I've got a line of old concrete posts bordering my house, I'd like to
put up a wooden fence, but unfortunately they are spaced wrongly and
intermittently for panels, so the best thing would be a featheredge
lapped fence.
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
I havent tried a diamond drill bit yet, but am not too keen to splash
out on one if that is going to wear out after 2 or 3 holes.
Any thoughts on what I need?
SDS drill with diamond bit?
Give up and dig out all the old posts?
Thanks for any pointers.
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

A.Lee wrote:

Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.

It may be that you are hitting steel reinforcing bar in the post rather
than a stone.

It it were a stone, a SDS drill and bit would romp through it easily.

If it is rebar, then you can get rebar cutting masonry bits that ought
to do the job. (Just positioning the hole in a different location will
probably help you miss the rebar).



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
I've got a line of old concrete posts bordering my house, I'd like to
put up a wooden fence, but unfortunately they are spaced wrongly and
intermittently for panels, so the best thing would be a featheredge
lapped fence.
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
I havent tried a diamond drill bit yet, but am not too keen to splash
out on one if that is going to wear out after 2 or 3 holes.
Any thoughts on what I need?
SDS drill with diamond bit?
Give up and dig out all the old posts?
Thanks for any pointers.
Alan.


Make panels to fit. It is probably cheaper.

Adam

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts bordering my house, I'd like to
put up a wooden fence, but unfortunately they are spaced wrongly and
intermittently for panels, so the best thing would be a featheredge
lapped fence.
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
I havent tried a diamond drill bit yet, but am not too keen to splash
out on one if that is going to wear out after 2 or 3 holes.
Any thoughts on what I need?
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
I've got a line of old concrete posts bordering my house, I'd like to
put up a wooden fence, but unfortunately they are spaced wrongly and
intermittently for panels, so the best thing would be a featheredge
lapped fence.
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
I havent tried a diamond drill bit yet, but am not too keen to splash
out on one if that is going to wear out after 2 or 3 holes.
Any thoughts on what I need?
SDS drill with diamond bit?
Give up and dig out all the old posts?
Thanks for any pointers.
Alan.

Get some galvanised steel strapping from a builders merchant and wrap it
around the post and screw it to the arris rail.

The message
from John Rumm contains these words:

If it is rebar, then you can get rebar cutting masonry bits that ought
to do the job. (Just positioning the hole in a different location will
probably help you miss the rebar).

Yes, but the holes already drilled will let in water, the rebar will
rust and the concrete post will start to disintegrate. Any holes drilled
need filling pdq. Any others drilled in the post might cause a long term
problem even if they don't hit the rebar.

--
Roger Chapman

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts bordering my house, I'd like to
put up a wooden fence, but unfortunately they are spaced wrongly and
intermittently for panels, so the best thing would be a featheredge
lapped fence.
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
I havent tried a diamond drill bit yet, but am not too keen to splash
out on one if that is going to wear out after 2 or 3 holes.
Any thoughts on what I need?
SDS drill with diamond bit?
Give up and dig out all the old posts?
Thanks for any pointers.
Alan.
If the posts are morticed for arris rails, there are arris rail bracket
which will fit into the morticee so that you can screw them to the new
arris rails

Malcolm

The Medway Handyman wrote:

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts ...
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.

No being picky, but why is a SDS drill with a normal masonry bit, better
than a normal hammer drill with the same bit?
Vibrates/hammers more, or something else?
Thanks
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

On Fri, 18 May 2007 19:01:26 +0100, (A.Lee) mused:

The Medway Handyman wrote:

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts ...
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.

No being picky, but why is a SDS drill with a normal masonry bit, better
than a normal hammer drill with the same bit?
Vibrates/hammers more, or something else?

Basically SDS drills use a more efficient hammering mechanism. The end
of the bit is directly struck whereas a normal percussion drill just
sort of rattles the chuck around a bit, really reall lossy way of
transferring energy.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts ...
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the
cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then
the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.

No being picky, but why is a SDS drill with a normal masonry bit,
better
than a normal hammer drill with the same bit?
Vibrates/hammers more, or something else?
Thanks
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

It's all a matter of 'oomph' - much more 'oomph' in the hammer
action of an sds drill than the cam operated ones on 'hammer drills'.
Most SDS drills use a pneumatic coupling arrangement giving greater
travel.

AWEM

"Andrew Mawson" wrote in
:


"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts ...
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the
cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then
the
drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.


These posts normally have reinforcing bars in them just to make life more
difficult
Chris

A.Lee wrote:

No being picky, but why is a SDS drill with a normal masonry bit, better
than a normal hammer drill with the same bit?
Vibrates/hammers more, or something else?

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/powertools/sds.htm

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Chris wrote:
"Andrew Mawson" wrote in
:


"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
The Medway Handyman wrote:

A.Lee wrote:
I've got a line of old concrete posts ...
Trouble is, I cannot drill into these posts to screw in the
cross
battens. Invariably I get in half inch or so, hit a stone, then
the drill rapdily goes blunt, and goes no further.
SDS drill with diamond bit?

SDS with a normal masonry bit. Done it loads of times.


These posts normally have reinforcing bars in them just to make life
more difficult

True, but drilling a 30mm deep hole for a plastic plug shouldn't reach the
rebar.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257