Home DIY

If you rent on HSS you get a one day rental for the whole weekend usually.

How much use am I likely to get out of an SDS over the next 5-10 years?

https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/drills/cat830704#category=cat830818&brand=dewalt&brushless=brushless&powersupply=cordless&sort_by=-price

I'm certain that ^ would be a talking point in the Golf Club bar.
If you weren't way down west you could borrow this from me:
https://www.toolstation.com/draper-1050w-sds-max-breaker/p66424#full-desc

I sometimes need to remove concrete footings from around fence posts.
Hot knife through butter/non-dairy spread comes to mind.

I held off for ages then bought this
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-gbh-2-21-2-3kg-electric-corded-sds-hammer-240v/319ky

Here's my post giving my 2p to someone else on what type https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16613617/

On whether it's useful....

... Now with a bit more use I'd say it's really nice to have, and there are times when it's been essential. IME it's the sort of thing that gets a lot of occasional use rather than regular use if that makes sense?

Eg

1. Putting up shelves in a broom cupboard required a fuck load of holes into brick walls ✅✅✅✅
   
2. Making work bench required a moderate amount of holes into brick ✅✅✅
   
3. Drilling into reinforced concrete garden posts it's verging on essential ✅✅✅✅✅
   
4. This Friday I quickly hung a rail with 4 holes in the loft. It made quick work of drilling into brick, although running the cable into the loft was a bit of a faff (although not half as much faff as actually lugging a drill, impact driver, screws, etc.) and truth be told it would have been easier to just take only the combi and spend a bit longer drilling the holes. And today I actually just used the combi for one hole into brick and was reminded how good it is on high torque with good bits. ✅/❌
   
   

With big fuck off ones for DIY I can't help but feel it's one of those specific job purchases.

Ie you have a whole house to renovate so you deliberate endlessly over buying a decent one. Or you have a single use scenario like breaking up a concrete slab so you just buy that cheap hench Titan one from Screwfix.

Titan has served me well for a number of jobs and can confirm it has a clutch which was handy when drilling 28mm in to stone and the bit jammed.

I had a Titan-equivalent from back in the days when they were £50.
Burnt it out trying to remove concrete footings of fence posts. They are only rated at 8J per impact.
The Draper is (now) 25J, which is my limited experience is beyond a cohesive threshold of site mixed concrete.

Given CYOA's hourly rate, with a spade chisel or scutch set, he will save the cost of the Draper on this wall alone, let alone the pain of bone bruises from a hammer/bolster attempt.

Just get a big fuck-off Titan, even comes with some chisel bits
https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb653sds-5-9kg-electric-sds-plus-drill-230-240v/6846h

on this wall alone

Yeah you're right. I mixed them up with someone else.

IMO for that wall you don't need anything crazy, as I bet a lot of it will come off easily. Personally I'd buy something similar to what I posted as it has wider usage. Even a small SDS is a bit of a lump of a thing. But yeah it doesn't seem worth renting.

I presume the filer in CYOA's link means they have dewalt batteries - which was my situation. When I was looking Dewalt cordless weren't great VFM and you have to factor in buying an assortment of bits.

Idk how long a battery will last on a job like that so can't comment as to how worth it having cordless is.

I know it may sounds minor, but for DIY (for me at least) boxes are quite important. Most of the bare units don't have them.

This one has two batteries and a box which makes it pretty good VFM. Chisle function, 3kg so manageable for holding all day, and 2J should be enough right?
https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dch033-3kg-18v-2-x-4-0ah-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-sds-plus-drill/675fj

Why wouldn't you go for corded? I have battery drills, but a corded chonky SDS, and no regrets.

Unless you're doing a load or core drilling, 700W / 800W would see you right. And be a few kg lighter.

source: i have an 800W corded SDS, and have never felt it was under powered for drilling / chiselling concrete / brick.

I've started sanding my stairs. Most of the paint has come off with my shit palm sander. Edges and dents on the wood left to do. My plan is to oil/ varnish the steps and paint the vertical parts white.

What is the best way to remove the last bits of paint?
What is best to coat the steps, Osmo? I guess Danish oil isn't suitable for this?

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The lights in the downstairs of our house keep tripping the fusebox. A few of them have never worked since we moved in but all of the ones that do normally work seem to be fine. Is there anything obvious I could check to try and find the source of the problem? I have zero electrical knowledge and we're renting so I don't want to do too much messing about.

You should be able to scrape it off with a stanley knife blade or a scraper. Go over everything with 120 grit paper once done. I would fill dents on the risers with wood filler, but probably wouldn't bother filling dents on the treads. I would coat the treads before painting the white; paint doesn't stick very well to coated wood, so you can wipe off easily if you get any on there. I would use something like Fiddes Hard Wax Oil, it comes in a range of different colours, but likely satin clear would do it. Do two to three coats. I do alternative treads and let them dry, then you can still use the stairs.

Hope the paint was modern and had nothing nasty in it

Applied some fine surface filler, sanded back and applied a first coat of primer (valspar stuff I had knocking about. It's got a reasonable amount of solids I think, but they drop out of suspension pretty quickly so you have to keep stirring.
Hopefully this will look ok after a light sand.

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drop out of suspension pretty quickly

That is a common problem with primers. I usually stir the tin really well and then put a small amount in a painters pot where I can stir it a bit with the brush as I'm going along.

Sometimes after an undercoat you can very lightly hand sand some of the 'fluff' you can see there off.

I use a very sharp 12mm chisel.

Yep, looking better after a rub down. Think I'll do a second coat and call it done. The other edges all look pretty smooth already so hopefully it's straightforward from here

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Thanks all for SDS chat and advice - useful info. And yes I'd been thinking dewalt cordless largely because i have dewalt cordless stuff already and plenty of batteries. The only corded thing I have is a faff and I rarely use it. I could get a corded one I guess given the boost in power. I'd seen the DCH033 before and was initially looking at it but a couple of youtube reviewers suggested getting the 133 instead which was comparably priced but much more powerful.

If your using it for work and a lot of hard graft id say its a good investment if not and for the odd hole. Buy a cheap one or a decent drill and impact driver and you'll not really need one.

I use a SDS for coring hole in walls that's about it now, I just use my milwaukee drill for everything else at work and impact for screwing.

If there is a lot of hard stuff the hilti comes out but that's so rare now.

It may not be your bag but I'd find earmufflers to massively increase working comfort and duration

All you need for a smooth finish

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Looks antique!

I used to edge MDF the way you've done it but if you have the tools to hand sanding it to 400grit is the way to go. It takes very little time in comparison to filling and you don't need to treat the edges any differently to the face once it's done.

I bevel the corners of mdf while I'm sanding the edges as it makes the painted edge more durable.

Looks antique!

Came with the house, along with this

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I have the 133. It’s great.