Education Hammer drill for external wall, even worth trying?

I know there's a few tool-heads here that may have found themselves in a similar scenario, so a bit of advice please.

After someone nicked a nice rattan planter off my drive (what sort of dick move is that?), I'm getting CCTV'd up. It's something that was on the list anyway, so I'm not doing all of this for a £30 planter, but this just pushed me to get on with it.

This means I need a single ~12mm hole through an external block+brick wall to feed the camera. Eventually I'll need two or three more of these holes.

I realise that if I'm going to be going through external walls all day long a rotary hammer definitely needs to be part of the arsenal, but for a one-off, is it even worth trying to bother with my hammer drill, a Makita DHP458. I don't want to get mid-hole and then find it's not cutting the mustard and not have the tool to finish the job. My NTRT (new tool requirement threshold) is generally very low, and I've already got the amazon pages open mulling over my SDS options, but if I can make-do for just the one job I'm happy to.

 

Nah - don't. Wanna borrow my SDS-plus makita job for a bit?

 

Not even for the one hole? I've sunk some fairly chunky holes into poured concrete with the DHP548, so it's relatively capable.

Which have you got?

The idiot in me wants the DHR264
The more practical options would be one of the 18v variants, or perhaps a "decent" corded one, since I'm not sure cordless is worth the compromise here
Then there's suppose there's always the options of a disposable £50 job.

 

Why not just hire a suitable tool?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-DHR242Z-Cordless-Li-ion-Rotary/dp/B00GIIBAE8/

I've got this one - I bought it when I was installing the charger for the Leaf outside the house earlier in the year, with the intention of installing some CCTV too (which I haven't done yet). I've got a DHP481 that I decided wasn't up to the job...

 

I'd say it's more than up to the job, I mean were talking 88nm of torque on that drill, anyhow it's more about the hammer action when going through masonry, just make sure you're using a masonry bit that's long enough is all.

 

(We all know that Tad just wants and excuse to by more Makita LXT stuff. It's a disease. I have it too.)

 

I'd buy the tool. I toyed with renting stuff, but you factor in picking it up Friday night (HSS Hire, for example, close at 18:30 so it's a push to get there), and then you've got two days with it, because the rental place closes midday saturday, and are you really going to get it all done in ~3-4 hours?

So a weekend hire is what, 80-100? Might as well buy at that point. Especially if you're going LXT 18v. Unless you chuck a 5ah battery in too, it's too close to not buy it.

Plus, new tools are always fun.

 

That was one of the first things I checked, but the cost of a hire for a one-off is largely comparable to the cost of a cheap tool. When I go drill that second hole a few months down the line, I'm far better off with a cheapo. The decision would really between the cheapo that will make-do until it inevitably pops, or a less cheapo that will probably last a lifetime with the frequency I'll be using it.

The 458 should be largely comparable to the 481 - did you try and decide, or did you just decide?

Any reason you went for the 242 over the 202, other than "MOAR"?
I'm starting to think 240v - same or greater capacity at less cost, like a HR2630, or maybe the Bosch 2-20 (to be honest, at £85 the latter is probably a far better call than a silverline at £50)

This is what I'm thinking in theory, so long as it's a good TCT bit... but I'd hate to get half way through and start to have it wandering all over the place and make a mess in practice.

DHS710, DHP458, DTD146, DJR181, DJV182... I don't know what you're talking about (and LS1040, 5704RK and RT0700 if we're including the wider family)

Plenty of batteries, but I'm wondering whether this one would be better off with a tail for the cost/compromises, given the expected light use.

 

I bought the 242 purely because I had borrowed one off a Tradie mate of mine to do some work on my previous house with huge thick granite walls, thought it was boss, and decided I'd buy the same this time around. (I didn't even look at the 202!).

I did buy one of the Bosch mains jobs between the borrowed 242 and my buying one (I don't recall the model number of the Bosch) but it was totally gutless, so I returned it... That was for a 20mm hole through a granite wall, mind.

Also - what CCTV are you installing? Having had a £500 Leaf charger nicked, I really must do something about it...

 

Bosch blue or green?

I've been down the CCTV rabbit hole and climbed back out again, started out looking at basic cheap cameras, ended up speccing out a fairly swish setup around Milestone, did a 180 and just ordered one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/1080p-wireless-security-playback-UCam247-HDO1080/dp/B00HVGVKTQ

Seems fairly flexible (SD, wifi or wired), decent quality, software that's not junk. It might even worth with milestone even though it's not on the HQL, which would be nice. Mainly this one because it seemed the best middle of the road option on Amazon, with their return policy.

 

Sorry I'm a bit late to the thread. I would say don't bother even trying with an ordinary hammer drill, you'll need an SDS rotary hammer to do that. The question is whether you want to buy one and feel you might get some use out of it in future or if you'd get away with hiring or borrowing one for the occasional hole.

I couldn't do without my DeWalt SDS+ ( DCH273) any day of the week, having a cordless SDS is a godsend and I wish I'd bought it about two years earlier. I hardly ever put the 2kg 230v rotary hammer drill in the van any more. It's the DeWalt D25124K; a brilliant bit of kit, but only really necessary if you're going through some seriously hard material or boring at 15mm or bigger.

I wish I'd been here earlier to recommend UniFi cameras; after a spate of break-ins and stolen vehicles in our area over the past 8 months, I became increasingly worried about my van sitting on the driveway full of tools and equipment at night (well, the nights I actually make it home) so I spent a couple of weeks installing four UniFi IP cams around the house, basically one at each corner. They're the usual UniFi quality gear... My entire WiFi network in the office, workshop and house is made up of their access points.

 

It was a green one - and I wouldn't buy another! Not enough guts by a long way.

I'd sort of settled on the same camera, weirdly enough, after some brief looking.

However... @Unicorn - this sounds interesting. *goes off to look*

 

Right, a DHR242 ordered and shall be joining the Makitaparty tomorrow.

I'll check it out. It's not too late, and the more I think about it the more I think POE would actually be simpler, as the comms room is at the back of the house and I can just do the one hole and tack the cables around the outside instead of having to get power to every camera. If the ucam247 doesn't operate flawlessly I'll be sending it back and rethinking things.

Question - the software looks good, but does that need the UniFi NVR or can I use the server I've already got? (EDIT: never mind. I knew by posting the question I would immediately find the answer to it is the latter )

 

A half decent cordless drill will quite happily put 12mm holes in brick, not as quickly as a SDS but it'll do it without struggling.

I dunno why you're getting advice to the contrary, except perhaps that you're asking a bunch of enablers?

 

Probably the latter.

I've punched holes into brick and concrete with no issues (though a little wandering in the latter), but going through 400mm of the stuff with the combi I'm more concerned about the wandering than just getting through - I mean I'll eventually get a hole if I stick at it for long enough no matter what drill I'm using, but it won't necessarily be tidy - you think the concern is unwarranted?

 

I'd have thought your problem would be finding a non sds drill bit long enough to go thru an exterior wall (quick flick thru the tool station catalogue I can't see anything longer than 200mm), I've done it with a hammer drill in the past by drill thru from the inside and the outside but that was to do a waste water pipe so there was a degree of wiggle room in not lining the initial holes up perfectly and then widening the hole with brick chisel. But trust me even a cheap sds would have made the job so much easier.

 

Well, that was the other thing. I've used SDS bits in a vanilla chuck before, but it's not exactly... precise.

 

PoE is definitely the way to go. Mine run off my new Cisco PoE switch in the workshop... I'd been using PoE injectors for the three APs and was looking for any excuse to buy a PoE switch for several months. This was the perfect excuse, so I invested in an SG500-28P to run all of the PoE devices and eventually link aggregate with the switch in the house once I run the fiber. I didn't buy the UniFi NVR, just run the software on my own file server which works fine.

It'll happily put a hole in brick, yes. But he's going from inside his house to outside his house. That's going to be through brick, block and a cavity. I wouldn't even dream of attempting that with anything less than an SDS rotary hammer. A good long SDS+ masonry bit on the end of his Makita will have the job done in a couple of minutes.

 

I've done it enough times with good accuracy, and would recommend it as a valid technique versus the outlay of buying an SDS.