Hi there, This is the opposite of the question which one often sees asked and addressed (e.g. by standard chucks that fit onto SDS drills). I've never had an SDS drill, and have therefore never even handled an SDS drill bit - although I've ovbiously 'seen' plenty of them! My question is this. I've been offered a pile of SDS drill bits. I have plenty of ('standard chuck') non-SDS hammer drills, but not an SDS one. It looks to me as if the slotted ends of SDS drill bits are probably 'round enough' to go in a standard chuck (and stay in!). Is that the case? I could, of course, just 'try it and see', but it would be helpful to know whether the idea is a non-starter! Many thanks Kind Regards, John
They do go in but due to the inherent virbration tend to loosen quite a lot and you will be constantly tightening your chuck. Have you looked into whether you can get a SDS chuck fitted to you drill or alternativly buy a cheepie SDS drill
Mr Kipling, thanks for your rapid response. You wrote: They do go in but due to the inherent virbration tend to loosen quite a lot and you will be constantly tightening your chuck. << That's what I rather expected, but 'constantly tightening the chuck' is by no means a new experience for me! Have you looked into whether you can get a SDS chuck fitted to you drill or alternativly buy a cheepie SDS drill << I'm sure that the day will come when I'll get an SDS drill, so the drill bits will ultimately be useful to me, but the immediate issue is that I'm being offered a free pile of SDS drill bits (which I'll be taking, anyway!), and wondered whether I'll be able to make immediate use of them. Although there are countless standard chucks that fit onto SDS drills, I must say that I've never seen the opposite. Kind Regards, John
If you use them in a normal drill and they work loose, and the shank that's gripped in the chuck, gets chewed up a bit, they may not fit in a SDS chuck. I wouldn't use them until you have an SDS drill. BB
If you use them in a normal drill and they work loose, and the shank that's gripped in the chuck, gets chewed up a bit, they may not fit in a SDS chuck. I wouldn't use them until you have an SDS drill. Absolutely. Might kill the 3-jaw chuck too, plus you're almost bound to get oval holes 'cos the drill will wobble around. (How do I know? I've tried it!) Anyway, even a small SDS drill will be a revelation if you drill in masonry - it's not just the chuck that's different, but the hammer action too. Goes through hard stuff like a hot knife through butter. Get one with a roto stop and a hammer stop though, for versatility.
Thanks for all your replies folks. There seems to be general agreement about the answer to my question - although I doubt that anything is going to stop me doing a bit of experimenting once I get hold of the pile of SDS drill bits (I'm like that ! Kind Regards, John.
Agreed with everyone else. Get yourself an SDS drill, can be bought for as little as £30. You will wonder how you managed before, and will only ever use your old drill for wood (with hammer switched off) Off topic, but why does nobody make SDS drills for WOOD. I find it irritating having to go and get my old fashioned drill and mess around with the silly 3 jaw chuck and chuck key. My SDS drill lets me turn the hammer action off, so why can't I buy SDS Wood bits and just use the same drill? Related still is why are wood drill bits so short? Occasionally I have needed to drill longer holes through wood, and all I could come up with is one of those silly flat wood drill bits and a cheap and nasty extension shaft for it. It worked and did the job, but fell appart shortly afterwards. So why can't I buy nice long SDS wood drill bits? It would make life a lot easier.
SDS drills turn too slowly for drilling wood. hence no SDS wood driling bits.http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/sea/searchresults.jsp?dyncharset=UTF-8&howMany=5&searchText=SDS+Augerbits&x=15&y=10
Pb is talking complete rubbish. You can get auger bits for SDS drills. Here is one of them: http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=101991&ts=39815&id=10484 BB
You can switch between hammer and drill mode on a decent sds drill. So get a decent one. Then you can get adaptors for standard drill attachments. Thrills all round!
As a postscript to this thread, having now acquired the large pile of freebie SDS bits and done some experimenting: (1)...Whilst other's experiences clearly differ, I've had no problems so far in using SDS bits in a 3-jaw chuck, even for fairly heavy work; they don't seem to work loose any more than do plain shaft bits. It seems to me that the jaws of 3-jaw chucks are rarely perfectly parallel, so most of the gripping probably often happens near the tip of the chuck, where even an SDS shank is round. (2)...If one is concrened about the possibility of damaging the 3-jaw chuck, one can slip a 'split' (to allow gripping) sleeve over the SDS slotted part of the shank. (3)...The most 'official' answer to my original question is that there actually ARE plenty of 'hex to SDS' adaptors available out there, which allow SDS bits to be used with a 3-jaw chuck. (4)...particularly with longer bits, there's plenty of plain round shaft above the SDS slots - so, in a situation like mine, there's no reason why one couldn't cut off the SDS 'end'. It goes without saying that none of the above options results in proper 'SDS hammer action', which is a distinct disadvantage - but that wasn't something I was asking for. Kind Regards, John.
Forums
Facebook
Twitter
You Tube
Instagram
Shop