Hammer Drill Question

[BOB OLINGER]

Not a woodworking question - but - I recently bought a high quality concrete bit at a local machine shop so we can install a concrete anchor at one of our processing plants. The salesman (a little short on knowledge) said to be sure to use a hammer drill equiped with SDS. He couldn't explain what SDS was. I've not run into this - can anyone enlighten me? Thanks.

[Jeff Duncan]

SDS is a type of shank the hammer drill uses. Or put another way if your hammer drill is an SDS type, you'll need SDS bits.
Got to know what type of hammer drill you have BEFORE you buy the drill bits.
good luck,
JeffD

[Ed Griner]

Hi Bob, SDS and SDSmax bits primarily are used with roto hammers and not with hammer drills. Save yourself a lot of work and get one.I have one of each,I gave away all my hammer drills.Roto hammer type machines are much faster,much easier to use,and accept a wider range of bits.
Ed

[David Prince]

Use a rotary-hammer and use a hammer-drill. You'll probably will give your hammer drill away to a homeless person.

[Jerome Stanek]

Yes the hammer drill has its place usually in the trash. I Have a Hilti ts22, Black & decker Mocho V, and a Millwaukee USA 1 rotro hamers and never will go back to a hammer drill. Hammer drills scream and are slow to dill into concrete.

[BOB OLINGER]

Thanks for the info. Can I purchase a roto hammer drill at the borg, or do I need to go to an upscale machine supply?

[Scot Ferraro]

Hilti makes great rotary hammer drills and hammer drills and some Home Depot stores carry them. I believe Lowes carries Bosch.

Scot

[David Prince]

Even a cheap HF rotary-hammer will work if you don't plan on making a living with it. $69.99 and use a 20% off coupon. It also comes with bits and a case.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/gifs/clear.gif



ITEM 97743-6VGA


$69.99

[Ben Franz]

The main consideration is how many holes you need to drill. If only a few, any hammer drill or roto-hammer will suffice. If it's going to be a regular activity, go upscale to a good quality roto-hammer. As others suggested, Hilti makes a good tool and the bigger Bosch tools also work well. I had an older 1" Bosch RH that I replaced with the newer 1.5" RH/Demo hammer (hammer only - great for light concrete, tile, brick/block demo and digging with a spade bit). I had frequent need to drill a lot of 3/4" to 1" holes in existing stem wall foundations for seismic retrofit work as well as crawl space excavations for new piers, etc. The Bosch SDS-Max 4 flute bits were awesome and drill 30+ year old concrete like butter - until you hit rebar but that's another story. IIRC the RH was about $600 and the good bits are $50-100 each. Good luck.

[Jim Finn]

I have a Milwaukee hammer drill I bought in 1969 for $129 and it still works fine. How does a roto hammer differ from a hammer drill?

[BOB OLINGER]

Thanks for the info and especially to Dave for the HF suggestion. Given we use these very infrequently, I think I'll purchase one for each of our 2 plants from HF. In fact, the sales brochure shows them on sale for $55.99 for a few more days. I don't buy a lot from HF, but specific items for specific use seem to be a good fit. Happy New Year to everyone!!!!!!!

[David Prince]

The cheapest I have seen the HF model is $49.99, so $55 is still a good price. If you compare it to the Grizzly model, I cannot tell the difference.

[Prashun Patel]

I humbly suggest that drilling holes in concrete is a one-off type of thing unless yr a pro.

I bought a Chinese SDS rotohammer (I agree a ham drill is a waste) on ebay for $25. Expected it to die after a couple jobs. 4 years later and about 100 holes later, it shows no sign of conking.

The heirarchy goes like this:

drill --> hammer drill --> SDS --> SDS Max --> Demo Hammer --> Jack hammer.

They say that SDSMax roto's are the thing to get if you anticipate needing to chip concrete AND drill holes regularly. However, for my money, I think it's wiser to buy a cheap SDS regular for regular drilling, and then to rent a heavier demohammer or jackhammer for chipping.

I used a Bosch SDSMax rotohammer to chip out a sewage ejector pit, and it was not fun.