SDS drill

[woof]

Right I am new here ... and looking for a cheap SDS drill. Have a 18v battery drill, and an old old Bosh 500W corded drill - but need to drill a little deeper into an external wall, as the curtain rail keeps falling. I think the drill hits concrete as it just swtops penetrating. So returning to the qurestion of which SDS drill - the titan seems such a good deal 1250W, 3200bpm - or is 850W, 4000bpm for the Dewalt better?

Thanks for your advice chaps and ladies!

Edit .... oops you can tell I am new here, this was meant to be a reply to the Which SDS post on this page. Sorry ... maybe a mod can transfer it across?/

 

[gcol]

It a common problem when fitting curtain rails - usually the problem is a steel lintel. An SDS drill won't help you if it's steel you're trying to drill through.

 

[happypig]

I had exactly the same problem, very hard concrete lintel. my 750 bosch wouldn't touch it so I bought a cheapo SDS and it went in a treat. That was 4 years ago and it's still going strong after doing a lot of work.
Personally I'd go for a £30 jobbie such as this :
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=101377&ts=59175&id=58494

(if you have a steel lintel as gcol suggests then you're only down £30 and it'll come in handy sooner or later)

 

[Richard C]

I had exactly the same problem, very hard concrete lintel. my 750 bosch wouldn't touch it so I bought a cheapo SDS and it went in a treat. That was 4 years ago and it's still going strong after doing a lot of work.
Personally I'd go for a £30 jobbie such as this :
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=101377&ts=59175&id=58494

(if you have a steel lintel as gcol suggests then you're only down £30 and it'll come in handy sooner or later)

I've got one of those; cheap & chearfull but it's plenty good enough for non-trade use & it does the job. Over the last 18 months, mines demolished 4 brick walls, 2 very large reinforced concrete lintels, dug out 2 soil drain gulleys & drilled loads of large deep holes & it's still going strong.

But as gcol says, if your hitting a steel lintel it wont help; in fact you "press on" could do some damage to the lintel seating! Try using a HSS drill bit to go through the steel then continue with the tipped masonry drill; but you will bugger the HSS bit in the process.

 

[woof]

Many thanks for the advice - looks like a cheap SDS drill will at find some use and be worth a try. But .... really stupid question time ... how do I know if it is a steel lintel or concrete I am drilling into (without making a hole large enough to physically visualise what is lurking below?). Some way of detecting metal through brick? Maybe one of those airport x-ray scanners? And if it is metal, what is the solution? IS the obvious one - of moving the rail up a couple of inches and testing whether same resistance is met the right way to go?

Also, I would make a guess that stell lintels would have been put on all the windows at the same time, but since the window on the adjoining side of the same room didn't pose such a problem - maybe just been unlucky and hit a concrete slab?!

Thanks in advance

Mark

 

[Thermo]

make sure its got a safety clutch on it. a lot of cheap ones dont. they hurt when it goes wrong

 

[happypig]

how do I know if it is a steel lintel or concrete I am drilling into (without making a hole large enough to physically visualise what is lurking below?).

I found a telescopic pick-up tool in a pound shop (can't remember what it cost); it's got a little magnet on the end, about 6mm, which would stick to a steel lintel.