Cordless drill for mansory drilling?

[Stephen Tashiro]

What's a good, fairly lightweight, cordless drill that can stand up to drilling 1/2 holes in concrete block for anchors?

My DeWalt DC759 is powerful enough for this work but I think the workout is losening up the whole top of the drill!

[Mike Henderson]

You definitely want a hammer drill. A hammer drill will drill much faster than a regular drill into concrete block.

You'll probably do better with a corded hammer drill, but it'll be interesting to see what cordless drills people recommend.

Mike

[Clint Baxter]

I've been using the Makita BHR241 and have been happy with it's performance. I have a corded Dewalt and I think the cordless Makita works just as fast as the corded unit. Have used it a lot for drilling 1/2 holes for concrete anchors as well as smaller stuff. It's rated up to 7/8" and the times I've used the larger bits, has done well.

The rotary hammers work much better than the more ubiquitous "hammer drill" when it comes to drilling any type of masonry or concrete. You also have the options of drill only, hammer and drill and hammer only. Makes the tool much more versatile.

Clint

[Greg R Bradley]

What's a good, fairly lightweight, cordless drill that can stand up to drilling 1/2 holes in concrete block for anchors?

My DeWalt DC759 is powerful enough for this work but I think the workout is losening up the whole top of the drill!

How many? How often?

A hammer drill will be much better than a regular drill like yours, which would only be usable for a few holes, at least if I had to run it.

A SDS Rotary Hammer would be much better. I use the 36v Bosch Rotary Hammer and it works well enough I'm going to sell several Bosch 11236VS corded units.

Dewalt makes an 18v unit that uses the same batteries as yours.

http://www.dewalt.com/tools/cordless-concrete-sds-rotary-hammers-dc212ka.aspx

They also make 36v units more similar to my Bosch. Electricians say the 18v cordless units are fine for daily use of 3/16" in concrete, which means about 3/8" in cement block. That would make them very usable for 1/2" in cement block and would do 1" fairly well.

[Paul Wunder]

http://www.lowes.com/pd_36924-79992-PC70THD_0__?productId=3686324&Ntt=porter+cable+hammer+drill&
pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dporter%2Bcable%2Bhammer%2Bdril l&facetInfo=

I bought a lower end corded PC hammer drill ($65) for my occasional use in putting fasteners in my home's 40 year old concrete. Was surprised at the power and ease of accomplishing my task after struggling with my various other drills. For concrete, a hammer drill is the only way to go.

[Jeff Duncan]

As others have asked....how many holes? Drilling 1/2" holes in block isn't all that taxing on a decent drill, but a lot more work than I'd want to do if I had an alternative;) If your drilling any amount of holes you'll want a hammer drill. If it's a LOT of holes you'll really want a corded drill and something larger is preferable. I needed a lot of holes drilled into concrete when I moved in to my new shop so dropped the cash for a Bosch Bulldog hammer drill and it was worth every penny. It'll drill through concrete block faster than I can drill through wood:)

For lightweight, (ie cheap) cordless Ryobi makes....or used to at least, a hammer drill combo. I had one that I got some use out of, but it was slow compared to a real drill.

good luck,
JeffD

[Stephen Tashiro]

How many? How often?

.

A max of 20 holes per week and zero on most weeks! I'm retired, however I live in a house made of conrete block, with a concrete block storage buildings and concrete block fences, etc. (Maybe the house was built for a block salesman.)

[Greg R Bradley]

A decent cordless hammer drill will be fine for that amount of use. A bare tool that uses the same batteries as your existing one should be fine. Buy decent carbide concrete bits and figure on sharpening or replacing every 20 holes or so.