Whats your opinion on core drills?

[Deleted member 25704]

If you want a neat hole then core is a must, I reckon I get about 70 holes per core bit (5"). My Makita core drill cost me about £200, that was approx 8 years back and still as good as new.

I was advised to buy the Makita, wish I had.

 

[Puddle]

£ 200 for a core drill !! Wants to last for 700 holes drilled,I think I paid about £40.00 for my last one a few years back,still going strong ,mind you couple of the good things about London area,old brickwork is really soft/easy to cut through and floor boards are not tough and grooved.so easy to get up,can imagine if cutting through tough walls in the north more,would not last as well

With the flue systems we have now,heights and the tight spaces we have to work in ,think even if I wanted to,would not be able to knock holes through wall by hand on about 15% to 20% of flues I put in

A core drill must pay for itself in time saved making hole and the making good

imho

 

[Halesowen1]

Puddle what i meant was 70 holes per core bit, my drill has probably done 500 Core holes so far.

 

[julesverne]

the amount of time a core drill saves you, more than makes them worth there while and money.

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

some of the stone up here is rock hard , old tenements with 27" thick walls .
sometimes worthwhile paying £50-60 to have it cored in 15mins by the pros rather than spend a couple of hours toiling through it myself. the pro cans are longer so require less stop-starting to remove cores and , and add extensions . they also seem to cut much faster wet or dry than the standard depth cans.watched them tapping and filing the tips when the core stopped cutting through the stone as quick, they said it was to re-expose the diamond edge, seemed to work anyway.

 

[tamz]

Craigleith stone:crazy:

 

[Phil]

I have a 127mm core bit and it goes through most brick and stone no problems from the inside out, but the pain is with a soil branch for example there always needs to be a 110mm elbow half burried in the wall so you need to go up the ladder with an SDS chisel anyway.

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

Craigleith stone:crazy:

lol , was going to mention craigleith in last post tam, hard as a whoors hert . what do the boys in the the granite city use ? it s a place i v never been , plenty graft up there though , seems to be recession proof with all the oil money .

 

[tamz]

what do the boys in the the granite city use ? it s a place i v never been , plenty graft up there though , seems to be recession proof with all the oil money .

Was just talking to a mate in the pub yesterday about that as he was working up there for a while. 1st one he did they cored it their selves.....5hrs. After that they got a drilling guy in with the gun on the jig thing. Took him 25 minutes!

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

5 hours .... ouch and a new can required ?

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

you ever used the place near falkirk that re-tips the cans Tam ?

 

[tamz]

you ever used the place near falkirk that re-tips the cans Tam ?

Is that the place down in Bonnybridge? I've heard they do some good stuff.
Never had one retipped (never really thought about it). I just buy a new one. Might do it with the next one.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

we have a lot of houses in wales built from tondu brick from the ancient long closed foundry in tondu they have iron ore in them you just cant core them

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

thats the one tam, scot..... something, never had 1 retipped either, maybe only worth it for the longer cans the drillers use ? they were saying tips last them a lot longer if they re doing it wet .
all the subs to the board got an email from the place at bonnybrig offering discounts . was after a hoover attachment but theirs was too spendy to justify buying it. bg lads have the scot stuff issued , quite a good bayonet system for coupling the can and extensions, but again a bit too rich for me to change from 1/2" , pair off bahcos, a size 7 and the floor 🙂
can you mind how much you paid for tyour hoover attatchment ?

 

[< 0.004 = :-)]

sounds just like like some off the stone here gm, craigleith sparkles with tiny silver grains that look like metal. waste of time trying to core it with the gear we carry. get the pros in or dig out the kango and hope the grain is going the right way.
the way the old 27" thick solid walls are constructed, the random rubble from cutting the stone got used in the middle, dressed face on the outside and rejects and or brick on the inside face. the grain of the rubble rans all ways. before cores, stitching and kangoing or mash and chisel you'd end up with a 4-5 inch opening on the inside and out, with a 12" casum in the middle and 2 bags full of rubble. they don t build them like they used to.
glad to be working out off town the now, all nice council houses with brick cavity walls. 10 mins to core the flue, and all on the ground floor, happy days 🙂

 

[tamz]

I bought one from bes for about £100. At the time i was going to buy a marcrist shroud thing (i've got a marchrist gun) that was about half that but got the hoover attachment instead. You still get a wee bit dust but it is fine.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

have to get a dust extractor it does make a right mess coring especially red brick,i always wear a ffp2 mask as well the dust can knacker your lungs and cause silicosis which is often fatal

 

[Phil]

Dewalt D21570K 1300w 127mm Diamond Drill 240V - DeWalt available at Toolbox

This looks a good price for a Dewalt core drill, does anyone have one of these? Why is it £100 less than the Makita?

 

[PlumbingBud]

I have been thinking about investing in a good core drill for when I start doing boilers and fires.
Am I right in thinking a safety clutch is essential? And also, I noticed many are only rated up to quite a low diameter for diamond core masonry.

What sort of diameter would a typical flue be?

Thanks.

 

[tamz]

A clutch is essential for bigger cores. If it jambs it will break your fingers ......if you are lucky.
107mm fits flues but leaves little room for manouver.
117mm is fine as is 127mm.

Try using an 9" angle grinder for smaller cores. Very fast. Just keep a good hold of it as there is no clutch.