Drills

[Space Kadet]

Hello everyone,

I'm about to loose my drill cherry and buy my first drill for cave digging - I'm very excited.

But what is the best one to buy?  I don't want a cheap one that will last five minutes, but:

Makita,Hilti,Bosch,Dewalt.... So much choice.

Any ideas?

 

[TheBitterEnd]

You'll no doubt get plenty of opinions but I got one of these earlier this year and it is the dogs

http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-dh18dsl-2-3kg-3-0ah-li-ion-cordless-sds-plus-hammer-drill-18v/94678

Mine was on offer with two batteries but that offer seems to have ended. It is a proper SDS with the option of just rotary but no chisel option. It is small, light and drills plenty of holes and is almost as fast as my big heavy mains SDS drill.

The only slight downside with having the battery hanging off the bottom of the handle is that it won't stand up but other than that it is great.

 

[Bottlebank]

When you say digging it depends what you are planning on drilling?

 

[cavermark]

My suggestions:
expedition bolting and a bit of capping up to 8mm  - Bosch Uneo
lots of capping - Whatever SDS you can afford and depends how far you want to carry it/battery life/etc..
snapper type holes - 36v Li Ion packs the punch with reasonable portability.
Hilti, Bosch, Makita will be more robust and serviceable, but with some of the cheap options you can buy 3 for the price of one of the big brands!

 

[nickwilliams]

In my order of preference:

Hilti
Makita
Hitachi
Bosch or DeWalt
Ryobi or Metabo

I've taken a great many power tools apart in my time and I am in no doubt that Hilti's are the best put together and they have excellent long term service and spares support. They are, however, pretty much always the most expensive. I'd seriously consider a second hand Hilti for the same money as a new DeWalt or Bosch.

 

[Mark Wright]

I use a 14.4v Makita that I've reviewed somewhere on these forums in the past. They don't make the one I've got anymore but it is brilliant for bolting. Hire shops usually stock Hilti drills because they are so hardwearing, both inside, as Nick mentions, and out. They were never designed for being dragged through caves though, so they do wear out.

We used to have a saying at a rope access company I worked for, 'Vile Emptum Bis Emptum' (I'm guessing at the Latin spelling). It translated to 'Buy cheep, buy twice'. I've got three Makitas that I've had for about 4 years and they have all had some heavy use but seem to keep on going. I dropped one of them 13m and it still works very well apart from the drill bit keeps falling out. Makita batteries are very expensive though. I tried some copy batteries a few years ago. They were half the price but only lasted a 1/4 of the time. I bought a pack of 4 a few months ago for ?100.00, they seem better than the original Makita ones in terms of number of bolts they will drill but they are a very tight fit and you wouldn't want to be changing a battery whilst climbing a route!!

When we were digging in Rowter earlier this year I suggested to Mark Richardson that he chatted up a local plant hire company to see if they would sponsor the project and sell one of their old drills that was on its last legs (Visually). A week later we had a second hand, well serviced Hilti and it cost ?1.00. 

Cheers,

Mark Wright

 

[Leclused]

My 2c

For capping and lots of bolting
- Hilti
- Bosch

For occasional bolting
- A smaller/lighter machine

Remark
Hilti has recently announced that there is now a 6ah li-ion battery available. This would mean double capacity !!!! The catch is that the machine/battery needs some adaptation.

Message about this new battery  (in French)  via some French cavers

Accu Hilti 6 AH
Pour quelques grammes et quelques euros de plus, batterie Li-Ion de 6AHBatterie Li-  Ion
Pour le fonctionnement du perforateur burineur sans fil TE 30-A36-ATC-AVR, Hilti a d?velopp? une batterie de haute capacit? de 6AH.
Bien que de trente-six volts de tension, cette nouvelle batterie qui pourtant se recharge sur le chargeur que nous utilisons pour nos batteries lithium, n?est pas compatible avec nos perforateurs TE 6 A-36 et TE 6A-AVR ? cause de deux ergots emp?chant la connexion.
La solution la plus simple consiste ? supprimer ces deux ergots. Cependant, dans ce cas, Hilti refuse de prendre les batteries sous garantie !
Bat ergotAutre possibilit? : modifier le carter noir du bas moteur de nos machines, ce qui cr?e alors l? aussi des probl?mes de garantie.

 

[Joe90]

You'll no doubt get plenty of opinions but I got one of these earlier this year and it is the dogs

http://www.screwfix.com/p/hitachi-dh18dsl-2-3kg-3-0ah-li-ion-cordless-sds-plus-hammer-drill-18v/94678

Mine was on offer with two batteries but that offer seems to have ended. It is a proper SDS with the option of just rotary but no chisel option. It is small, light and drills plenty of holes and is almost as fast as my big heavy mains SDS drill.

The only slight downside with having the battery hanging off the bottom of the handle is that it won't stand up but other than that it is great.

We had a few of these in Spain over the summer, lightweight and small making it easy to handle above your head. Plenty of holes from a battery, We had no issues.

At work we have a Bosh drill, I don't know the model off hand and its downstairs in the store (just been put in cast and have no crutches so cant move about to easily) but ill find out later. It is plenty powerful and again plenty of holes per battery. It is heavy and bulky though.

 

[Huge]

How does the Uneo compare to other small drills like the Hitachi mentioned here? Are they noticeable more powerful and able to drill a lot more holes?

Are people still buying the new Uneo for cave use, now that the 14.4v version is bulkier, as it has an external, replaceable battery? And do people still alter them to use a remote battery via a lead?

Cheers,
Huw.

 

[Pie Muncher]

Been using Panasonic EY7880LZ2C 28.8V Cordless SDS Hammer Drill EY7880 and one of these PANASONIC EY7840 14.4 VOLT CORDLESS SDS ROTARY HAMMER DRILL.
Up there with Hilti, just not a lot of people know Panasonic don't just sound good.

 

[peterk]

I'd consider what other drills are owned by your fellow diggers and the benefits of being able to  pool batteries rather than having to carry multiple drill/battery combinations. Nick lumped Metabo with Ryobi - I don't think Metabo regard Ryobi as a competitor.  Metabo have done 5.2Ah batteries with 3 year "guarantee" for over a year.

 

[Space Kadet]

Thank you all for replying, SK