samthedog

After spending some time with an old metabo hammer drill I bit the bullet and went out and bought a new Hitachi dh24 pc3 drill and chisel combo. I have had a hard time drilling through granite stone found in the cellar walls of a house I am renovating at the moment and finally had enough. I needed to drill some holes for some wall plugs to secure studs and was dreading what had already become a drawn out process. First hole and wouldn't you know it, I hit a bloody rock again.... however... the drill chewed through it in about 20 seconds flat.

To say I was impressed with the performance of this drill was an understatement. I use it's big brother the DH45 so my expectations were high. No matter what I threw at it, drilling, chipping and edging, it just blew straight through the tasks. For a drill on the lower end of the professional price range, it is very impressive. The variable trigger took some getting used to as most drills I have contain a speed dial. To vary the speed you adjust the squeeze of the trigger which can be tricky in some tight spots. Despite this I found this drill to do everything I needed it to and more. Well pleased with the performance vs price equation on this purchase.

jiffy

Every manufacturer has a small SDS drill out now. It is amazing that many people still use Hammer Drills as often as they do. I use a light weight Makita SDS drill for concrete where many would use a Hammer Drill. I can do many more holes in a fraction of the time with the small SDS drill. The bits are not much more and the price vs performance of SDS drill compared to a Hammer Drill is not even a contest.

samthedog

You are 100% right. I only used my hammer drill as long as I did because here in Norway the tools and bits are so expensive. I solved that by importing everything and just changing the plugs. As far as performance goes the Hitachi has 3.7 Joules compared to (don't quote me on this) 1.2 Joules of my Metabo hammer drill. To say the Hitachi sds plus pisses all over the Metabo hammer drill is a total understatement. I spent the following week after buying the drill swearing at myself because I hadn't bought it sooner.

Also, I find the sds plus bits better value than the standard hammer drill bits. When you factor in the reduced heat build up from completing the job faster then you start to see the money saved... and this does not include the 'time = money' factor.

diyfiend

Bosch also do decent drills.

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sds drill

woodworkbykirk

awesome rigs, the only prob ive seen is with a bit less than 3/8 and the monster just torques the bit right off

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cutting some wood