Author Topic: Which next drill (Read 8559 times)

Valiant · « **Reply #50 on:** 20 April, 2021, 02:55:08 pm »

I've been doing a lot of work offsite without mains hence the 5ah seemed like a good idea.

Ashaman42 · « **Reply #51 on:** 20 April, 2021, 03:19:58 pm »

I got an Erbauer drill with two 5aH batteries because at the time it was cheaper than the pack with two 4aH.

And recently got both the bare circular saw and jigsaw.

I think the batteries are both still on their first charge and I've had them a wee while albeit not loads of use.

TimO · « **Reply #52 on:** 25 August, 2021, 01:18:35 pm »

I see Lidl has some DIY tools, including a drill, going on sale this weekend.

https://www.lidl.co.uk/c/diy/c2014/w2

Whilst the drill seems reasonable at £19.99, once you add a 2Ah battery and charger for another £19.99, that's a minimum of £39.98 which isn't too bad, but isn't the dramatic bargain it may appear at first.

2Ah batteries at £12.99 and 4Ah batteries at £24.99 seems to favour buying several 2Ah ones rather than the 4Ah. The slight premium cost is probably worth the ability of being able to charge a battery whilst using another and the lower weight.

You can fairly easily find rechargeable drills on Amazon (and elsewhere) for a similar price, albeit extra batteries and other tools that use the same battery probably aren't as easily available.

There are a few other Lidl tools which use the same battery being sold at the same time; orbital sander, pressure washer, pruning saw and sabre saw, but nothing too exceptional.

The drill seems reasonable, and comes with a case and handful of bits (probably quite low quality), but I'm not a drill connoisseur and not really qualified to comment much upon the specifications.

Thoughts?

Kim · « **Reply #53 on:** 25 August, 2021, 02:51:55 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 25 August, 2021, 01:18:35 pm

2Ah batteries at £12.99 and 4Ah batteries at £24.99 seems to favour buying several 2Ah ones rather than the 4Ah. The slight premium cost is probably worth the ability of being able to charge a battery whilst using another and the lower weight.

This is my take on tool batteries, too. There's a lot to be said for light weight, especially with something like a drill where you're likely to use it one-handed. The calculus may be different if you're planning for a lot of off-grid use, where smaller batteries mean you have more batteries to faff with.

The thing that puts me off Aldi/Lidl tools is that you're unlikely to be able to buy replacements in future. I had a cheap Aldi oscillating tool that was perfectly good but took some weird proprietary battery that was never seen again, and died after a couple of years of light use because it lacked any cell balancing. Needless to say, the battery pack was glued shut.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #54 on:** 25 August, 2021, 03:08:53 pm »

The Germans now have a standard for batteries for tools. You can swap batteries between tool manufacturers and you can even have 3rd party batteries. Brilliant.
Unfortunately so far mainly only German companies are signing up for this led by Metabo.

https://www.cordless-alliance-system.com/

I doubt that Makita etc will sign up unless the EU force it as once you have propriotary batteries it locks you in to that brand.

grams · « **Reply #55 on:** 25 August, 2021, 09:07:57 pm »

Compatible tools and batteries do seem to recur rather than being one-offs, and there are scalpers on EBay that usually have stock, though expect to pay a fair old premium.

There are 3D printed battery adapters now which make both the batteries and tools less of a lock-in.

The tools themselves seem to be of reasonable quality. I have an Aldi drill, multi tool and jigsaw and they all still work.

quixoticgeek · « **Reply #56 on:** 25 August, 2021, 09:42:21 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 25 August, 2021, 03:08:53 pm

The Germans now have a standard for batteries for tools. You can swap batteries between tool manufacturers and you can even have 3rd party batteries. Brilliant.
Unfortunately so far mainly only German companies are signing up for this led by Metabo.

https://www.cordless-alliance-system.com/

I doubt that Makita etc will sign up unless the EU force it as once you have propriotary batteries it locks you in to that brand.

Maybe time for a letter to Makita customer service... Maybe they'll make a CAS adaptor.

This evening we had an engineer here to fix the lift. He didn't want to go all the way down to get his drill, so I lent him mine, He was surprised by how well it went through the steel, even with the 15mm HSS drill bit.

J

Kim · « **Reply #57 on:** 25 August, 2021, 09:55:34 pm »

Quote from: quixoticgeek on 25 August, 2021, 09:42:21 pm

Maybe time for a letter to Makita customer service... Maybe they'll make a CAS adaptor.

If they don't I'm sure some enterprising Chinese company will...

TimO · « **Reply #58 on:** 03 September, 2021, 01:00:46 pm »

CAS seems like a very obvious idea, but whilst there are over 20 companies signed up to this at the moment, none of them seem to be dramatically big, although I do recognise a handful of the names.

I did also come across a guy on eBay who seemed to be making custom adapters between various brands of battery and devices. Although CAS wasn't explicitly named, there is a Metabo one, so possibly that's effectively a CAS compatible adapter.

andrewc · « **Reply #59 on:** 23 February, 2022, 07:26:16 pm »

Quote from: Jurek on 16 April, 2021, 12:17:51 pm

Quote from: nikki on 16 April, 2021, 11:04:24 am

<Snippety-Snip!>
continuously swapping between pilot bit, clearance bit, countersink and driver on the current project is getting a bit tedious!
I have a couple of these (Well, not De Walt but, in terms of performance - identical)
https://tinyurl.com/s4nfptx3

It might not be obvs from the picture, but this will let you drill a pilot hole, counterbore it, countersink it and fasten the screw without ever having to loosen the chuck.
It's very fast in action.
I've been using them for about 30 years.

ETA - I've just placed an order for the De Walt one as the corners of the hex shaft which goes into the chuck on my one are, after 30 year's use, somewhat rounded.
ETFA - This:
https://www.montanabrandtools.com/products/modular-drill-and-driver
Is closer to the one I have - it has the advantage of an allen key located in the hex shaft, for undoing the grub screw which retains the pilot drill bit. It has a further advantage that the screwdriver bits are magnetically retained (so easily swapped), and do not rely on a grub screw to keep them in place.

Re-reading this while looking at drills I found a video showing the use of Jurek's widget. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5UPhINY88A

TimO · « **Reply #60 on:** 05 July, 2022, 06:34:45 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 03 September, 2021, 01:00:46 pm

... I did also come across a guy on eBay who seemed to be making custom adapters ...

I just checked that site; "The seller is away until Wed, 01 Jan, 2031".

So, that seems to be somewhat unhelpful for any future requirements.

Paul · « **Reply #61 on:** 06 July, 2022, 08:16:19 am »

If that’s not a typo, then it’s a serious bowl of porridge!

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #62 on:** 06 July, 2022, 11:58:41 am »

I have two (functioning) drills. A nice Cordless, that gets used for screw driving and drilling small holes. A large SDS plus drill/breaker that gets used for big holes in the stupidly-hard Lewis concrete blocks.

Need to drill holes for water waste pipe. So went shopping for a 40mm bit. Faster and cleaner holes than drilling lots of smaller holes.

First shock; a 40mm, long masonry bit is pricey. £70 with VAT pricey.
Second shock; they only come in SDS max fittings.

Bah. Can't justify another drill just for drilling holes now and then. So back to drilling lots of smaller holes.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #63 on:** 06 July, 2022, 01:12:46 pm »

A 40mm core drill would be cheaper.

SDS core drill adaptor: £14.99

https://www.toolstation.com/diamond-core-drill-sds-adaptor-pack/p79014

40 mm core drill £4.99

https://www.toolstation.com/tct-core-drill/p59869

You can get hex adaptors instead of SDS as well.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #64 on:** 06 July, 2022, 01:20:21 pm »

The reviews of that adapter are not promising!

Most local people say that core drills won't touch the local blocks. The main hire place won't hire them out anymore.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #65 on:** 06 July, 2022, 01:26:29 pm »

Quote from: mrcharly-YHT on 06 July, 2022, 01:20:21 pm

The reviews of that adapter are not promising!

Most local people say that core drills won't touch the local blocks. The main hire place won't hire them out anymore.

Yes, does depend on your bricks etc. My last house has rock hard engineering bricks that blunted everything cheap.
This one has really soft blocks but a random stone outer which make drilling holes in external walls a bit of a lottery.
I did manage a big hole (14 cm from memory) using a hired SDS drill and diamond tipped core bit about 10 years ago for the extractor hood flue. Took ages to drill though.

Wombat · « **Reply #66 on:** 08 July, 2022, 10:49:39 am »

Yup, a decent quality (i.e. not cheap) diamond core drill should cope with pretty well anything. I recently hired a big drill (i.e. much bigger than my SDS plus one, to drill a 162mm diameter hole through very hard bricks, and thence into middling blockwork. I'd imagine a good 40mm core drill should be manageable by an SDS plus drill. Mine says 28mm max for solid drills, and 50mm for core drills, and I've used it with ease for a 40mm TCT core drill in hard-ish bricks. A TCT core drill takes a lot more effort than a diamond one, as its cutting away far more material.

On a related note, I checked the blurb on my disc cutter diamond blade, which insisted it could not be used for cutting granite. What, those granite setts over there, that I cut in half with it last year? I was forewarned about granite dust not being nice, so wore respirator and eye protection.

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #67 on:** 08 July, 2022, 11:38:54 am »

These aren't bricks, they are concrete blocks, made using the local Lewis Gneiss. It is unbelievably tough.

Even my (now broken) mains hammer drill would not do anything if the bit hit a chip of gneiss. For 7mm up I don't bother using anything other than my SDS plus breaker drill.

BFC · « **Reply #68 on:** 08 July, 2022, 11:53:38 am »

Those blocks sound like they need a diamond core drill (used in non hammer mode) and a bit of water - the slurry does as much cutting as the drills surfaces. Resist temptation to turn on the hammer mode - that destroys the high spots of the diamond grit.

Similar problems with old concrete in parts of Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex where the shingle used is particularly hard.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #69 on:** 08 July, 2022, 02:06:47 pm »

Quote from: BFC on 08 July, 2022, 11:53:38 am

Those blocks sound like they need a diamond core drill (used in non hammer mode) and a bit of water - the slurry does as much cutting as the drills surfaces. Resist temptation to turn on the hammer mode - that destroys the high spots of the diamond grit.

And if you hire the diamond core drill they charge you if you bugger it up !

Ham · « **Reply #70 on:** 10 July, 2022, 11:45:33 am »

Word Of Warning for using a cheap core drill/non-specialist drill to drill cores. You risk significant damage to yourself drilling a core without an adequate, functioning clutch.

Wombat · « **Reply #71 on:** 10 July, 2022, 12:48:11 pm »

A very good point indeed, Ham! Yes, my hired one had a clutch, but using it up a ladder was still mildly hazardous, as the point where it suddenly got much twistier (tech term) just before the clutch said "enough!" was still enough to make things tricky. I think a diamond core drill succeeds in some fearsomely tough media, where any sort of traditional metal or TCT drill may fail horribly.

As has been said before, when diamond core drilling, do NOT use hammer! Go at it gently, and withdraw to allow the crap to clear at intervals.