Its Hammer Time

  Yesterday I dropped over to David's house to do a very small job, with the right tool.  We all own a drill, many of us own several.  Now days most drills are cordless, but you should not discount corded drills and especially corded hammer drills. 

   The small job  was to drill two holes into their concrete block foundation.   A few years ago I bought a good hammer drill.  The hammer feature on that drill is a thing that I  only use a couple of times per year, but is a feature for which there is no really good substitute. We could have gotten along without the hammer drill, but..... having the proper tool available makes the job so much easier.

    I remember drilling a hole in cement before carbide tipped drill bits.  In fact I worked with my Grand Father to drill a hole in a house foundation with a star drill. 

star drill bit

 It took us a very long time to drive that star drill into the concrete, probably something nearing an hour and hundreds of hammer blows.  A modern hammer drill delivers hundreds of blows per minute so does the job much quicker.

  If you a planning on a job that requires a few holes in cement buy a cheaper hammer drill and then you'll be set for years.  If you have a big job in mind, rent a big, powerful rotary-hammer drill someplace, you can drill holes all day.  You can also rent large bits that will drill holes big enough for dryer vents and drainage pipe and things like that. 

  Hammer drill vs. rotary hammer 

Small Drill vs. a Big Drill 

  Aside from a bit of home improvement stuff this weekend I am working on three new cutting boards.  Cutting boards are low skill and another case where the correct tool makes the job easier.

cheers, ianw