and surely I'll need it somewhere along the way again.

HD is now selling Hilti, but there may well be a plenty good enough brand for occasional use and for less dinero. What is your experience on the topic? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jack

[Jack Young]

All-

Thanks so much for your responses. I have ordered a reconditioned 3/4" Milwaukee #5383-81, an SDS-type, which has a range of capability I like. Perhaps the optional chuck will cost as much as the machine, but for the concrete drilling I'm foreseeing, it will fill the bill. It cost about $140, which is well less than what a 1/2 incher costs new.

Again, thanks.

Jack

[Jim Cunningham]

Good morning Jack,

I bought one yesterday. I am in south Florida and had to board up for hurricane Frances. I bought a Ridgid since it was all that is available. I paid $169 and have pleasantly surprised. I has a good deel and drills like crazy. Years ago when I was in the sign business I had a Hilti. Thirty years ago I paid about $350. That was a sweet drill, but for what I needed it for, the Ridgid is a good value. Plenty of torque, reversing, variable speed, adjustable torque, selector for hammer or not, two speed gearbox keyles chuck. I don't know who makes it, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't Ryobi(crap), but I like it. Just my $0.02

JIm

[David Tang]

I have a 4.8 amp Metabo Hammer drill with the keyless chuck. For the very few projects I do that require this drill, it's plenty. I bought it new from a Metabo repair shop for about $60.

[Greg Mann]

…. I agree with Mark. I have a German “Bosch SDS PLUS 1 1/8” hammer drill which has three (3) modes of operation: Drill, Hammer, and Drill & Hammer. I also use a cheap Chinese half inch (1/2”) Hammer Drill that busses for it’s hammer for bits under three sixteenth inch (3/16”) and to my surprise does an a OK job.


I try to stick with quality if it’s affordable.

<O:p</O:p

Boyd ;)

.

Boyd,

Your quote at the bottom refers to 'every man's work being a portrait of himself.' So I'm thinking, "This guy's a nut with his feet stuck in concrete!!" Soryy, I couldn't help myself.:D (I'll pay for this.)

Greg