How much faster Rotary Hammer vs. my Hammer Drill

dftc

I just spent a frustrating couple days trying to drill several 1/4 inch holes in 50 year old concrete with a makita hammer drill. Then yesterday I was in a Harbor Freight store ( I know, I know...) and I saw a SDS rotary hammer for 70 bucks. I had a 20 off coupon burning a hole in my pocket so I bought it.
Long story short, I drilled way more holes in the next hour than I had the previous two days.

The rotary hammer is definitely the way to go. I can't think of any good reasons to use my hammer drill ever again.

toolaholic

Use your hammer drill on things like ceramic tile. A rotary hits too hard and would crack it. Plus hammer drills make great regular drills. Rotary hammers w/ SDS 1/2 inch conversion chuck do not make for great drills cause chuck wobbles in SDS bit holder.

Dorado

Watch Hammer drill vs. rotary hammer. The guy is drilling through concrete pretty easily with what he says is a 1/2" bit. I'm not sure he's right about the size though.

I was told that I could drill 1" holes in concrete with a hammer drill occasionally if I give the drill a rest and don't do it straight. Maybe you're using the wrong or a worn out bit or maybe you're not in hammer mode. Make sure it's a bit made for hammer drills. You could also drill a pilot hole. "45 minutes to drill a 3/8" hole 2.5" deep" just can't be right. I never used a hammer drill though.

Oh...beach stones...I know nothing about the hardness of beach stones

woodworkbykirk

if your drilling holes smaller than 3/8 youll want a hammer drill.. rotary's generate too much impact and torque for smaller bits and will snap them like a twig

jomama45

Nonsense, or buy better bits. We probably drill a few thousand holes for Tapcons a year, with a 3/16" bit. As long as the employees (or myself) don't push the bit harder than they should, or bend the bit while drilling, we can easily get several hundred holes out of the 3/16" bit. If longevity is an issue, you need to buy the shortest bits that you typically need, and reserve the long ones for the few times you need them................

woodworkbykirk

we use uCan or hilti bits. they still snap with the large hitachi sds rotary hammer that we use. we dont use tapcons for what we do, we'll either use a regular hammer drill to drill a 3/16 or 1/4" hole then drive a hand spike into the hole with tie wire or we go up to 3/8" and use wedge anchors. typically drilling in concrete anywhere from 2 yrs old to 70 yrs old.. the older it gets the harder it gets. the concrete we use for our residential foundations is 5000 psi which is major overkill for what inspectors want here

ratflinger

Depends on how much of this you are planning to do. I still have my Hilti rotary hammer from my years installing heavy medical scanners. There is nothing I can't cut through with this, however the hammer & the bits are expensive, but they are worth it. If it's occasional work then just rent the hammer, but provide your own bits.

jomama45

You probably need to use shorter bits then. I'm a mason/concrete contractor, I drill my fair share of small holes in plenty of concrete that have 30 day cylinder breaks above 7000 psi, and rarely have problems. And I'm not using little rotary hammers either...............

BTW, the concrete age and strength has far less to do with the drilling speed or difficulty than the hardness of the aggregate in the concrete does..........

woodworkbykirk

we only use 6" bits for small holes. we use 12" long bits for 1/2 " or bigger

williampierce

rotary hammer is definately faster.
use good drill bits. stone is hard to drill.