Drilling through rebar

[Josho]

Installing a 2 post lift and have an issue that we keep hitting rebar.

I need to drill 8 holes that have all hit rebar. We are using a Hilti SDS Plus drill. Hilti do some bits they reckon will do it. I bought a “rebar cutter” for 50 quid and it blunted almost instantly. Load of rubbish.

I have a Mag drill however I’m sure the concrete will instantly destroy the bits.

They are M24 bolts.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I have to admit, I have used those Hilti rebar cutter bits a couple of times in the past to deal with just this sort of problem and they have done the job. You're right about the mag drill, too. An HSS broach is no challenger to heavy duty concrete.

Whilst dry diamond cores might do the trick, a set will be expensive, and ideally they need the right kind of drill with a decent clutch to mitigate the horrendous snatching you can get when you hit rebar.

So, the only other thing I can think to do (that I have done in the past), is to break out the concrete around the rebar with a breaker and a concrete point, cut away the rebar where needs be, then set holding down bolts with their cardboard cups in place before refilling around them with concrete. Leave to set. The cones give you the ability to wiggle the bolts into the right position for your steel plate(s), or you could make up drllled plywood template(s) to hold the bolts in the correct positions while you fill the holes around the bolts with a heavy grout. Not ideal, but gets you there

I have recently come across a rebar cutter by Bosch which looks a bit like a cross betwen a core drill and an SDS drill.bit. I've never used them, though, partly because the priceid north of £100 a pop