I need a "farm grade" hammer drill. I am not a contractor, but I do have a lot of concrete around, and some pretty thick pours for slabs for barns, sheds, etc.

I'm looking for a hammer drill to take the load off my DeWalt 20v or Milwaukee 1/2 heavy duty geared drill, and am open to suggestions From Harbor Freight to Bosch. Looking for value for the money, not necessarily the best or longest lasting.

Thanks all.

I have a Bosch Bulldog Extreme which has done everything I've needed it to do. For farm use, you may consider going up a step from that model depending on thickness of concrete and estimated frequency of use.

Every contractor I've ever known who does significant concrete breakup swears by Hilti.

Agreed. Bosch or Hilti. Buy once, cry once.

Hole size?

Simple small fasteners or larger coring?

I can't ever see me using >1", so I bought the smaller Bosch bulldog when Menards was having the 11% + it was on sale. I think I paid $140 or so. It makes 3/16" holes in poured walls effortless. I've put foam board up on 3 basement walls so far - probably 150ish anchors on the same bit. If I need something bigger, I'll rent a more capable machine for a weekend, or 'fix it with my wallet'.
Since I have other bosch 18v tools, I wish I had bought the cordless. It's only like $15 more for the kit vs the corded version right now.

I'll never ruin a hammer drill bit again because the last one I'll buy is still in he package. Now I 'need' a powerful cordless drill w/o the damn hammer option. My bosch 18v is a heavy bastard.

The problem with the Harbor Freight SDS rotary hammer drill I have is that it’s 12 years old and probably bares no relation to what they are selling today. It was $50 and I bought as a one time use that was cheaper than renting a good tool. I used it to remove tile in my foyer, the a bathroom. Then I used it to cut a 2” wide 4’ long channel in my 40yo concrete slab to run conduit to our new kitchen island. Then I used it to drill 8, 1/2” holes in a concrete slab to bolt a couple gun safes down. Then I used it to install tracks for hurricane shutters on a concrete block stucco house. Then… you get the picture.

My other corded tools are as follows:

Delta - table saw
Milwaukee - two 1/2” drills, Sawzall, circular saw, 1/4 sheet sander
Porter Cable - fixed router, plunge router
Bosch - jigsaw, 5” random orbital sander
Makita - 3” belt sander

I’m probably forgetting something, but I’m pretty much a buy once, cry once kind of guy. The tools above are great; the work smoothly and are a joy to use. If you ever has a Black and Decker circular saw and switched to a Milwaukee or a hand me down Craftsman jigsaw and switch to a Bosch, then you understand. Then there’s that HF rotary hammer drill that refuses to just die. It works, it gets the job done, but it’s not a quality tool, I get no joy using it. I just hold my breath and pray it gets through the job.

Search pawn shops for a Hilti.

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
I have a Bosch Bulldog Extreme ...

This ^^^^^

The difference between a hammer drill and rotary hammer is night-and-day.

As mentioned above, if you’ll be doing any amount of drilling into concrete you’ll want a rotary hammer.

I’ve broken just about every name brand tool out there. I currently have a cordless Dewalt on the truck, and I’ve used it up to a 4” coring bit.

Get a Hilti rotary hammer drill. A rotary hammer drill is at least ten times more productive than a regular hammer drill.

Many years ago, I pulled up to a house to do a job. The owners were having a yard sale and it was about to end. My customer offered me a Hilti rotary hammer drill for free because nobody wanted to buy it. He said he thinks the chuck is broken. It looked like there was a piece missing. It turns out that it was supposed to be like that so I bought a bunch of bits for it and put it to use.

In my construction company we used Hilti guns. Depending on how often you need one you could probably rent one at your local rental store as well.

Like everyone else says, get a rotary hammer drill. I've used both Bosch and Hilti over the last 30 years. I've found both to be outstanding.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Depending on how often you need one you could probably rent one at your local rental store as well.

I looked into that when I needed one. For as many holes as I needed to drill and as long as I'd need it, it was actually cheaper to buy the Bosch Bulldog eXtreme I bought.

I've used it for more than just drilling into concrete. I've got some chiseling and scaling bits that have come in handy, too.

Funny story (which I believe I've told here before): When our well guy was here to install the VFD well pump and went to mount the drive on the basement wall I told him "Let me know if you run into trouble. I have the solution." "Oh, I'll be fine," he assured me. ("Good luck with that," I thought.) I waited. Sure enough: When he went to drill that 4th hole he ran into trouble. His hammer drill wasn't gonna make it happen. (I'd seen it before, with our basement walls.) "Hang on," I told him. Fetched my rotary hammer. Went through it like a hot knife through butter

I drilled nearly seventy-five 3-in. deep holes in that basement wall for an insulation project. That rotary hammer never faltered once.

I rented a Hilti and was blown away. I own a Dewalt for occasional/rare use.

I bought this model Bosch RH328VC in 2012 for $219 on sale at Amazon. It is $299 now. I needed to break up a square concrete safe to get it out of a basement remodel. Worked fine. I have a Hilti hammer drill and it was overmatched but the 1 1/8" Bosch rotary hammer was up to the task.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=BOS...192&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Bosch Bulldog Extreme

I've used the Bosch 100's of times. Never failed. Drilling and light chipping they are a workhorse.

I've used larger Hilti hammer drills before but that was to drill 100's holes. Hours and hours of drilling. Overkill for most people.

For what your talking about I would go with the Bosch. I currently own a Bosch Bulldog. If it failed for some reason I would buy another one.

I went cheap and bought the Menards brand...whatever that is. That was several years ago and I used it only that once. Wonder if I'll ever use it again?

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Agreed. Bosch or Hilti. Buy once, cry once.

THIS!

I’ve never owned one but I delivered concrete for 17 years. All the contractors swore by the Hilti rotary hammer drill.