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I am curious about what type of Hammerdrills people are using. Standard corded ones or the new 12/14/18 volt rechargable ones. I will be purchasing soon and wondering if the re-chargables have the battery life and power to do complete job without basket full of batteries. Thinking longer type of job would be large number of studded individual letters on brick building face. I'm sure any will work on a handfull of holes, but I only want to own one so it must work everytime.
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Hi Mike..Its Mike.... I have used a Hilti hammerdrill on a few brick wall installs.It belonged to a friend who helped me do installations. It was not cordless..I dont remember the model we used...But it was one of the nicest tools I ever used. Worth a look.... Michael
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I'm looking into the 12 volt option, and doing a modification to the drill that will allow it to run off of its battery, or be hooked to the battery on my sign truck. I have had lots of situations where 110 volts wasn't available, and I've had situations where the cordless didn't have the cahonia's to finish the job, even with extra batteries. let us know what you decide!
-------------------- Dave Utter D-utterguy on chat Sign Designs Beardstown, Il. signdesigns@casscomm.com Posts: 777 | From: beardstown, illinois, usa | Registered: Mar 1999
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heck,, just buy a corded hammer drill ,, then go to home depot and buy a 300 watt inverter. that way get to use it anywhere. They only cost about 30 bux..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5278 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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DEWALT....got one..... best $150.00 i ever spent...its corded 1/2 chuck....and dont mis a lick. like curt said get and inverter...they are cheap now..when i had my motor home they were $3-400. as for HILTI figure double the DEWALT price...as for them 18 v battery jobers....next time you go into home depot...get one and carry it around for 10 mins....you wont buy one
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I borrowed a Dewalt 1/2" hammer the other day in a battery drill. I was very impressed with its capabilities. I asked its owner what he thought and said that he had used it a lot and wouldn't do otherwise. One thing I can tell you is that the inverters that you can buy in that price range are for very small appliaces, and if you use one on a drill or saw rated at 8 to 10 amps, you will do slow but major damage to your tools, if you can get them to work at all. An inverted that will run 12 amps will cost between 125.00 and 250.00, even on e-bay. I just bought a Milwaukee corded, but wish I had opted for the battery Dewalt for ease and convenience.
-------------------- "Don't change horses in midstream, unless you spot one with longer legs" bronzeo oti Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 www.imagemakerart.com jack@imagemakerart.com Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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Mike, Cordless hammer drills should work just fine for drilling in brick. If you are considering drilling holes for half inch Red-Heads in tilt up concrete get a 110v Bosch or Hilti.
-------------------- Jerry Mathel Retired Grants Pass, Oregon signs@grantspass.com Posts: 916 | From: Grants Pass, OR USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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I have a friend in the same building as me who repairs power tools. I asked him about hammer drills rescently and he says the battery drills are made poorly and the best corded drill available is the Bosch.
-------------------- Ken McTague, Concept Signs 57 Bridge St. (route 107) Salem MA 01970 1-978-745-5800 conceptsign@yahoo.com http://www.pinheadlounge.com/CaptainKen
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"A wise man once said that, or was it a wise guy?" Posts: 2425 | From: Salem, MA | Registered: Apr 1999
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I have six cordless Dewalt drills. (had a big crew) I love them for what they do well. For screws they will out perform a corded drill.
But for hammerdrilling I would suggest a good quality Bosch. 1/2" I went through two smaller makitas hammer drills in one day drilling holes in concrete. My Bosch has lasted over 8 years so far and it's still like new.
For my bigger drilling (not hammer drill) and paddle drill for mixing concrete in buckets nothing beats the 1/2" Makita. I have a bunch of those too and they just last and last. When we do reduce one to a smoking hulk its a throwaway item, not worth rebuilding, but they are inexpensive enough to not worry about it.
Have fun tool shopping!
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!!
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The applications are so different that you really need two different drills for the occasion. I have the Bosch rotary hammer drill for brick and concrete. The rotary types outperform the nonrotary type by quite a margin. And I wouldn't be without a good cordless, it gets the most use. In fact I recently bought a Ryobi 9 volt model for 35 bucks. I had been thinking about a lighter one to accompany a 18 volt powerhouse. The heavy duty ones have more power than you usually need and the weight gets to you sometimes. I just came back from a job with the smaller drill and it worked great, the Ryobi was cheaper than others by as much as a third but I liked it the most.
-------------------- Jim Upchurch Artworks Olympia WA Posts: 797 | From: Olympia, WA | Registered: Nov 1998
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As those before me have said, I have a Bosch 240v 750w (I think) hammer drill which gets quite a bit of use and which is more than acceptable but... For frequent or heavy duty masonary drilling, the best I have used (by an enormous margin) is an Hitachi pnueumatic drill. (pneumatic?) Not pnuematic meaning it is air powered but meaning to do with the drilling/hammer action. Unless there is no power to the site I would gladly spend the extra few minutes to run out an extension lead to one of these drills and be done with the drilling in a few moments, than be bothered leaning on the end of corldless at the top of a 14'+ scaffold. I guess it depends on your application but in my experience cordless = occasional use mains power hammer drill = frequent use pnuematic = regular use
As the others have mentioned, Hilti makes a very nice equivalent unit but having used both my preference is to the Hitachi, mainly owing to the simpler method of fitting the bit, the Hilti's I have used needed a wire clip to be put in place after the bit was fitted whereas the Hitachi was a "push in, 1/4 turn" type fit Personal preference of course. David
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov
Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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12V Milwaukee cordless hammerdrill.. Love it! Out in the field with no corded power it has saved my Butt!!! Make sure the batteries are charged tho, it eats them up like it does the brick...
-------------------- Eric Patzer A.S.A.P. Design Lafayette, CO epatzer@earthlink.net Posts: 208 | From: Lafayette, CO USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've been using an 18 volt Milwaukee cordless for about a year... I love it! Most powerful cordless I've ever used, and light enough that it's not too big a pain to move around at the top of an extension ladder. I highly recommend it.
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I use a DeWalt 18 volt hammer drill with (2) XP batteries. Works like a charm, lots of torque and great battery life. I haven't used my regular Makita (corded) hammer drill since I purchased the DeWalt.
Works GREAT! Slices through concrete/brick like butter!
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