DIY Core Drill?

stator

Is it silly to attempt to Core Drill a 127mm hole in a concrete wall myself? What about a concrete cavity wall?

Can you use a Core Drill bit with a standard Hammer/Impact Drill?

Or do you need something extremely high power?

It's for an air vent

jk0

Just get a 300mm long 8mm masonry bit, and do a ring of holes. (Take it easy as your drill will get hot.) Then chip out with a hammer & small bolster chisel.

andyhop

jk0 wrote: »

Just get a 300mm long 8mm masonry bit, and do a ring of holes. (Take it easy as your drill will get hot.) Then chip out with a hammer & small bolster chisel.

HSS charge around £45 for the hire of a core drill and 127mm core bit

Is it worth wrecking your wall by stitch drilling

You need a proper core drill with clutch. If you use a standard percussion or sds drill you risk breaking your wrists if the core bites the wall and doesn't slip !

firefox1956

Don't think you are supposed to use the hammer/impact setting with a core drill.
HTH

Jonesya

firefox1956 wrote: »

Don't think you are supposed to use the hammer/impact setting with a core drill.
HTH

Depends on the type of core-drill.

The tungsten carbide tipped core drills with small pieces of carbide set deep into the corer can be used on hammer setting. When I've used them I've found they're a lot better on hammer setting.

The diamond type core drills with the large diamond blocks on the end of the corer should not be used on hammer setting - I'm guessing you could break off the diamond cutting blocks.

thescouselander

Probably best to use a proper core drill. Apart from the danger of breaking your wrists there is a danger of burning your drill out as it's not designed to drive such a large diameter bit.

stator

Probably best if I hire someone then. Not sure where to look though

Thanks for all the input

angel_of_dartford

Screwfix do rectangular ducting the same size and shape as a standard brick with an adaptor to connect to round duct

Ant555

As already suggested a proper core drill setup will make it much easier.

When I had to drill a circular hole for an extractor vent I rented one from a local hire shop (google 'tool hire <your location>')

It was around £40 I think for drill and bit and to be honest it was really, really easy to get the job done in no time and I initially thought it was a bit of a waste of money but when I weighed up the amount of time it would have taken me to mess around with long drill bits and doing it myself, the travel to/from hire shop and the job was easily the best option.

I found the hardest thing was to make sure I was drilling level as the drill was really big and heavy and the core bit itself weighed more than I thought.

hope this helps.