Help with a core drill

[GandalfMB]

Hello everyone,
Basically I am in the market for a drill I will use for occasional core drilling. I still have a DeWalt D21570K but this drill has been nothing but trouble, plus, the safety clutch on mine's useless. Won't some other power drill that has a safety clutch do the job? A more powerful SDS+ one might do the job too, who knows? Sparkys are quite popular where I am now, but I remember that pretty much everyone in the UK hated them. Rightfully so I assume. I am open to suggestions, guys. As I said, it will not be used all the time, so buying the most expensive and best one might be a bit of an overkill. I do have a DeWakt D25144K sds+ rotary hammer, but it's motor is only 900W. It might be okay for 65-68mm cores, but I am pretty sure the larger diameter ones will give it a run for its money.


Thank you in advance guys. Have a good one. :)

[Job and Knock]

DW SDS drills and heavy impact drills have taken a lot of stick in recent years over poor quality - and I can testify to having seen the sparkies on one big job burn out 4 SDS drills and one core drill in a few months (the pretty much all went to either Bosch or Makita - think they then hired-in a Hilti core drill to do the big stuff). Sparkies have also had a lot of quality issues, but funnily enough they used to manufacture for AEG and they apparently have made stuff for Marcrist more recently, so maybe it's because their own-brand stuff is being built down to a price point? Personally I wouldn't recommend going more than about 75mm with any SDS drill - they simply don't have the clutch capacity to deal with snatches and you start risking a sprained or broken wrist if you persist in using an SDS with an oversize core drill. Equally I'm not keen on Makita core drills - they are affordable but a bit gutless which makes them plodders rather than hares, although I've come across quite a few plumbers who've bought their own so maybe not all bad

[GandalfMB]

DW SDS drills and heavy impact drills have taken a lot of stick in recent years over poor quality - and I can testify to having seen the sparkies on one big job burn out 4 SDS drills and one core drill in a few months (the pretty much all went to either Bosch or Makita - think they then hired-in a Hilti core drill to do the big stuff). Sparkies have also had a lot of quality issues, but funnily enough they used to manufacture for AEG and they apparently have made stuff for Marcrist more recently, so maybe it's because their own-brand stuff is being built down to a price point? Personally I wouldn't recommend going more than about 75mm with any SDS drill - they simply don't have the clutch capacity to deal with snatches and you start risking a sprained or broken wrist if you persist in using an SDS with an oversize core drill. Equally I'm not keen on Makita core drills - they are affordable but a bit gutless which makes them plodders rather than hares, although I've come across quite a few plumbers who've bought their own so maybe not all bad

Quite a lot of people think that all the tools on the market are overpriced rubbish. DeWalt D21570K is the worst power tool I've ever used. I know some people like them but mine's no good. The auxiliary handle's attached to the front cap which is held in place with three 3.5mm screws. What a joke. Every time I used it the screws would come loose (due to vibration), stripped threads, etc...Sparky actually make parts for some of the other big names. Bosch have a 1500W drill which does look pretty impressive, but it also costs about 500 quid. I don't know if it's any good though. Expensive doesn't necessarily mean good anymore. :( Yes, Sparky do make drills for Marcrist. The Marcrists also get mixed reviews which is interesting. If you have a look you will see that people are rather unhappy with the quality of core drills. The good thing about the Sparkies is that their parts are made in Europe and are very cheap. I can get a good deal on a 1100W Metabo drill, but it's not a dedicated core drill. It does have a clutch and everything but the manufacturer does not say anything about coring with it. Several years ago my dad worked for an Israeli company (and those guys had deep pockets) and they only used Hilti and Metabo tools.

[darrenba]

I've got this Makita one. Brilliant bit of kit. Certainly massively better than the Bosch SDS that I used to use.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002DEZ5BU

[fin]

ive the more pricier model of makita core drill than the one above. does me fine. keep the speed slow for cores. slower for larger bits. mine is set to speed number 1 and gear 1 so as slow as itll go

[Job and Knock]

Quite a lot of people think that all the tools on the market are overpriced rubbish.

And others are rightly critical of some of the junk foisted on us as "trade rated" tools..... Ypour comments about your own DW just highlight the sort of cost-shaving that almost all manufacturers routinely go in for these days.

Bosch have a 1500W drill which does look pretty impressive, but it also costs about 500 quid. I don't know if it's any good though.

The thing is that they brought that particular tool to market about 6 years ago and in the course of it's initial production run (maybe 18 months) it gained a terrible reputation for clutch faults - mainly that the clutch cut-in too early, but on some tools the clutch was "out" the other way and it cut-in far too late. That (allegedly) resulted in a string of sprained and broken wrists leading to the tool being withdrawn for the best part of 3-1/2 years whilst, I'm told, the clutch was redesigned and manufacturing tolerances tightened up. I'd add that all that came from a rather disgruntled ex-Bosch repairer who'd dealt first hand with that particular tool.

Today I was chatting with both our resident plumber and the duct work engineers on my current project. The plumber told me that his personal core drill is a Makita 8406, like the one DarrenBA mentions in his post. His opinion as much as I expected - it is a bit of a plodder when compared with Hiltis, Ebenstocks, Husqvarnas and the like, but it was affordable enough and a typical Makita - tough, reliable and fairly basic. The firm hires-in for him when they need a lot of holes drilling, though, and the hire tools are invariably Hiltis. The duct work guys only ever have hired-in kit - and again it's often a Hilti. Just thought I'd add this as an insight into what is happening elsewhere (shop-fitting in this case)