Hi All,

So, a large 'home made' MDF rack / cupboard / storage system falls
off the wall of my mates shop on Sat last thing (no one hurt) and he
calls me on Monday morning in a bit if a panic to see if I can help
him sort it out.

Long story short I refuse to try to repair / put back the MDF 'kit'
that was laying on the floor and led him to some slotted upright
shelving with real pine (t/g floorboards) shelves (strong, cheap, low
sag unlike Conitiboard)?

He agrees and I rule out (checking for wires / pipes etc) and start
drilling hole for the uprights. The shop is quite old and one or two
of the holes hit flint. Now I know I could punch through it with my
SDS drill (and eventually did) but I wanted to keep the noise down for
the flat above (this *was* midday though and 86 deg) and remembered
I once had a 'masonary punch' that was perfect for cracking a hard
thing with a few taps of a hammer then being able to drill on through.
From memory it had a plated hex body like a cold chisel and a long
fluted parallel shaft / 'punch' bit?

So I nipped round the sheds, nothing, Jewsons (I though they were
pretty good?) nothing and a local very well stocked tool shop,
nothing? At least the last one had someone in there that remembered
such things but 'hadn't seen one for ages' ? ;-(

So, are they long gone .. do we just smash through everything with 3KW
impact drills these days .. ?

Yours in hope .. all the best ..

T i m