Just popped into B&Q at lunchtime and noticed that they had a stak of
their own brand SDS drills, priced at just under £30. Had a look at
the box and they are 620W, with roto-stop, hammer stop and a safety
clutch.

So, are they any good? I don't want to spend a lot, as I don't do a
lot of drilling, but is this just too good to be true?


Regards,

Colin Swan
Nildram Operations

"Colin Swan" wrote in message
...
Just popped into B&Q at lunchtime and noticed that they had a stak of
their own brand SDS drills, priced at just under £30. Had a look at
the box and they are 620W, with roto-stop, hammer stop and a safety
clutch.

So, are they any good? I don't want to spend a lot, as I don't do a
lot of drilling, but is this just too good to be true?

Good for a one off job until it packs up, or a few frustrating replacements
under guarantee. So if you are doing an extension it may be worth it for
just a year.

The better is the B&Q PP Pro 3 year guarantee range. Not sure if they have
an SDS in that range.


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I've just bought, 2 weeks ago, the 750 watt one from Argos (710-5362).
It was in the sale at £29.99 but just looked and it's back at £39.99.
I've used it twice for breaking concrete and it's 'paid for itself'
already in the time saved. It comes with a flat chisel, pointed chisel,
10/12 and 22mm SDS bits (IIRC) and a SDS chuck adaptor and keyed chuck.
It's a heavy beast so wouldn't like to be holding it all day, but they
all seem to be similar in size etc. After using it I would definately
recommend it to anyone. I bought it with these two jobs in mind and
thought if I get these done I'll be happy, I still have the drill for
future use so "job's a good un".

HTH

John

John wrote:
I've just bought, 2 weeks ago, the 750 watt one from Argos (710-5362).
It was in the sale at £29.99 but just looked and it's back at £39.99.
I've used it twice for breaking concrete and it's 'paid for itself'
already in the time saved.

It only seems that way. If you'd paid 3 times as much, you'd
have a Bosch or a DeWalt, which would be more powerful, lighter,
easier to use, and last *a lot* longer.

I'm talking from experience here. I had one of those £30 B&Q
machines, and it broke within a few weeks. Replaced it under
warranty (1.5 hours return drive), and the replacement broke in
a similar time scale. Bought a DeWalt, found it was a much
better machine, and have so far used it for at least 50 hours
with no probs.

With SDS, the cheap machines just don't cut it. You'll be happy
with it to start with, because it's infinitely better than any
drill you had before. But when you buy a proper SDS, you'll
realise how crap the cheap one was.

--
Grunff

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 14:10:53 +0100, Colin Swan
wrote:

So, are they any good? I don't want to spend a lot, as I don't do a
lot of drilling, but is this just too good to be true?

Please note - I am not an expert!

I bought (and used for the very first time) an SDS drill from Homebase
not very long ago. Price was £70-ish, for an 850w.

I'd say you can't really go wrong at sub £30 - some of the drill bits
can cost more than that.

Obviously not a professionals tool because I doubt something at that
price would keep pushing holes thru walls for very long.

Go for it - if nothing else it will get you into the idea of what an
SDS is all about.

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

So, are they any good? I don't want to spend a lot, as I don't do a
lot of drilling, but is this just too good to be true?

Regards,

Colin Swan
Nildram Operations

Probably from the same factory in China as all the others; Argos, Challenge,
Blackspur etc.
Price seems dependant on how many extras in the box, an identical £40 drill
may have £10 of bits, a £50 drill may have a regular chuck adapter.
Very heavy compared to the Bosch and DW types, but good for occasional
battering of merciless objects.
At least with B&Q you'll get the perpetual 1 or 2 yr guarantee - it wears
out, get refunded, buy exact replacement, repeat.

Toby.