electric drill

[gav-]

I have a pillar drill but i need a portable drill (corded 240v) for drilling through metal, upto 4mm thickness. From my knowledge, i need a slowish drill to drill through mild steel. I had an old electric drill which was too fast. any suggestions??

[nige90]

Bosch do very good ones IMO, they do a couple with quick change SDS/normal chucks.

B&Q have them, not cheap at about £140 upwards.

[smo]

I just purchased a Bosch drill at the weekend, a PSE1000RPE - 1000W, variable speed, decent size chuck, first thing i did was drill 2 2" holes in my rear winch crossmember with it, performed flawlessly.

Cost about £80 from homebase.

[pugwash]

problem with the bosch drills is that they limit the power of the drill as opposed to gearing the speed down. Therefore you can either have a hgh speed high power drill or a low speed low power drill. It's not ideal!

I have a 1400watt corded drill and it is so powerful that i can't hold it still then the bit catches- the drill almost breaks my wrist it's so powerful.

[JST]

you need some bigger wrists.

Bosch get my vote and they are cheap for what you get as well in my opinion, i dont care much for their keyless chucks though

[Mo Murphy]

Mine cost a tenner from Wickes last year, drills nice and slow

Mo

[BIG DAN T]

Stay away from DeWalt. We used to burn them out all the time at work,since swiching to Hitachi no more problems.

[landmannnn]

I have had a couple of 600 watt drills (one was a bosch), variable speed with keyless chucks. Not the best bit of kit for thicker steel, the variable speed reduces the torque and the keyless chuck loses its grip after a while.

I am now using one of those big SDS hammer drills which came with a key chuck and a 2 speed gearbox. Very heavy but much more controllable, excellent around the house too, cost £50 upwards..

[honitonhobbit]

Ryobi 800w, loverly and cheap and you get pretty good drill bits for free

Boshe stuff was very good but is going down hill, got some woodworking stuff that has seen 15 years hard labour and is sound but the 1000w corded drill bought last year is shot away

[tychoS]

Try something like a Blue Bosch GBM 13 HRE

550 rpm at no load

Low gearing is what you need, not electronic speed control.

[welshlaner2]

I use a SDS cheapo one purchased from aldi couple of years back for about ~£20

use blacksmith drills for getting though thick plates about 6mm, set does up to 1 inch holes

drill a pilot hole first using 6mm drill

Yes i know about when the drill jams while breaking though, i use a bar over the handle to get proper grip nor will i hold the speed on lock

[swanny]

we use hilti drills a bit dear but they last. had one for 12yrs drilled holes in any thing from enginering bricks to 12mm thick RSJ . bought new one last year £120.00 + vat

cant fault them can be repaired easy too