There are many drills that you can use for concrete drilling. Concrete is a very hard material. More power is required for drilling purposes. Some concrete is included rebars. At that time, you may not use the regular drill or drill bit for drilling that. Sometimes you will need to use more than one tool. So let’s see what kinds of drills you can use for drilling the concrete.
You can use a drill with a hammer action for the concrete drilling. The percussion hammer action is suitable for brick, concrete, and stone with small size drill bits. You will need SDS, SDS plus, and SDS max (rotary hammers) for extremely high strength materials such as concrete with rebars.
Not only drills you can use but also drivers. So it is better to know which are the best drilling tools for concrete and drill bits. So let’s keep read on until you find the suitable drill for concrete.
What is the Best Mechanism for Concrete Drilling?
Generally, drilling is a spinning mechanism. Using this mechanism, most equipment had manufactured. Modern tools are combined mechanisms to increase the efficiency and power of the tool. Hammer drills, combi drills, and SDS drills are a few of them.
Considering the modern mechanism, both hammering actions and impact actions are used. These are two types of hammering actions used in drills. We can introduce them as hammering action along with drill bit and rotational hammering action.
Hammering action along the drill bit can increase the forward power of the drill bit. Rotational hammering action is increased the rotational power of the drill bit. Considering these, the most important and the most useful mechanism is along drill bit hammering action. Simply we can say it is a percussion drill.
When we use the regular drills for concrete drilling, it will take much time to drill the concrete. But When we use the hammer drill, it will not take too much time. It is an efficient and quick process.
Importance of Hammering Action
Hammering action is moving the drill bit forward and backward of the drill bit. How does a hammer drill work? Will guide you about the mechanism in depth. When the drill bit moves forward and backward, it can chip the material into small pieces using the carbide tip. That will increase the drilling process rather than only spinning.
- Hammering action is the best mechanism for drilling the concrete.
What are the Best Drilling Tools With Hammering Action?
According to the usage, there are two types of hammering actions. Percussion hammering action and piston hammering action are them. Percussion hammering action is not much power than piston hammering action. According to the power of the hammering action, the tools are used for specified purposes.
Regular hammer drill (percussion) is used for drilling hard materials but not extremely hard materials. These tools can be used for concrete, bricks, and stones. There is a drill bit with limited usage. (some drill bits are specified for the task)
Piston hammering action is based on the compressed air piston movements. We called these tools are SDS, SDS plus, and SDS max. Commonly we say those are rotary hammers. Because rotation and hammering action occurs as a combination, sometimes these actions can be activated separately.
Rotary hammers are used for the extremely hard drilling process, such as concrete with rebars and chiseling works using only hammering action. That task is not able to do with using the regular hammer drill.
- Hammer drills are the best drill for drilling concrete. For heavy-duty drilling, you can use SDS, SDS plus and SDS max for the concrete easily.
What is the Suitable Drill Bits for Concrete?
The drill is not the main part of concrete drilling. There are drill bits. Drill bits are made with high-strength materials. Woods drill bits are made with HSS (high-speed steel), Concrete bits are made with carbide. And tile or glass bits are made with diamond-based compounds. So it is better to know which is the best drill bit material for concrete drilling.
Concrete is a high-strength material. We will need more strength material drill bits for drilling that. Most concrete bits are made with carbide. It applies as a thin layer as well as manufactured as a fully drill bit tip.
You should know total drill bit tip is more strong than the thin layer. So when you use a drill bit, you should know about this.
After all, you may see there are different drill bits tips in the market. The Hammer drill bit tip is different from the regular drill bit. In order to transfer the hammering action to the material, the drill bit is with a front arrow. The arrowhead is made with the carbide, and sometimes, the whole tip is carbide.
- Carbide drill bits are suitable for concrete drilling
What is the Best Speed and Torque for Concrete Drilling?
The most efficient way of concrete drilling is a combination of hammering action and spinning. There should be enough torque for this as well as rotations per minute. When considering the hammering action, there should be a hammering action of blows per minute. (BPM)
When you drill concrete, you should know these properly.
- If the RPM is a high tool will overheat quickly and the drill bit can be a break. (300 -800 RPM)
- If there is less torque drill bit will not rotate with enough RPMs
- If the hammering action is not activated you will not able to use that.
- Apply suitable pressure to the tool as hammering action activate.
- If the BPM is low the drilling is not comfortable.
So use the comfortable values for drilling.
Rebars Are Included, What Should I Do?
Rebars are used in concrete for increased tensile strength. But if you need to drill through the slab or column, you can find some rebars. At that time, you will need to use a drill bit and the same diameter rebar cutter if you use a regular hammer drill.
But if you use a rotary hammer drill (SDS plus and SDS max), you can use a quad drill bit for drilling both rebars and concrete together. Isn’t that awesome?
- So it is better to choose an SDS hammer drill for your purpose.
Is There Any Option For Driling Concrete?
Hammering action is the main mechanism that can increase the drilling process of the concrete. According to the power of hammer action, it can drill easily.
As well as use special drill bits such as SDS plus and SDS max.
Beyond that, you can use a combi drill, an impact driver with suitable chucks adaptors for drilling the concrete. Those are not the best option. But you can manage your task easier if you know this. These are not efficient as the above tools but are real solutions for DIY. Remember to use a suitable drill bit. So not use a wood drill bit for drilling concrete.
