SDS drill, do I need one?

PlacidCasual

PlacidCasual

PlacidCasual

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Joined
13 May 2003
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9,275
Hi peeps

I've had a frustrating experience today trying to drill a mere 2 holes in a wall to secure a set of home built shelves. I was usng a green Bosch percussion drill (not sure the make off top of my head). I only wanted 2 off 5mm holes for rawl plugs. The plaster is good and moderately deep onto solid stone walls.

I found the drill would hit the stone and meander opening out the plaster before a pit would form to centre the bit and eventually drill into the stone. This left me with some very loose rawl plugs at the surface, which solved with a bit of filler as it wasn't a highly loaded fitting.

The house is 1900's and all internal walls are plaster on stone.

Now it's quite possible my awful technique led to today's **** up, but I'm also thinking my percussion drill may not be up to the task of the new house.

Any advice welcome, if an SDS drill is the answer I could spend up to £100 but given its only for occasional DIY use would that be overkill.
 
screwfix do a cheap titan sds drill,havn't used mine for drilling yet though just for the chiselling,but it did that as sweet as a nut

a hammer action drill should do it? sds just does the chisel action with the bit not rotating

EDIT: I think you only need one if you want the chiselling action
 
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As said. A combi drill with hammer action should get the job done. Make sure you're using the correct bits and drill a pilot hole. Use tape to prevent chip out of paint and plaster and a hoover while drilling to prevent brick dust ruining your floor/carpet/walls.
 
an SDS drill is totally over the top for this as others have said a quality bit in a decent combi should be more than capable.
 
I never regret my £99 gamble with my DeWalt a couple of years back. It sure does take a beating!:
lappAS2.jpg


I think you'll be able to find deals on the 18V Li-Ion now!
 
As has been said, for small holes virtually any hammer drill should do the job, but make sure you're using good bits that are right for the job.
It's surprising the difference you get between say a 5 for a pound set and £1+ per bit named brand ones.

We actually need to go through our box of old bits (which has barely been touched in years) and throw most of them out, as the bulk of them are cheap bits and virtually useless.
 
I have concrete walls and often hit large stones when drilling, Hammer drill and good drill bit is all you need. I bought an sds drill its good for big holes but hammer is perfectly fine for everything else
 
Get yourself down to screwfix and pick up a couple of Bosch Blue drill bits. I got the small pack of 4 drill bits for a tenner and they have been absolutely brilliant.
 
My outside walls are made of rock hard bricks and ordinary hammer drill won't touch them-- I go for a SDS mains drill -(Got it from Lidl or Aldi ) for 29 quid - also have mains hammer drill and cordless combi drill -

I would use SDS bit's every time if wall is hard.
 
I haven't found anything my Bosch blue hammer drill can't handle. I only use the SDS for mixing plaster or tile/board adhesive and taking plaster/render off.
Unless of course I need to drill a hole bigger than 13mm.
 
An SDS drill for this is completely overkill.

I've got a £50 Bosch 10.8v Li-Ion cordless hammerdrill and that tackles 90% of things I've ever attempted, including lots of drilling into concrete and brick (6mm). For everything else, my £14.99 hammer drill from Aldi has nailed it.
 
Are people missing the part where he says he already has a hammer drill and its making a mess of the plaster before finally drilling into the stone?

It could just be due to the wall beneath the plaster being random stone and that is moving the drill bit around. You could try using a decent sharp drill bit and start off with the hammer action off to get trough the plaster and make a scratch in the stone, then flick the hammer on to drill into the stone. Get higher up so that the drill is around chest height, rather than holding the drill above you. Just try to hold it as steady as possible so its not moving around.

If its taking ages to drill the stone and the bits are de-brazing due to the heat then its time to upgrade to an SDS. Some stone is incredibly hard and a normal hammer drill wont touch it. Like my house which is made out of Rossendale stone.
 
Thanks for the responses every, particularly Mark A. I'll try some better bits and no hammer initially. My drill will do small holes it just seems to struggle initially in the solid stone walls.

The one advantage of all stone walls is they are all load bearing so within reason you can hang anything from them.
 
I found dewalt extreme masonry bits good :) and they're not too expensive. Make sure you get the right sizes for your wall plugs - some sets miss out eg 7mm bits for brown plugs
 
PlacidCasual said:
Now it's quite possible my awful technique led to today's **** up, but I'm also thinking my percussion drill may not be up to the task of the new house.

Any advice welcome, if an SDS drill is the answer I could spend up to £100 but given its only for occasional DIY use would that be overkill.
Click to expand...

You can still have the same problem with an SDS drill so don't let anybody tell you different.
One of the best tools in my armoury for bodged holes are cocktail sticks to fill the hole out.
When I do a job in other peoples houses I always take cocktail sticks with me so I don't end up swearing, obviously matches will also work.

Oh and decent bits help.
 
PlacidCasual said:
Hi peeps

I've had a frustrating experience today trying to drill a mere 2 holes in a wall to secure a set of home built shelves. I was usng a green Bosch percussion drill (not sure the make off top of my head). I only wanted 2 off 5mm holes for rawl plugs. The plaster is good and moderately deep onto solid stone walls.

I found the drill would hit the stone and meander opening out the plaster before a pit would form to centre the bit and eventually drill into the stone. This left me with some very loose rawl plugs at the surface, which solved with a bit of filler as it wasn't a highly loaded fitting.

The house is 1900's and all internal walls are plaster on stone.

Now it's quite possible my awful technique led to today's **** up, but I'm also thinking my percussion drill may not be up to the task of the new house.

Any advice welcome, if an SDS drill is the answer I could spend up to £100 but given its only for occasional DIY use would that be overkill.
Click to expand...


Sounds like you might need some new drill bits, I went from old blunt bosch ones to some nice dewalt extreme ones and it has made a big difference. As for technique, I would start the holes off with hammer off, turn it on once you hit the brickwork behind the plaster. If there is any question about the state of the plaster or brickwork I would start with a smaller drill, eg drill a 5mm pilot for a 7mm hole just in case it all crumbles away. Bits of matchstick is a handy tip to and has saved the day before.

As for do you need an SDS, I would say they are very handy things to have. For putting curtain rails up (drilling into lintels), removing tiles and plaster with the hammer action, drilling deep holes right through walls and for drilling into solid concrete (to fit ground anchors) mine has been a great investment.

Dave
 
wazza300 said:
screwfix do a cheap titan sds drill,havn't used mine for drilling yet though just for the chiselling,but it did that as sweet as a nut

a hammer action drill should do it? sds just does the chisel action with the bit not rotating

EDIT: I think you only need one if you want the chiselling action
Click to expand...


Hammer drills 'bounce' the chuck of a ramped ring behind the chuck, SDS hammer the bit. In fact hammer drills aren't really hammer, they are percussion and the difference is massive.

Do you need it? Possibly not but given its stone your going into a cheapo SDS wouldn't be a bad idea, probably cheaper than trying to fix fallen off plaster/black mortar backing.
 
A cheap hammer drill and good bits should do. I tried cheap hammer drill (an old black and decker that has served me well) with some cheap bits I had lying around to drill into brick to mount a TV wall bracket. One attempt and the bit went in the bin. Next day some Dewalt bits and the difference was night and day.
 
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