Hi i am a gas engineer froma service and repair background and am looking to getting into installs, i will need a sds drill and core drills , i would like some advice on what i should look out for when buying one, dont mind buying corded but looking at both options. Is cordless sds drill powerful enough to core drill if so what should i be looking at from specs, What wattage etc should i be looking at cordeded etc? Just want buy something that is fit to do the job last thing i want is to but one and for it to burn out. Thank you hope to hear back from everyone
Would go corded for coreing. Apart from anything else you don't want to be let down by a battery. Best to ave both. Backup!!!! I've never burnt out a drill, or anything else and I've been in trades for 30yrs +. It's called looking after kit and not overloading it!
If you have to put through a 100mm,125mm, even 150mm core for a flue, then you need mains powered drill. Even a Bosch 36v rotary hammer would struggle with a 125mm core drill.
Thanks kiab when i am buying what minimum specs are required to do the job? Etc wattage and rpm sorry know very little in regards to powertools
Wattage means nothing, you could have 500w or 1000w, it's the torque you need at low speed for core drilling. Take the Bosch GSB 162-2 RE it's designed for core drilling up to 162mm diameter, as it's main job.
I have use a Bosch GBH4DFE 800w SDS drill to drill a 125mm hole, considerably larger core than drill was designed for,it was slow going,but it did the job,luckily it was a one off job, had it been numerous holes, then a purpose made drill is better in the long run, for tool longativity.
There was a thread on this same subject way back in 2008, they also went for mains. Having dedicated drills for the job in hand, will make your kit last longer. http://community.screwfix.com/threads/cordless-core-drill.76846/
I have done the same with my makita - it's only done a few large core bits, but it can handle it. However, when you could be coring multiple times a week I would invest in a proper core drill. Battery SDS will be brilliant for all the small holes - like condense pipes and wallplug holes. Buying both a cordless sds and a core drill would be a wise investment.
And go for quailty brands like Makita, Bosch, got drills both brands in corded & cordless,some 20 years old & still going strong, & I don't rate Dewalt cordless or mains drills.
You can pick up some good secondhand bargains if you look around, but you need to look up the model number to make sure it is actually a core drill, any large drill will core a hole, the problem comes when it jams, then its broken wrist time! Core drills have a clutch that will slip if it jams and stop you getting hurt,ordinary drills don't, recently I've seen several people advertising second hand Makita 8419B's as core drills, they are not, one of those will snap your wrist like a carrot using a 35 mm auger bit if it jams, imagine what it would do with a 100mm core bit in! I've got a couple of nice Perles core drills,if you were near me I could let you have one of those fairly cheaply.
Spotted that on Ebay other day with the Makita 8419B, can see someone ending up having a nasty accident. At a previous place had a neighbour who got a badly broken nose & lost a few teeth, plus a list of other injuries falling off the steps, when using a drill with no clutch core drilling a large hole jammed in hole. Best part was when medic, she stood on the drill cable, dislodging the drill froms it's hole, poor bloke lying on the ground, got clobber by the falling drill, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Oh yes, I've owned them for years, one had the trigger jam, the bit got jammed and it snatched, I had my hand trapped between the drill handle and a radiator, it ended up snapping the handle off the machine! I was lucky, I've seen people get dragged off ladders with them, a great drill, but you need to be careful how and what you do with it.
Use to have a Hitachi vtp19 with 3/4"" chuck, it was one drill you treated with respect. And they are still fetching £90 secondhand. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hitachi-3-4-Chuck-Drill-/322576899662?_trksid=p2385738.m2548.l4275
Oh yes I had one,launched a 16 stone bloke across a yard when he didn't listen to what I had told him about being careful.