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I have a 17 pound hammer drill with a rotary attachment rated at 7.5Joules. That's plenty of impact energy but it is actually a bit soft on the rotary torque. It basically is meant to demolish concrete not drill through it.

The hammer drill managed to get by for a few dozen redheads/concrete screws: but it had already had a long previous life demo'ing concrete and is ready to be retired. It did the job for the screws but slowly and only with a lot of hand-holding and encouragement. What is a better option for its successor?

What I am wondering: will a more traditional drill (but a beefy one) - which is focused solely on the rotational torque aspect - be a better match to the pure drilling need here? If so what kind of drill would be best here? When I think of those drills (e.g. an old school Chicago) it is more of wood and metal that come to mind. Are those drills also good candidates for concrete?

We primarily use three and five inch concrete screws of 1/2" diameter to fasten mud sills, beams and/or studs into a concrete slab floor.

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  • Shopping questions are off topic.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 15:21
  • @EdBeal I was asking about genres of tools and provided the above as examples. I'm sorry that were not sufficiently clear. It is a valid question: are hammer drills appropriate , the more traditional rotary drills, or is there another genre altogether that I am not aware of.
    – WestCoastProjects
    Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 19:08
  • Since your goal is to drill holes, I think what you want is a hammer drill, not a rotary hammer. However, it sounds like you could use a lighter duty one since you're drilling reasonably small holes. If you were looking at 4" holes through a poured concrete foundation wall, then the big boy you have would be appropriate.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 19:47
  • West coast. I do not down vote or vote to close without there being an explanation since there was none and I was the 3rd VTC I left one…
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Sep 11, 2021 at 20:52
  • 1
    @AloysiusDefenestrate 1/2"
    – WestCoastProjects
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 3:45

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When fastening to concrete I drill with a Bosch rotary hammer and then drive the screws with a battery powered impact driver.

For a 5/32 drill it takes me perhaps 10 to 20s to drill 2..3in deep.

It then takes another 10s to drive the screw through 1.5in lumber and into the concrete.

(Numbers are very rough based on memory)

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