General use drill (plus some internal stone walls)

Kiith

Having some issues putting shelves or wall mounts up in our house, and need to get it sorted asap (baby is pulling everything down 🤣). Current drill gets through about an inch of the wall, then just stops dead/spins without making any further progress. I assume its the drill (12v lidl thing from a few years ago, no hammer/impact features).

Was thinking of getting the below? Would that get me through standard walls in the house (with a decent drill bit)? Or is it complete overkill?

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/dewalt-dcd778p2t-sfgb-18v-2-x-5-0ah-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-combi-drill/906kv

It'd be used for the current wall drilling, but i also plan to start doing some woodworking projects soon, so should get plenty of use.

Calahonda52

For masonry work you are best investing in a drill which will take SDS bits.

Better value/performance ratio if you stick with a corded one as opposed to the cheaper battery ones.

blackbox

I use a Bosch battery drill for most applications but for stone or concrete I use a corded SDS drill that came from Lidl or Aldi.

The Continental Op

OP thats a good drill that I have myself and can recommend, I started a thread for it as a bargain alert some time back.

However its not for drilling brick, stone and concrete with any great speed or at all for harder stone work. As already suggested get an SDS drill specifically for that. It doesn't need to be an expensive SDS drill and a cheaper corded one from Aldi or Lidl will be fine for the amount of that sort of drilling the average home owner needs to do.

Lumen

My nice SDS got stolen so I recently bought this absolute beast of a thing from Screwfix.

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/titan-ttb653sds-5-9kg-electric-sds-plus-drill-230-240v/6846h

It's only been used so far for one 22mm dia hole through an old (hard) concrete block wall, and I did splurge on a decent bit for the job, but it seems to be fine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058281878/general-use-drill-plus-some-internal-stone-walls

Unless you're either going to be using it professionally or you just like throwing money at stuff, that drill is a total waste. Because it does just one job, and you'll have more than 1 job to do. Also, while normal drills have hammer action and will get through concrete eventually, it'll be a much slower, harder, messier job than it needs to be. Unless you hit a pebble in the concrete, in which case you're going nowhere with a normal drill.

You need 1x SDS drill for concrete/masonry, and 1x normal drill for light drilling & screwing. A cordless drill is an optional extra; any of the ones I've used have been a pain because the batteries always seem to die long before I'm finished, so I've had to go get a corded drill + extension flex anyway. They're probably grand for when you only have a few screws/holes to drill though. (Or you just don't have a plug socket available).

I recommend getting the Guild brand at Argos (before it closes). I got the SDS drill & 750w corded drill about 4 years ago, and they are very robust: they have suffered all sorts of abuse over the last few years with no complaint. Even though they're still working perfectly, I'm sorely tempted to buy replacements while I still can (and I'd also consider going to Newry to replace them when the time comes). They also do a few battery drills which I can't attest to (I've never found needing to plug in the 750w drill more inconvenient than going and getting a cordless one).

Also, for the price of the DeWalt you linked, you can get all three Guild brand drills from Argos: SDS + 750w corded drill + 1.3AH cordless drill with 2 batteries: total price €187. That'd enable you to put holes in practically anything anywhere.

Kiith

Thanks all, will definitely get one of the SDS drills in that case, and just keep my cheap drill for regular drilling, which to be fair its done a decent job of.

Saved me a bunch of money 👍️

Danzy

SDS drill, I have a Makita. Stone walls are a bhitch without it.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120172853#Comment_120172853

Good to see good advice been taken.

Let u know what you get.

AS noted good bits make a big difference.

For accurate hole placement, I always start with a small bit, 5 or 6 mm and then work up, rather than do a 12 mm in one go.

Good ear defenders also required

monseiur

Having a good drill is just half the battle, invest in a good set of tungsten carbide tipped masonry bits, may cost a few dollars more but worth it in the long run.