Between these Hammer Drills - which is preferred and why?

[Steen27]

Admittedly, I have a biased towards craftsman tools (At least their professional hand tools and my experience with the C3). They work well for the heavy weekend warrior I am and the price point is usually right for me....

I have the chance to get one of these on sale, plus midnight madness, plus an employee hooking me up for a little extra (don't ask how -I dunno he just is... guess i helped him enough with his cars and house that he is helping me out now...)

If you had to choose one - which one should I get and why? (price is not necessarily an issue as these are all close in price for me...)

Craftsman Professional 26567 7.5 amp Corded 1/2'' Hammer Drill

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00926567000P?prdNo=6&blockNo=6&blockType=G6

OR

Craftsman Professional 28129 8.0 amp Corded 1/2'' Hammer Drill

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00928129000P?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3


OR

Craftsman 11580 19.2-volt C3 Cordless 1/2'' Hammer Drill/Driver

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00911580000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1


I have the C3 Lithium batteries for this but I have always thought that for a hammer drill I'd run the batteries down to the point that I should get a corded hammer drill.... but have never used a lithium powered hammer drill so I couldn't say first hand... just going off of ni-cad powered hammer drills


Or is there some valid overwhelming reason these both should be passed up for a different hammer drill? I like and appreciate Makita, Dewalt, Hilti, and Bosch - can't afford SO/Blue Point and I am just on a Craftsman thing this year - go figure...

Thanks for everyone's opinion and recommendation...

 

[MoToys]

We use a Bosch bull dog at work. I have to say it is a well made rotary hammer drill. Comfortable enough to use on a 15 foot ladder and not be nervous.

 

[Monte]

why no rotary hammer drill ?
(what do you want to drill ?)

 

[Steen27]

Haven't used a rotary hammer drill... Tell me more please. Most usage in the past has been on block walls, a couple concrete foundations, one brick planter...

Appreciate the education and input from the forum.

 

[oldwino]

It may be unfair to pre-judge craftsman electric tools as I haven't used any since the early 70's and they were certainly NOT professional grade then. That said, if you're looking at something for occasional use the craftsman is probably the way to go (these do have SDS bits, don't they)...For heavy duty use I'd go with the Bosch or if you make your money with it ya gotta go Hilti

 

[JeremyManning]

Go for an sds plus shank rotary hammer drill the bits just pop in and they are much better than a regular hammer drill at boring through concrete

 

[JimDon]

could you please tell us a little more? What are you going to use it for? If you are doing holes from 1/8 thru 1/2, I'd say go with a hammer drill like De Walt's Screamer. I've had and used mine professionally since about 1994 and it has yet to fail me. If you are going 1/2 to 3/4 or even 1 -inch, then go with a rotary hammer like others have suggested, such as an SDS or SDS-plus or the SDS-Max or spine drive. The configuration of the bit end for these larger bits insure that they will not twist in the chuck when doing your drilling. When you drill with any of these, make sure you stop frequently and BLOW the drilling dust out of the hole and don't use water. It ends up ruining the drill bit's carbide tip. If you're going professional for this kind of drilling, buy something like Bosch or Hilti that will stand up to a lifetime of this type of pounding, and believe me, you are going to take a pounding too, if you do a lot of the big holes. If you are only going to do some drilling around the house (and this will be considered heresy on here and will probably get me flamed off), but look at the Harbor Freight orange rotary hammer drill (item No. 97743) (No I do not work at Harbor Freight). You can often get it on sale for around $60 with a coupon, etc. It will drill, rotary hammer drill, and also has a chipping mode for use with a chisel to remove ceramic tiles. It works fine for home type use and will save you a ton of money in the long run if this is all you need it for. If you're hesitant, buy the extended warranty on the thing, and if you burn it up, you can get a new one. Just one guy's opinion. Good Luck.
Jim Don
PS If you buy the Harbor Freight, go to Menards or Home Despot and get yourself some quality drill bits to fit it. The trick is in the bits more than the tool itself.

 

[Monte]

to drill in brick/clinker and similar material a regular drill with round shank carbide tipped drill bits just work fine, for harder materials i would use a rotary hammer drill which often comes with a chisel mode to remove tiles etc.


2 interesting videos which show the different functional principles:


hammer drill (a.k.a impact drill a.k.a. percussion drill)

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_qRsqk-HOKM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rotary hammer drill

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ui83dwv2vzc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Animation:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IUa_6foh2fc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



a typical rotary hammer drill:

 

[rsanter]

I am not a fan of the HF stuff but I have heard from several people that their sps hammer drill is actually good for the home user. for profesional then go the big name stuff

bob

 

[Az Scooter]

I blew a harbor freight drill up on the first hole. It literally blew a part the chuck. I bought a Bosch. It was a wonderful drill. It broke one Friday late, and I had work that needed to be done, so I bought a Hilti. Sent the Bosch in for repair, and still had the Hilti. The Bosch got stolen, along with a lot of my other power tools, and the Hilti got left behind. It is still going strong, both the Bosch and the Hilti are excellent choices, from my experience.

 

[oldwino]

As JimDon posted the HF orange unit is actually a pretty good machine. I'm an inspector on heavy civil projects (multi-million $ construction) and we had a contractor 3-4 years ago show up with the HF unit...I laughed and wondered what kind of hokey *** contractor we had (5 million dollar job)...their reaction was, it doesn't get stolen and it's a hell of a machine...end of story, they drilled literally hundreds of holes from 1/4-5/8" and that little $50 unit kept on going.

 

[whelenfan]

I got a used Hitachi off ebay a couple years ago and it is quite strong.

 

[bsaint]

I tell ya what. Those 4 cutter hammer drill bits are ****.

 

[IndyGarage]

Some of you may have seen my posts a couple months ago when I found a Hilti Hammer drill and used it for the first time. It's similar to the bottom one in Monte's post above.

I've been using a Milwaukee 1/2 inch that works like those Craftsman ones do, and the Ryobi video above. I've drilled quite a few holes in concrete with it.

I had no idea what I was missing.

The Hilti is about 100X as as fast in concrete. The SDS plus bits it uses are better too.

If you have an occasional hole to drill in concrete a homeowner hammer drill is ok, otherwise go bigger.

 

[Steen27]

Appreciate the input from all sides...Thanks for the cool videos - great learning aid!

Rotary sounds like the ticket - but it has it's price too... but worth it if the usage is there for sure.

HF sounds like it deserves a little attention too - might have to research them more... see if any of the local guys have one.

And then there's the occasional usage tools - which may end up being me. hmmm.

In some ways I am back where I started - only now I have more choices and more information to digest!

Thanks again for the opinions and education - greatly appreciated!

 

[BQuicksilver]

As mentioned, get an SDS drill if you're doing big or lots of holes.

Our basement built in 1946 is a concrete ceiling bomb shelter. I had to get a hole through the floor for cable. This ~5" hole took 50minutes and 4 batteries with my Dewalt 18V hammer drill. I was worn out, hand had huge blisters, family all had to be outside bc the noise and I went and bought an SDS that day.

Cinder block, mortar, small jobs are fine with a hammer drill, but beyond that it can get ugly.

 

[oldwino]

One other thing...the HF has metric bits so if you are using wedge anchors you need to get standard bits

 

[american lockpicker]

I recommend Bosch.

 

[Monte]

If you go with a SDS rotary drill look out for good drill bits too. Bits with 2 cutting edges seem to "walk" so i would look out for drill bits with 3 or 4 cutting edges (should also cut faster + more precise) or at least with a center point.

 

[bsaint]

Its true. Those 4 cutters stay where you start.

 

[Dodge]

could you please tell us a little more? What are you going to use it for? If you are doing holes from 1/8 thru 1/2, I'd say go with a hammer drill like De Walt's Screamer. I've had and used mine professionally since about 1994 and it has yet to fail me. If you are going 1/2 to 3/4 or even 1 -inch, then go with a rotary hammer like others have suggested, such as an SDS or SDS-plus or the SDS-Max or spine drive. The configuration of the bit end for these larger bits insure that they will not twist in the chuck when doing your drilling. When you drill with any of these, make sure you stop frequently and BLOW the drilling dust out of the hole and don't use water. It ends up ruining the drill bit's carbide tip. If you're going professional for this kind of drilling, buy something like Bosch or Hilti that will stand up to a lifetime of this type of pounding, and believe me, you are going to take a pounding too, if you do a lot of the big holes. If you are only going to do some drilling around the house (and this will be considered heresy on here and will probably get me flamed off), but look at the Harbor Freight orange rotary hammer drill (item No. 97743) (No I do not work at Harbor Freight). You can often get it on sale for around $60 with a coupon, etc. It will drill, rotary hammer drill, and also has a chipping mode for use with a chisel to remove ceramic tiles. It works fine for home type use and will save you a ton of money in the long run if this is all you need it for. If you're hesitant, buy the extended warranty on the thing, and if you burn it up, you can get a new one. Just one guy's opinion. Good Luck.
Jim Don
PS If you buy the Harbor Freight, go to Menards or Home Despot and get yourself some quality drill bits to fit it. The trick is in the bits more than the tool itself.

X2 - Had mine for about 10 years, works great