Drilling straight holes with an SDS drill

Tree · 09-08-2020 9:49pm #1

So, we have an occasional use SDS drill for making holes in the various walls. Normally, a bit janky, but whatever we're screwing in seems to tolerate some bocketiness. Today's task was putting bolts in a wall (for a wire trellis), and they were all well jaunty angles, not an issue for the wire, but... the next project is to hang steel pegboards in the garage, and those do not have a whole bunch of flexiblity built into them. If we choose to hang those with bolts, it'll be even more all over the place.

The pegboard didn't come with any mountings, so we reckon our best bet is either screws with standoffs (into rawlplugs in blocks) or bolts (also into rawl plugs), and stick on end caps (the steel pegboard is Heavy).

So, how can i make sure my SDS holes are straight 90º?

Lumen · 09-08-2020 10:50pm

Take a couple of pieces of e.g. 3 inch timber.

Make a square inside corner on one piece, and use that to drill a straight hole into the second piece.

Use the second piece as a drill guide for the SDS.

Or using one piece, drill a roughly straight hole and shim it straight.

Calahonda52 · 10-08-2020 2:20pm

A lot of the time the issue is that the drill tracks into the mortar joints or the hollow in a cavity block, or is detected by a hard piece of aggregate.
The other idea is to use a small bit to start with 5mm maybe

Invest in a post level.

for the pegboard I would go the standoff route with express nails

Tree · 11-08-2020 12:09am

Would you tie the post level around the drill?

Lex Luthor · 11-08-2020 7:55am

what about drilling wooden battens into the wall first and then screw the pegboard to the battens

Calahonda52 · 11-08-2020 9:34am

Tree wrote: »

Would you tie the post level around the drill?

yes, making sure its aligned with the bit
or else if the bit is long enough just use it to align the bit first

Drilling straight holes with an SDS drill

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