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What is the correct drill bit I should buy to drill in natural stone? I found out today that one of the walls in our house is almost entirely made up of it (rural Wales, probably just sourced from the adjoining common land in them olden days) & plastered over. I don't think it is granite but it is incredibly hard stuff. I have wasted several masonry drill bits, two of them simply melted into nothing. Not sure what the ones were I destroyed, mine range from lidl cheapos to bosch & dewalt ones but they would have been normal masonry ones. I have never had a problem drilling into any bricks, blocks, concrete & whatnot but this stuff is something else.

just a DIYer
You may need an SDS Drill
I have had good performance from Bosch multipurpose bit - Never needed hammer
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-expert ... bits/759ky
The do individual bits

But as I say, you may need an SDS Drill & Drill bit (Which i also have)

I do have an SDS hammer drill. I just don't have 5 & 7mm sds bits with it & it weighs a tonne. I was using my normal corded hammer drill.

If you don't have the correct size drill bit, too small will be no use as will too big, I can only suggest you buy the correct size drill bit. If you are finding the drill it self weighs too much, try holding it with both hands to start, if that is still too much, buy another drill that weighs less.

I too live in a 250yo stone cottage in (SW) Wales, and have two other similar properties in the village. I too have melted cheap (Duratool) bits, lesson learnt. I'd say try tungsten-carbide masonry bits, and get the SDS spec. to fit in your drill. I don't have to drill many holes now, but a Makita LXT cordless SDS was one of the best tools I ever bought.

Apart from an old '80s Bosch I inherited, modern hammer drills just don't hack it. Try spraying the hole being drilled with a mister bottle of water (her indoors bins loads of them).

I got myself some SDS+ bits .. and it goes trough the stone like butter. My normal hammer drill (which is already a backup of a cordless one) is a heavy oldschool corded Metabo from the early 90's. I must have drilled a million holes with it without any problem - ever. I did some reading - the hammer mechanism on an SDS is very different from a normal hammer drill. Learn something every day ;)

Lew wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:38 am I got myself some SDS+ bits .. and it goes trough the stone like butter.

glad you have it sorted

I recall reading somewhere in the past that using drill action and no hammer can result in the drill bit overheating and the hardened metal tip going soft. It was suggested that to help combat this was to have a pot of oil to dip and quench the drill bit before it got too hot as you went. I never tried it and of course these days SDS hammer drills do the job in no time.

DWD

aye deffo sds like.

best drill bits ive found are the hilti bits although pretty much any sds bit will do the job

One of the guys on my team drills into the road everyday installing traffic counters. He swears by those new Milwaukee MX4 bits but they're hard to source.

Using a standard cordless or even corded drill doesn't cut the mustard most of the time. We use the DeWalt DCH333 with a 9ah Flexi volt battery. It's a serious bit of kit but if you're going to be doing a lot of drilling it's maybe an option for you. It's not cheap!

I installed a blink video doorbell the other day. I was too lazy to go to my trailer and get the big drill so I stuck with the 18v. After the first hole I then went for the big drill. It went through like butter. Drilled through in about 3-4 seconds.

https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/product ... lsrc=aw.ds