Long drill bit advice.

[Calv]

Hi, i attempted to drill through my girlfriends outside wall last week so that i could run a cable through for an outside light, however she has had an extra layer put on the outside of her house and my bit was just a little too short (38cm long)

Today i found a bit that is a metre long which would do the job nicely, but i found out that to use bits this length you need a special drill (Is that right?)

Any advice on this? The drill i have is a basic 18v cordless hammer drill, can i definately not use longer drill bits in this?

I thought about doing the last few inches from the other side of the wall, but to be honest it's real hard judging the exact spot to drill back on myself from, i don't want the outside of my girlfriends house full of holes.

Any suggestions most appreciated

Calv.

[ultimatehandyman]

Hi Calv,

Long drill bits like you mention normally fit into an sds drill.

An sds drill makes drilling holes in masonry very easy and is much better than a normal hammer/percussion drill.

You can get them quite cheaply and can pick up a cheap make for about £30 but at that price it probably won't last long.

Screwfix have a good deal at the moment on dewalt- http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 0&ts=67764

You could sell the drill driver on ebay and keep the sds drill

[Hitch]

An 18v cordless isnt really te ideal tool for drilling right through a house wall.

1metre long bits are probably SDS fitting (a type of chuck) So ideally you would have an sds drill. But they do clamp up in a normal chuck.
No other reason why you cant use a long bit in a cordless.

Your already nearly through then by the sounds of it?

Its a cavity wal? You could drill the outside skin with the bit as close as possible to where you think it is, then use a piece of stiff wire, like coathanger to pull the cable through. If its cable it doesnt matter if it doesnt line up, like it would if it was a pipe.

[jason123]

If you have to drill from both sides, then take the inside measurement to a window and leave a mark you can see from the outside, then the same distance horizontally to where the inside hole is, note, if you find yourself climbing into next doors garden you have probably miscalculated somewhere, good luck anyway.

[boomshanker]

just a word of warning, as someone said its not the ideal tool it could also shorten the life of the tool putting that much strain on it because the hammering system is very basic compared to an SDS machine that uses an electro-pneumatic hammer action!