SDS drill - repair or replace?

[Jake]

I broke two B&Q specials before buying the Bosch. I'm doing a (slow) total renovation of my house, so I use them hard. There's the usual difference in use, the same, say, as between a PPro mitre saw and a DeWalt or Makita or what have you. It depends how much you use them, really. If I didn't know that Roger is doing up a house himself, I wouldn't have recommended it. As it is, it will get well used, and he really won't regret it - I'll put money on that (with anyone but Roger :lol

 

[Woody Alan]

I broke two B&Q specials before buying the Bosch

Even my missus broke a £50 axminster special...she still owes me for that, it literally flew apart and the casting broke, I bought a Dewalt recon from ebay after that and even given Dewalt's rep of late it's chalk and cheese in use, much more controllable. I imagine any of the better quality makes are the same....IF you want the rotary stop and light chisel facilty.

 

[ike]

I'm veery pleased my Metabo UHE28 Multi. Two-speed up to 2700rpm so fantastic for drilling/hammer drilling but only 2kg impact. OK for chiselling off tiles, plaster blocks, bricks etc but not anything much denser. With quick release chucks, safety clutch and 1Kw+, basically as good as a 2kg drill gets. The Screwfix 6kg (or is it 4 I can't remember) Titan is much more suitabble as a kight breaker, but too cumbersome for an all-round drill.

Oh bugger - just seen you've done the deal!

Ike

 

[dickm]

Just one bit of advice, whatever SDS drill you buy - get yourself some vibration absorbing gloves and wear them when drilling.
You don't spot any damage at the time, but if you have the wrong genes, you can end up needing nasty surgery on tendons to straighten out fingers..... he said, looking at the zigzg scar up his right palm.

 

[RogerS]

..... It depends how much you use them, really. If I didn't know that Roger is doing up a house himself, I wouldn't have recommended it. As it is, it will get well used, and he really won't regret it - I'll put money on that (with anyone but Roger :lol

Doubting Thomas! That Bosch is a cracking piece of kit!

 

[George_N]

I have one of the B&Q PerformancePowerPro SDS drills. It cost me just under £50 complete with a set of tools. I bought it on a bit of an impulse, thinking it would be useful but not really having a specific job in mind. I have since used it for lots of things like chopping a hole in the kitchen wall for cooker hood ducting, recessing electrical socket boxes, digging out concreted -in post stumps etc. etc. It is a heavy piece of kit and the rotation stop is less than perfect but for my intermittent use it does fine and has plenty of power.

 

[Streepips]

I bought a Bosch GBH4 a while ago,for cutting out 115mm holes for soil pipes, cutting through brick breeze, stone etc. I spoke to technicaL dept lads at Makita, Dewalt, Ryobi, Bosch, Hitachi, and a few other manufacturers ( Brands?) , to make sure their drills were OK for the job.Even those that were sold with fantastic claims of the drills capabilities were deemed by the techies to be below spec for the task.Except for Bosch, who said ( off the record) as long as its not used all day every day drilling 115mm holes it would be up for the job....and so it has proved. Very capable and powerful and came with a great set of accessories. Brilliant piece of kit.
Mind you, Bosch belt sanders are very poor so I think no one maker does everything well and its a question of researching each item for best in class.

 

[Streepips]

Cracking piece of kit? Well I certainly agree it is, but just trying to reconcile with the fact that its the same Roger saying this that said that any multifunction equipment is by design flawed and never as good as an item designed for a specific function? (( P/T or separates?))
Yet the triple function drill gets his vote where the dual function P/T does not....
Well I would put both my Scheppach HMT260 P/T on a par with my Bosch GBH4 as contenders for best in class any day, based on any of the functions of either.... and my Multico morticer comes with a jacobs chuck so its a drill stand as well.
Chisels screwdrivers and pencils are single function, machinery and tooling rarely is...

 

[ndbrown]

Consider a secondhand Hilti SDS
My TE12 was secondhand 15 years ago, absolutely bomb proof, does not look anything special but just drills holes with no real effort. You see them often on e-bay and soetimes the dealers have trade in available. An incredibly well built machine!!

 

[RogerS]

Cracking piece of kit? Well I certainly agree it is, but just trying to reconcile with the fact that its the same Roger saying this that said that any multifunction equipment is by design flawed and never as good as an item designed for a specific function? (( P/T or separates?))
Yet the triple function drill gets his vote where the dual function P/T does not....
Well I would put both my Scheppach HMT260 P/T on a par with my Bosch GBH4 as contenders for best in class any day, based on any of the functions of either.... and my Multico morticer comes with a jacobs chuck so its a drill stand as well.
Chisels screwdrivers and pencils are single function, machinery and tooling rarely is...

Horses for courses, I think. I don't think you can apply the same logic to a heavy duty drill - designed for bashing its' way through brick, concrete, wood, you name it....with precision not being top of the 'must-haves'....with a precision piece of woodworking machinery where the end finish etc is probably very high.

Besides, I find that after a days work holding my Axminster floor standing morticer horizontally while I drill through 300 year old oak makes my arms ache after a while.

 

[chippy1970]

I have a Hilti too its a TE10 and I got it secondhand about 15 years ago its still going well I even use it with a 117mm core drill with no problems.