On Friday, 4 December 2015 00:17:43 UTC, wrote:
On Thursday, 3 December 2015 10:22:13 UTC, dennis@home wrote:
On 03/12/2015 00:25, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bob Minchin wrote:
Basically it is a toy drill but might suit light hobby use.
No way is 500w enough to drive a 5/8 drill through a block of steel -
but you possibly don't want that.

It is if you take it in steps.

I'd hardly describe it as a toy drill. Just how many ever need to drill
such a large hole in a block of steel anyway?

Of course it could be bettered. But the cost goes up dramatically for a
small gain. Economy of production scale. This sort of spec drill is the
most common by far.


I have drilled 5/8 holes in steel with my battery drill, the drill press
will do it with ease.

Lower power drills can usually do the job, just not as quick.
I have put a 110mm core drill trough 6 inches of concrete with a 18V
battery drill and it only took three batteries to do it.

I've come to the conclusion that drills are mostly overpowered for marketing purposes. Years ago I used an ancient B&D to core drill masonry (ISTR some issue with the shank stopped it going into the modern ones I had with me). It did it just fine. I also once fell back for a reason I don't recall to using an old B&D to auger drill lots of 1" holes in some very tough wood, and drive lots of screws into the wood. Again it coped no problem - other than needing to reverse the auger half a turn by hand each time to remove it. Those drills were I think 275w & 200w. They seem to be perfectly capable.


But you can't drill through a wall to get to safety deposit boxes with a piddley little few hundred watt drill. :-)