How to Drill a Hole In Concrete Without a Punch

Holes in concrete are necessary for carrying out, installing communications. The works are distinguished by an abundance of dust, noise, high labor costs, require high-quality power tools. To drill a hole in this material, it should be noted that each hole in the power frame of the building reduces its strength, is fraught with damage to the engineering systems located inside (mainly electrical wiring, ventilation ducts), it is traumatic.

Concrete wall drilling pattern.

Through holes with poor tool quality cause the adjacent sections of the walls to fall off at the outlet of the drill / crown from their back side. Additional finishing is required, the terms of work are increasing.

Concrete Hole Safety Precautions

The reinforced concrete building frame is a solid, heterogeneous material. Inside it is metal reinforcement, gravel or gravel of various fractions. Therefore, drilling a hole without complying with TB means exposing yourself and your surrounding colleagues to the risk of injury. Experts recommend compliance with the following requirements when drilling / drilling reinforced concrete structures:

• Use of protective equipment. Work clothes in combination with glasses / mask, petal respirator, helmet;
• Installation of fences: during through drilling, when the worker does not see the opposite side of the wall, there may be a risk of pieces falling onto passers-by or his colleagues;
• The use of reliable scaffolding: without them, work at an altitude of more than one and a half meters is prohibited, as operator stability is not ensured, when using stepladders, it is necessary to strengthen them with stops.

Nozzle for drilling concrete.

To drill a hole in concrete, it is necessary to change the speed of the drill, hammer, special diamond machine smoothly, use only two-handed tools. The presence of plaster dramatically increases the risk of destruction of internal communications. Therefore, before drilling a hole in the supporting structure of a building, it is necessary to make sure that they are absent.

Drilling with a hammer drill in shock mode is allowed only when using a drill or drill as a working tool. If the crown is immersed in concrete, rotation without impact is applied. The tool is able to drill a hole, qualitatively cut the internal reinforcement, stones.

Unlike a conventional drill, which destroys impregnations of crushed stone due to impact, it is not able to drill reinforcement. To drill a monolithic wall, it is necessary to study the location of the seams. It is in them that the internal wiring of the power cable, gas, sewer pipes are often hidden.

DIY technology for making holes in concrete

The scheme of the device for drilling concrete.

In the process of building construction, there is a need for the manufacture of blind or through holes of different diameters. Blind holes are created for fasteners, their diameter is limited to 2-16 mm. An important factor is compliance with the declared diameter. Otherwise, in the broken holes, plastic dowels for self-tapping screws, nails will loosen over time, reducing the fixing strength of wall cabinets, curtains, pipelines, decor elements.

For drilling blind holes of large diameter or through penetration of reinforced concrete walls, crowns are used to enter communications. They are a cylinder, one side of which is attached with a shank to the drill chuck, perforator, the second has victorious or diamond crowns welded to it. In the middle part of the structure, a drill bit is installed to give direction.

Drilling with a drill or a drill leads to the destruction of the entire volume of concrete at the point of contact of the tool with the structural material. If there is a reinforcement structure inside the reinforced concrete structure, it is impossible to pass it with a drill, the hole is transferred to the side.

Drilling holes in concrete with a crown differs from the previous method:

• Concrete is destroyed only around the perimeter of the hole;
• A concrete cylinder remains inside the crown.

Table of minimum depths for landing dowels.

Therefore, after reaching the required depth of the blind hole, the inner concrete cylinder remains connected to the wall by the rear end. To remove it from the hole, destructive methods are used: a chisel with a hammer or a perforator. Concrete cylinders during through drilling are removed from the tool with light blows of a mallet on the body

Drilling holes in concrete is carried out with the following tools:

• Spiral impact drill. often used for blind holes, the diameter of carbide tip inserts is always larger than the spiral body of the tool, the shank is round, not designed for work in concrete with a puncher with SDS cartridges;
• Spiral drill. Instead of winning, a zirconium or tungsten tip (spraying) is used, a shank with grooves is only suitable for SDS cartridges (Max modifications), dust-free, low-noise drilling is provided;
• Diamond core is a large-diameter tool exclusively for high-speed rotary drilling.

The marking of the twist drill indicates the caliber, not the diameter. This is the distance between the protruding edges of the solders / inserts. Drilling holes with this tool is performed in the following modes:

• 800-1200 revolutions for diameters within 4 mm;
• 300-500 revolutions for diameters of 5-13 mm.

Even the presence of a red marking of the tip of this tool does not guarantee the conformity of the tip material to the metal declared by the manufacturer. The cheap non-standard condition at the first use develops into an incomprehensible configuration, becomes unsuitable for work.

Zirconium, tungsten drills are suitable for the following operating modes:

• 60-100 revolutions with a diameter of 42-76 mm;
• 150-400 revolutions for diameters 4-60 mm.

The length of the drill can reach 1 m, a small amount of dust when working with this tool allows you to not take out furniture from the room. Destructible concrete “flows” out of the hole in a trickle along spiral channels, is collected on a liner, paper.

The scheme of the drill.

Professionals make blind holes for large diameter sockets for a few seconds. A home master who does not have a regular practice of working with such a tool most often runs the risk of damaging the crown at the slightest distortion. Operating modes when using crowns are 2 000-3 000 revolutions for any diameters. The advantage of the crown is the high-quality cutting of the reinforcement of any diameter, granite, basalt gravel inside concrete at high cutting speeds.

The following modifications belong to the category of professional, highly specialized tool:

• Segmented tubular drill. Difficult to use, used by specialists in areas with a high probability of the presence of thick reinforcement;
• Castellated drill with a centralizer. Carbide modification, inside of which a drill is located in the center, facilitating the direction setting, reducing sensitivity to pressure, distortions of the working body; these options are not suitable for cutting reinforcement.

The latest modifications of crowns are operated at 600-1200 rpm, when in contact with the reinforcement, the teeth crumble instantly. Therefore, before drilling, the walls are carefully examined with a special tool for the presence of an armored belt.

Power tool selection

To create holes of small diameter in small quantities, an impact drill, a perforator with a power within 350 watts is enough. Professionals involved in wiring communications in prefabricated houses, brick cottages on a concrete foundation, use professional punchers or diamond machines.

A large diameter hole cannot be obtained using a standard three-jaw chuck with a key collet clamp.

With the passage of reinforcement, granite crushed stone, the clamping force will not be enough, the tool is guaranteed to begin to scroll in the cartridge, wearing the shank, cams.

Therefore, for large holes, an SDS cartridge with a diameter of 10-18 mm is required. Mortising when creating holes with a crown is completely excluded, the puncher should have such a function.

Features of drilling concrete structures

When using a conventional crown, water is supplied into the hole, which reduces the temperature of the working body. Some companies produce professional bits, which are drilled “dry”. The hole is obtained with the correct geometry, there is no tearing out pieces of the wall from the back side. An example is Maxima crowns Ø3,2-20,2 cm, length 15-25 cm, with and without perforation.

When drilling holes of large diameter (0.5-1.5 m), diamond machines and plants are used. The hole is created by submersible sawing with a core tool. The frame is fixed on a horizontal, vertical, inclined surface, a compressor for supplying coolant is included in the package.

A smooth hole is obtained by moving the working body with the top drive along the guides (analogue of a manual tile cutter). The quality of the holes is higher than with manual drilling. The drill in this professional equipment is not used, even as a guiding body.