On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 21:01:46 GMT, T i m babbled
like a waterfall and said:

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

They were Rawl things. Still got mine and use it occasionally. Trouble
with them was getting the drill out of the handle. You banged it into
a hard wall nicely and then tried to remove it, and only then did the
bit slip easily out of the handle, leaving the bit as part of the
wall. Any other time even the largest metalworking vice would fail.

Jolly little things.