Suggestions for a "Serious" Drill please

For occasional use?

Both quality brands, Hilti are superb but €€€€€€€ !

(I am a fully paid up member of team Makita - and use it all often).

Toolstation - a good shout. Didn’t know they were in FR. The link doesn’t bring up a particular model for me, but sorting by deWalt, which is what it looks like, it’s a 319€ jobbie.

At the other end of the price range they have the equivalent of S/fix Titan. 69.70€. When you peer closely at these ‘own label’ machines, apart from the colour scheme they all look like they are the same animal. Can’t see what g’tee T/stn gives.
https://www.toolstation.fr/soldes-perforateur-1250w-powerplus-powx1172/p42641
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Hahaha! For the purposes of the job in hand, that’s like Nick Mason doing the school run, as he sometime did, in a Ferrari 250 GTO SWB

" 1963 250 GTO (chassis 4153GT) was sold in a private sale for $70 million."

Mason had two!

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These are great (I’ve got a titan 5kg), but heavy to use. For drilling, cordless is so much more convenient.

They have sds drills from about 70 euros for a 4J drill which is pretty good.

Toolstation in France offer free delivery on purchases of 20 euros or more.

The issue with that pattern of machine is the motor fan ejectcts dust at the operator because the slot is horizontal in line with your head. Better quality have the fan in line with the chuck so dust and debris is ejected sideways.
Then there is the lifespan and clutch… The clutches are designed for feeble diyers, that means the thing stops drilling. There is a big reason the trade dont use them.

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Yup, that’s me! :grin:

If I were nearby I would just come and do it for you @Mat_Davies

Thanks for the offer Mat, but I do quite enjoy doing these things, once I pluck up the courage. The only struggle here is the nature of our old walls - huge blocks with rubble between all rendered over, so depending on what you hit nothing goes in or your finish with a hole the size of your fist. And the modern French bricks which I find incredibly hard. Soft London bricks in my flat in Battersea in the 80s were a complete doddle!

The instructions on mine said the gearbox needed lubrication every 5 hours of use - I wonder if not doing that leads some to an early demise.

They are, however, cheap and perfectly OK for light use.

Which “them”? And what ‘trade’?

If ‘own label’ SDS drill/breakers I disagree. If you read the reviews of the Titan models sold by S/fix you will see loads of trademen’s reviews - plumbers, sparks, builders, garden maintenance etc - invariably very positive. Some of these users bought their machine purely for breaking, not drilling. Some of the projects undertaken but DIY’ers are heavy duty. One chap broke up his driveway with his Titan. That’s a tough ask for these machines.

And at the prices they can be had for, you could get a job done for the cost of a day’s hire of a Hilti - and take the thing home for another day.

I’ve also seen many trademen, sparks and plumbers ususally, use cordless SDS masonry drills but obviously for occasional use - albeit using the very top of the range Makitas and pro Bosch.

Mine has seen so much use over 35 years that I am surprised that it still works perfectly. The only problem is that the ‘chuck’ mechanism for fitting a bit is wearing out. Instead of ‘pull up chuck - drop bit in’, there’s a bit of fiddlement required to get the bit securely locked.

What I would agree about is that they may be capable of excellent service for many years, as mine has, on ‘light trade’ work - say, drilling all the holes required for a kitchen’s worth of wall cabs or several dozen for shelving uprights, they would not take constant use, 5/7 for weeks on end, on a building site.

But we’re not in that territory, in this case.

Crikey! Mine has not had a drop of oil in 35 years! I have been known to offer a hoover nozzle up to its orifices if doing something that produces lots of fine dust, like brickwork or plaster over brick.

They don’t make 'em like they used to. Thus far, the only thing needing oiling has been me - the drill will see me out.

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It was more for you to avoid the cost buying the extra gear - but who doesn’t need another drill!

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That makes me feel less guilty about not following that bit of the instructions (yet) :slight_smile:

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The problem with oiling something like one of these drills is that the dust flying about will combine with the oil to make a splendid grinding paste. I would expect this to destroy a gearbox or clutch mechanism in short order.

Maybe a very light oil - sewing amchine grade - and run the drill for a minute or two to get rid of most of it.

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Lithium grease was specified.

Would make an even better grinding paste! Grease would bind far more particles.

Think mixing sand into butter or olive oil.

I assume the idea is to avoid getting them in the 'box then :slight_smile:

There’s a cover held by 4 torx screws, I’m sure wiping the outside and keeping the drill vertical would do the trick.

Anyway the relevant portion of the manual reads:

I don’t think I’d check every time before use though - that’s asking  to get dust into it.

I’ve been a 'feeble DIY’er for 50 years and my SDS drill is still my 1st= best tool ever.

Leclerc has this on sp’offer.

The other 1st=
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85€ from ManoMano

There are jobs which are possible with one or other of these things and pretty much impossible without. Not many tools fall into that category. These days I need a step ladder to get onto the platform :slightly_frowning_face:.

And I confess I have long lost the ‘outrigger’ stabilisers. They could be a bit inconvenient at times - tho’ I now see that one end has wheels . Mine does’nae. As a ladder/step ladder it is very female friendly as it is extremely light.

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I have a few including a Titan TTB653SDS 5.9kg, it has lasted 5 years so far and done loads of very heavy demolition work without any problems, it is currently being used to break up re-enforced concrete drinking troughs in a barn, it’s done 40ft so far 6" thick be 2ft tall, if it can handle that it can handle anything.
I don’t use either the hilti or Makita much nowadays as they are too heavy.

The main builders on our site use either Makita or brands such as Titan. The Titan gear is harshly treated and used as disposable. At one point they had 7 SDS breakers going at the same point chipping off the render.

The Makita stuff they do treat better.

Do you have a link to the scaffolding platform, that looks very useful.

S/fix had a brilliant sp’offer one Christmas, so it was Makita cordless drills all round for prezzies. One for self, of course, one for shipwright, one for mechanical engineer. The shipwright was very hard on tools - ridiculously so. He used to take his out on the river [Tamar - tidal] when he serviced the mooring tackle. Covered in mud, sloshed about in salt water - it was amazing how that thing kept going.

When he eventually ruined it A] I did not buy him another B] Did not lend him mine.

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