Drill for SDS & SDW structural screws?
JohnWalker
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
What corded drill do you recommend for these 1/4″ diameter structural screws?
Presumably gear reduction and variable speed but who’s?
Thanks
John
Replies
drillin'
Per the strongtie website, the ideal drill is a lowspeed 1/2" drill with a 3/8" hex driver for the SDS and a T-40 6-lobe bit for the SDWs.
On a worksite a few years ago, we had to drill a ton of holes into concrete. Started off with a DeWalt, that lasted a day before it bit the dust. Then we tried a Bosch. That lasted a week. Then we bought a Hitachi, which lasted the 6 months of the project no problem. It was when Hitachi was truly made in Japan, not China like they are now.
Anyway, I like Hitachi tools because of that experience, and my personal corded drill is a 1/2" Hitachi hammer drill with variable speed. I've used it for nearly anything you can imagine, it works great (except once I wasn't paying attention and tried to drill into brick in reverse duh!!! - fixed that problem and it drilled into the brick like butter).
I've also had good experiences with Hilti and Makita drills.
What I use
for SDS screws a Milwaukee right-angle drill. Very convenient for when you are driving them into the side of a post, such as with hold-downs.
What I use
for SDS screws a Milwaukee right-angle drill. Very convenient for when you are driving them into the side of a post, such as with hold-downs.
That has to be the ugliest deck I ever saw, that can't meet code!
Anyway, I own the makita driver and it's awesome! It has way more power than you would expect. It also destroys bits, but seems easy on screws, I have only sheared off a couple of screws. Impact duty bits are required. I had some regular bits when I got the driver, and the first phillips bit broke off at the tip, leaving the point in the head of the screw, I thought COOL, this rocks!
LOL!
Horsefeathers!
NOT a corded drill- not any drill at all. Use an impact driver. Even a cordless one will drive a surprising number of the screws.
I have yet to bend or break one of these SDS 'lag' bolts with an impact driver. Nor have I had problems with the usual nut-driver bit I use.
cordless impact driver it is!
I watched the video on FHB comparing all the cordless impact drivers and it dispelled any misconceived notions I had about cordless impact drivers!
Thanks
John
Called Simpson's engineer...
and he basically read me the part about "low speed 1/2" drill". When I inquired about using an impact driver with heat treated fasteners he said the "low speed 1/2" drill" was preferred.
So looking at Dewalt, Ridgid & Milwaukee 1/2" corded VSR drills with 950 rpm or less reveals only the Dewalts have triple gear reduction (and the lowest maximum speed, 600 rpm). The DW249 with antilock sounds ideal to me.
(One final kick-at-the-cordless-impact-driver-can, how many lags or SDS screws are you able to drive on a 18v li-on battery?)
Thanks
John
It really depends on the battery. Most tools will ship with the 1.5Amp hour battery, but you really need a 3 amp hour battery. With my Rigid set the difference was night and day. I had one 3Ah battery and a bunch of 1.5 when I was securing my rafters and joists with a single 8" lag screw (TimberLOK). I had 66 fasteners to drive, and since it was in 30 y.o. DF, I had to pre-drill every hole through the rafter so it wouldn't explode - it was also close to the end grain. I didn't predrill the full length, so there was 2.5" at least of self drilling in DF, while still in the high friction bore of the rafter.
It was a couple months back when I did it, but I recall being slowed down by the 1.5Ah batteries, but not by the 3ah battery. I would swap them around depending on what tool I needed to use while the battery was charging - so the 3.0 battery was driving lags AND drilling 3/16 x 6" deep holes in DF, I want to say I got through about 20 fasteners before it needed a recharge. Of course, it may have just been ME who needed a potty break at that point. I just remember it wasn't the battery life of the 3Ah battery that was holding me back at all.
BTW, I drove every on of those 8" lags with one hand.
If you go with a high torque drill, be aware that there is a safety issue in using those... As in if you aren't properly set up it will break your hand or our wrist.
thats good info
Thanks Paul, that is good info.
The drill i am looking at has anti-lock that says it shuts off when excessive/bind-up force detected. However i don't know how effective that is when its triple geared and takes a few seconds to wind down.
PS is there any chance your 1.5amp hour batteries were old or Ni-CAD?
John
If you look around at the kits, you'll see ALOT of them ship with "Compact Batteries"... which means CHEAPER so the whole kit price is less. The 3Ah are usually sold seperatly. Of course, thos batteries are nice when you are doing overhead work.
And yes, they are all new Li Ion batteries.
How many can you drive with an 18v Li-ion? I have no idea.
I do know that my 12v DeWalt NiCd can make 7 holes, 7/8" diameter, in 3" thick LVL on one charge, using Irwin Speed-bor Max bits.
I do know that I can drive hundreds of the #8x 1-1/4" Simpson screws on a single charge of the much smaller 12v Bosch Li-ion 'pocket-size' driver.
I've often had to drive more then seven 1/4x 2" lags with the DeWalt 12v, and never noticed a problem. The one time I had to drive a lot more - perhaps 30 - well, I didn't count, don't recall if I had to swap batteries, and certainly wasn't delayed, waiting for things to get charged up.
Do what you will. You've got my advice, and you've heard the Simpson guy read from the prepared material - which, for all I know, was written before impact drivers were common. It's your call. It may seem counter-intuitive -and I sure don't have any engineering data to support my view - but my wrist and the behavior of the driven screws both tell me the impact driver is a lot easier on the fastener than the drill.