Hammer Drills

Happy Beginning of Spring to all. As we await the warm weather of the season, we have home improvements on our minds, and that's why I will gear my column this month towards 1/2" hammer drill. Everyone has masonry somewhere around their house that needs to be drilled, and a hammer drill is the easy answer. When used with a carbide tipped masonry drill bit, you will go through cement like butter. Let's take a look at the different features available on these tools.

The features that separate one tool from another are the amps, revolutions per minute, blows per minute, the quality of the chuck, keyless or keyed, and handle design. Obviously, the higher the amperage, the more powerful the drill, and the larger the hole you can drill. The revolutions per minute are interesting. Every one wants a fast drilling tool, but the faster the tool drills. the less torque it delivers. So faster is not always the way to go. In hammer drills, you will find very fast rpm's due to the fact that concrete is very soft, and high torque is not a necessity. Most of your better quality hammer drills offer high and low switch, which I feel is a must. High offers you tremendous speed, while low slows the drill down, and dramatically increases your torque. What this does is to effectively make your tool two tools in one. On low speed with the hammer action in the "off" position, you can use this drill on wood or metals, making the tool much more versatile.

Let's talk about drill chucks. As I'm sure you are aware, there are varying qualities of chucks, and I would suggest a good Jacobs chuck or a Rohn chuck. You will also find many models available with keyless chuck. There was a time not long ago that I wouldn't recommend a keyless chuck, but technology has come a long way since then, and the new keyless chucks seem to hold the bit quite well, even the smaller bits down to 1/16" or smaller. The benefits obviously are that you no longer need to search for chuck keys around the shop. The worst scenario is when work needs to get done with your drill, and the chuck is nowhere to be found. Keyless chucks eliminate this situation forever.

The key to the hammer drill you are buying is the sizes of the holes, you will need to step up to a rotary hammer, which will accommodate bits up to 1". if you need to drill larger holes, you will need to step up to a rotary hammer, which uses a bit with a special shank, and the hammer itself is much more powerful. We will cover those in a future column. Keep in mind that any bit you use above 1/2" will have to have a cut down shank to 1/2" to be able to fit in your 1/2" chuck. Additionally, to drill through masonry, your bits should be carbide tipped.

Now that we have covered all if the features available, let's take a look at the most popular models, and my choices.

Hammer drills are also available in cordless models, and although these tool could never achieve the power of an electric model, they are certainly getting close. They offer all of the features of the electric models, without the cord! Here are my favorites:

I encourage you to e-mail me if you have any questions or comments, or if you have ideas for further columns. I'll speak to you again next month!

If you have any questions about 1/2" hammer drills, or any other tool, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be glad to assist.

Speak to you again next month!

Comments, questions and/or ideas for future articles are also appreciated.
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Read previous months' tips:
Cabinet Tablesaws
Slide Compound Miter Saws
Mid-Sized Plunge Routers
Cordless Drills
Detail Sanders
Random Orbit Sanders
Brad Nailers
Hammer Drills