Which sds drill brand or specs ?

[shocksl]

Hey guys

What brand SDS drill do you use?

I bought a small cordless black and decker drill to college to screw a few bits . Some of my fellow students started to take the p111ss and saying it was a crap brand and don't be seen on site with it.

I was baffled by this.

Anyway I am due to buy an sds drill set so wanted your thoughts. What power shall I look for.

Will cordless be better ?

 

[newfutile]

Makita , de walt ,milwaukee , hilti look for one with hammer only as well on sds .
Lots of snobbery on tools

 

[shocksl]

Makita , de walt ,milwaukee , hilti look for one with hammer only as well on sds .
Lots of snobbery on tools

Thanks. What about titanium ones on screwfix.

Is black and decker that bad ??

 

[brianmoooore]

The design life of some DIY power tools is around four hours. Not much good for a professional user.
A mains powered tool is always going to be cheaper than a battery one, and perform better as well, but that latter difference is far less than it used to be.
Bosch blue has always served me well.

 

[shocksl]

The design life of some DIY power tools is around four hours. Not much good for a professional user.
A mains powered tool is always going to be cheaper than a battery one, and perform better as well, but that latter difference is far less than it used to be.
Bosch blue has always served me well.

What power should be minimum?

 

[brianmoooore]

They are specified by 'weight' rather than power, and for SDS you'll eventually need two - a light one and a heavy one. You'll be holding this at shoulder height for many hours in a week when first fixing, so weight is important.
For a corded one, you won't do better than a Bosch GBH220 at around £90

 

[shocksl]

They are specified by 'weight' rather than power, and for SDS you'll eventually need two - a light one and a heavy one. You'll be holding this at shoulder height for many hours in a week when first fixing, so weight is important.
For a corded one, you won't do better than a Bosch GBH220 at around £90

Does it have to be a corded one? Shall i not just get 2 cordless ones?

 

[Rockingit]

Tip: Generally speaking, once you start collecting battery power tools then you'll want to keep with the same brand as that way the batteries are interchangeable and you can save money by buying 'bare' units that don't come with a battery. So look for a product range that'll suit your needs moving forward. Personally I'm a Makita guy but I could just as easily have gone DeWault if I wanted to look like a chippy, Milwaulkee is also good but wasn't very big when I started buying stuff years ago, hence how I got locked into Makita.

However - one thing to be aware of - when you see too good to be true offers of branded gear at Screwfix and Toolstation, it's often an inferior version of the same thing using slighlty less robust gearboxes and bearings that the manufacturers make specifically to offer to them, to get you hooked via the batteries!

As others have said as well, though, if you're doing a repetive task in a workshop, say, then mains powered is probably the better option. I used to love my Bosch Blue gear, sadly all of it got stolen a few years back....

 

[DefyG]

I bought a small cordless black and decker drill to college to screw a few bits

My very first cordless was a B&D (A Present). which actually served me well for a number of years but had its limitations. It was great for small works fixing anything plastic without overdoing it. But wasn't an SDS.
I now have 5 (I think) corded SDS drills in my garage and 2 cordless. I really cant think that Ive used the corded ones in the last year.
My current one (and probably the next as invested a number of batteries) is a DeWalt 18v which has catered for everything SDS I've needed to do.
So I'd recommend cordless.
You will need more than one and sometimes I've had 3 set up to save changing the bits when on a repetitive job.

 

[shocksl]

Thank you guys. That was really helpful and good insight as well.

Aside from the sds drill which other drills would I need? Perhaps for screwing things in etc. Great tip I'll stick to the same make.

 

[littlespark]

18V combi drill driver from dewalt.

Will cope with wood screws, drilling into most materials, and the hammer action is good enough for red rawlplug fixings… although, if I’m doing loads of boxes, it’s the dewalt SDS from drilling, and the combi for screwing up.

Same as suggested. Same battery for many tools. I now have an 18V mini grinder, jigsaw and multi tool all the same battery. 5 batts and 3 chargers are enough.

Also got an off-brand light that just plugs onto a dewalt battery. LED… lasts for days on a 5Ah


When I first started, battery power tools were in their infancy, and I did get a B&D “powered screwdriver” for a job building storage heaters….. but found it too slow and moved up to a drill/driver.

 

[ferg]

I'm a bit of a Dewalt fanboy.
But TBH as @Rockingit says it doesn't really matter what brand you go for as long as they sell the tools you need.
Once you have bought into a brand it's best to stay with it.
For example my Dewalt battery kit consists of:
2 x 18v hand held torches
18v impact
18v combi drill
18v sds
18v tripod work light
18v circular floorboard saw
18v cable stapler
18v vacuum
18v heat gun
18v multi tool
18v jigsaw
18v radio
54v angle / core drill
54v self propelled lawnmower
18v strimmer
18v hedge trimmer
2 x 54v 9Ah batteries
5 x 18v 5 Ah batteries
4 x 18v 2 Ah batteries
2 x 18v chargers
1 x 54v / 18v fast charger

Obviously what would appear to be gardening tools are for clearing the field of view for satellite dishes or clearing ground for cable trenches.

The 2Ah batteries are great for the torches, cable stapler and impact when weight is important.
The 54v batteries are also good for the tripod light, SDS and circular saw where battery life helps.

 

[Rockingit]

I'm a bit of a Dewalt fanboy.
But TBH as @Rockingit says it doesn't really matter what brand you go for as long as they sell the tools you need.
Once you have bought into a brand it's best to stay with it.
For example my Dewalt battery kit consists of:
2 x 18v hand held torches
18v impact
18v combi drill
18v sds
18v tripod work light
18v circular floorboard saw
18v cable stapler
18v vacuum
18v heat gun
18v multi tool
18v jigsaw
18v radio
54v angle / core drill
54v self propelled lawnmower
18v strimmer
18v hedge trimmer
2 x 54v 9Ah batteries
5 x 18v 5 Ah batteries
4 x 18v 2 Ah batteries
2 x 18v chargers
1 x 54v / 18v fast charger

Obviously what would appear to be gardening tools are for clearing the field of view for satellite dishes or clearing ground for cable trenches.

The 2Ah batteries are great for the torches, cable stapler and impact when weight is important.
The 54v batteries are also good for the tripod light, SDS and circular saw where battery life helps.

Hedgetrimmer?? Do you often do house calls then where Mrs Jones asks you to trim her bush?

 

[shocksl]

Hey guys

I was my talking to my neighbour /friend and his dad had some makita drills that he's getting rid of .

He said ..They use the makita cxt batteries and not the lxt batteries they are 2 different types.

Are they any good?

Selling both lithium makita combi drill for 70 quid in total.

 

[Marvo]

I've always liked my Bosch Blue drills, drivers, grinder etc. Black and Decker I'd say are good for DIY and light commercial use, ideal for someone at college who's on a budget.

With regards to the power I use a small, basic lightweight SDS for 95% of my hole drilling like rawplugs raw bolts etc and a bigger SDS drill/chipper for big holes, you don't want to be lugging around a big powerful drill/chipper for small stuff so you're eventually going to need 2 SDS drills. Same with the normal drill, I actually use 2 small 12v drills for small holes up to maybe 10mm and I use my 18v Bosch blue for larger drill bits and hole saws up to 50mm. I still have a very old electric drill (1970's) which has enormous amounts of torque at very low speeds for bigger holesaws, it raises some eyebrows with the youngsters when I occasionally bring it out.