[olug] Drilling Concrete Block-I'm doing it wrong

[Ben Hollingsworth]

[I tried to send this earlier, but I think I hit the wrong button.]

Right.  Masonry bits have that carbide tip that's meant to chisel, not 
scrape, its way through concrete.  It has to be used with a hammer 
drill.  The helical threads on the bit are meant to extract the dust, 
not to cut through the concrete.

I have masonry bits that are decades old and have been used many 
times... but always with a hammer drill.  They can make pretty quick 
work of either concrete block or (more commonly) the grout between the 
blocks.

After you drill the hole, be sure to use either a plastic screw anchor 
(for standard screws) or a tapcon screw, which needs no anchor.

On 1/3/20 4:22 PM, Kevin Neubauer wrote:
> Agree with Justin. You need a hammer drill to be effective at it. You also
> have to go slow with the rotation speed and apply moderate pressure, but
> not so much pressure you break the bit. You'll burn up masonry bits quick
> if you try to zip the hole in like you do with wood. If you have lots of
> holes to drill, rent or borrow a larger SDS rotary hammer drill.
>
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2020 at 4:15 PM Justin Reiners <justin at hotlinesinc.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Are you using a hammer drill? It increases speeds a ton when drilling
>> block, if it's block grout is much easier to drill than the block itself.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 3, 2020, 4:13 PM Dave Thacker <dthacker9 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm in the process of mounting a shelf of homelab equipment on a concrete
>>> block wall in my basement.   I grabbed a masonry bit from Menards, and
>>> started drilling with my Ryobi cordless.   While I expected drilling a
>> hole
>>> would take much long wood,  I didn't expect to take a single hole would
>>> take over 20 minutes.   When I started the second hole, I got about 3/4"
>> in
>>> and the bit...melted.  I've now got a bit fragment stuck in the second
>>> hole.
>>>
>>>     - How long should a masonry bit last?  New bit very hole?
>>>     - Is there a better quality bit I should be using?
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dave Thacker
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> OLUG at olug.org
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>>>
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-- 
*Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth* obiwan at jedi.com <mailto:obiwan at jedi.com> 
www.Jedi.com <http://www.jedi.com>
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
promise that You will pull me through. /-- Rich Mullins/