hammer drill not making any progress

Question

Aiming to put some bike hooks into a plaster on brick wall - We've acquired a hammer drill and have been practicing on a spare brick and a backyard cement wall but the drill is just barely / not really progressing.

Not at all working as quickly as it shows in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjE6nsfdjpo

Some details:

• It's a corded drill
• We are using masonry bits - they've got the little hammer heads on the edge
• We've tried a larger and a smaller size bit
• The drill is in fact set in the forward position :)

Are we missing something?

Answer 1

Assuming the drill you have is working properly, you may have dull or worn bits. A masonry bit does not last long, especially in concrete or brick. Cheap bits are no bargain. Start with a new bit, when the speed of boring slows to about half or less, time for a new bit.

Answer 2

For both masonry and cement you need to make sure hammer action is selected on the drill. You should find the drill vibrates a lot when hammer action is selected and the drill will need some pressure applied in the direction of drilling for hammer action to work.

Answer 3

I recently did my first project involving a hammer drill - installation of a rubber roof on my poured concrete garage. I used a Black & Decker 3/8" hammer drill. My checklist was:

• drill is turning clockwise
• hammer mode selected
• 2nd (faster) gear selected
• masonry bit is in good shape

I installed about 150 fasteners during the project and went through, I think, 4 masonry bits. If I had bought a couple more I would probably have switched more often. Also, if you happen to be installing a lot of concrete fasteners, the Tapcon Condrive system will save you a lot of time.

Finally, there were some spots in the concrete where I just couldn't drill through. Probably I was hitting some rebar or a particularly strong stone, but sometimes persistence just wasn't good enough. At those points I'd either switch to a shorter fastener or find a different location to drill.

Answer 4

The brick in the video must be pretty soft. Last time I had to use one of these, it was into a cement foundation, going about 15-20" down with a large bit (maybe 3/4"). It's been years ago, but I'm pretty sure it took about 30 minutes per hole.

For our depth, pulling the bit out frequently is very important, both for clearing out the hole, and for straightening up any rough sides (maybe once for every inch drilled). Don't ignore the suggestion for the earplugs and other protective gear, unless you want to ask everyone to repeat themselves for the next few days.