A core drill is an efficient tool for boring holes into tough substances such as concrete, rock, metal, as well as other tough substances with ease. With the right core bit, the surface doesn’t need to be hard to drill through it. There are also wood core bits that work great for drilling round holes through a desk top for running wires, if you decide to build a computer desk. These materials would otherwise be very difficult, if not impossible to get through; especially with a standard twist drill bit. The core drill bits easily drill almost any hard objects. This includes steel, concrete or brick. They are solidly structured to cut any medium to hard material with ease, efficiency, and power.
Table of Contents
Diamond Core Drill Bits
Concord Blades Laser Welded Dry/Wet Diamond Core Drill Bits
Product features & review
Most of Concord blades diamond core drill bits are made for dry/wet use – general purpose drilling on a variety of soft brick and concrete block. Concords are high-quality diamond core drill bits that cut through a brick house with ease, they also bore well through a poured concrete wall, rocks, etc.
Some of Concord core drill bits (for example CBW04000SP) is used for drilling on cured concrete with hard aggregate and medium to heavy steel reinforcement, and asphalt overlay on concrete. These are professional quality tools with laser-welded individual segments to hold up under extreme heat and cutting pressure. A great feature is the barrel vents that increase airflow to dissipate heat and cool the core bit.
Our rating:
Pros
- Great price for the bit, less than half the others price
- Holes are pretty precise, but a little larger on the top
Cons
- The drilling time is a little slower than other bits
- Requires a lot of down pressure
Conclusions
In general, Concord blades are well made, long lasting and high-performing diamond core drill bits that cut without a lot of down pressure and work really well with enough water and steady speed. But even if you are drilling dry, be sure to clean the groove with water frequently, the concrete dust makes a paste that binds the bit if you don’t wash it off frequently.
Bluerock Core Drill Bit
Product features and review
Bluerock sells primarily wet UNC spindle diamond core bits for granite, concrete and bricks. The bits are nice, just use lots of water and keep your speeds down and let the grinder and bit do the work. They are very strong, goes through brick walls ike butter as long as you are working with water to keep it cool. Of course, drilling granite is much slower.
Wet type concrete coring bits are NOT designed to cut all types of rock. They are primarily designed to cut concrete. Certain types of rock can be cut, but it will limit the bit life. The decision to use these bits on materials that they are not primarily designed for will be done at the risk of the user and not covered under our standard business policy.
Our rating:
Pros
- Good for brick and concrete
- Reasonably priced
Cons
- The bits seems to be a little thin
- From low to mid-grade performance
- Dulls quickly when drilling granite
Conclusions
These tools are good for moderate use by plumbers, electricians and so on. Bluerock are definitely not for commercial coring companies but they are more than enough for occasional use. Higher-grade bits may last twice as long, but may cost up to four times the price. Once again, diamond tools need great care in cooling. Use the water, most of the critical reviews related to improper use.
Hilti Diamond Core Drill Bits
Features and review
Hilti core drill bits are known for their toughness and power. It is one of the world’s most powerful manufacturers of the high endurance, performance, and quality equipment. You can find Hilti bits for drilling anything from tough steel, concrete, and bricks to relatively soft materials like wood, plastic, etc. Hilti drill bits are very popular and an easy way to get started with your drilling work. They are available in many sizes and shapes for almost any purpose and any places according to the need of the situation.
Our rating:
Pros
- The best performing core drill bits
- Work with hard stone
- Hilti bits last way longer than even Bosch ones
- The bits can go through rebar
- Larger diameter bits have X-Change barrel – replacing is cheaper
Cons
- Pricey
Conclusions
If you use Hilti diamond core drill bits, they just make through or blind end holes for you. It did not matter if there was concrete, stones, rebar or whatever. The drill bits are recommended for professional everyday use, but they may be too expensive for home workshop or DIYer. If you need to drill few holes and don’t know if you’ll drill sometime in the future, choose something cheaper.
Product features & review
You can find EDiamondTools diamond core bits for wet and dry drilling. Dry core drill bits are best for cinder block and brick, wet ones are works great with concrete and rock. And even “no need for water” dry bits work 75% better with a little water.
EDiamondTools are pretty reasonable priced bits. They are not the best, but strong enough even for drilling through solid concrete. They also drill through brick with no problem.
Our rating:
Pros
- Price
Cons
- Works good with brick and cinder block (dry), concrete (wet)
- Quickly wear out when drilling a stone
Conclusions
It my opinion, EDiamondTools are really similar to Bluerock Core Drill Bit. The same quality, reliability and performance level. If you use it occasionally, they are well worth the price.
Carbide-Tipped Masonry Core Drill Bits
These drill bits usually comes with SDS or SDS-max shafts and are ready to use with a hammer drill. They drill concrete, brick and masonry with a hammer action quicker than diamond bits. But they tend to finish with cracking or blowing out the back. For more precise holes you need to make pilot hole and then drill with core drill from both sides. You’ll have fine edges, but sides of the hole will be far from ideal anyway. So you can use carbide bits where speed is important, and make a dry/wet cut with diamond core where you need accuracy.
Bosch SDS-max Core Carbide Drill Bit for Concrete, Brick, and Block
Product features & review
The Bosch SDS and SDS-max core bits features an wave design for faster heat removal (up to 40 percent more effective). The shanks are integral and allow to use smaller hammers for drilling larger holes. The bits are built tough, they are heavy, and it come in a protective cardboard tube. These bits has more teeth than most others, have a thicker body, and they are built with better steel than any other brand.
Our rating:
Pros
- Thick body, good steel
- Strong enough to drill with hammering
Cons
- Don’t work well enough with rebar
Conclusions
The bits are great, cut through common brick, concrete, hardened face brick almost effortlessly. They work with high efficiency for a long time. And although Bosh bits are quite expensive, they definitely worth every penny many times over.
Good for everyday professional use.
Note: the bits come with SDS Max and SDS Plus shafts, be careful and buy what you need.
Miscellaneous SDS Tungsten/Carbide Core Drill Bits
Hanperal SDS Plus Wall Drill Bit
The drill bit is carbide tipped – very durable and high-performing tool. Designed for fast drilling walls, bricks, stones, for installation pipes, air-conditioning tubing, etc. SDS+ shank, male thread adapter. The shank length is about 8″.
The Hanperal drill bit is not a continuous tool for drilling stone and granite, those materials are harder than most concretes.
Pros
- Cheap
Cons
- Needs a lot of pressure
- Relatively thin walls
- The center drill bit tends to loose and fall off even if you tighten the lock screw as much as possible
Conclusions
Hanperal is a cheap bit for home use. It’s inexpensive enough to buy one for occasional use. Works great when you need to drill slump block and a little worse in hard concrete. The hole saw is not bad, and if you are tired with center bit problems, you can just remove it and keep drilling.
DOPOW SDS+ Core Drill Bit
The bit is made of chrome vanadium steel, comes with a wrench and built-in screws to fasten the center drill.
By its design, appearance and characteristics this bit is similar to Hanperal one. I think if you see two of these drill bits with the same diameters and lengths, buy a cheaper.
Additional info
SDS Core Drill Bit Is An Effective Drilling Tool To Bore Holes Of Varied Sizes
Drilling masonry and other related objects can be real time consuming and irritating. A wrong bit may show a tendency to loosen up or break. In such a situation SDS core drill bit comes really handy as it is specially made for drilling masonry.
For decades, these bits are being used for drilling masonry like tiles, bricks and other related objects, thus making it a perfect core bit for drilling purposes. They are equipped with all the prominent features like sharpness, durability and resistance coupled with power. Thus they have every feature that an efficient bit should have. An SDS core bit is intended to use with the drill that have slotted drive system also known as slotted drive shaft. SDS drills provide much more powerful and efficient drilling.
SDS bits are available in 4 different types i.e. SDS, SDS+, SDS-top and SDS-max. While SDS is the normal size SDS+, SDS-top and SDS-max are large, larger and largest sizes respectively; this helps in drilling deep, wide and round holes in to masonry. They are massively sized, ranging from 5mm to 30mm in diameter and 110mm to 1000mm in length, that makes the bit efficient enough to bore holes of a wider diameter, i.e. width, coupled with length.
