How and When to Use a Hammer Drill
Video transcription
Hi, my name is Chris Palmer. In this segment, we're going to talk about how and when to use a hammer drill. When you need to make a hole in concrete, reach for your hammer drill. Like the name implies, it's a drill that spins and also does a hammering action, and it makes really fast work of making any kind of hole in concrete. A lot of tools also give the option of using it without the drill function, and in that situation, you use a chisel point bit or a straight point bit for chipping or breaking up concrete, or maybe you want to bust up some tile or any, there's a lot of applications for that. To use the drill, you want to put a little bit of grease on the end of the bit that is in the tool. This particular tool has a quick release bit function, so basically the bit slides right in and locks in place. That movement is what you want, but the bit shouldn't come out unless you release the collar in which case it slides right out. The bit is firmly in place. If it has a side handle, go ahead and use it, bring it up to a comfortable position for you. Choose the function that you want. In this case, we want to drill a hole, so I have the hammer and the drill function engaged. If I turn this knob here, I have drill only. If I turn it here, I have hammer only. This is a tool I might use if I was in hammer only mode. This is just for breaking up material. Once you're all ready to go, put on your safety glasses and plug the tool in. From this point, it's really a lot like using a typical drill, hold the bit nice and plumb, get a nice straight hole. The bit is resting on my mark where I want to make the hole, and then I just turn the tool on, keep a nice firm grip on it. If that was solid concrete, I still could have gone to that depth. As you can see, this is just a block, and I only had to go through about an inch of material here, but it goes really fast. It's an excellent, excellent tool. If you're going through a lot of material, it's a good idea to brush away that pile of debris that will pile up around the hole, and then drill out again. That will give you a cleaner hole, so you can really use the full depth. That's really useful for when you're setting wedge anchors. Thanks for watching. I'm Chris Palmer. That's how you use a hammer drill.