# Fantastic initial build quality, at any price. Tons of power, quirky controls.



## jbertelson

I have an ancient Skil corded hammer drill. Purchased in the 70's as I recall, putting it about 40 years old. It has some resemblance to your drill, but without all the gizmos. In any case, I suspect it will outlive me for sure, but it doesn't get used much these days. Like you say, it isn't as though we put holes in concrete very often…


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## dbhost

My Skil Saw is an actual Skil branded circ saw, that was given to me by my boss when I was in college, it was a "Defective Return" to the hardware store I worked at. The idiot that bought it ran over the cord with the blade and returned it as defective.

I grabbed a $5.00 replacement cord off the shelf at the employee price of something like $3.00 back then, and swapped it around in the stock room… Been working great ever since.

FWIW, it is stamped made in USA…

I haven't had too many tools just die / fail on me, but some have…. Mostly B&D stuff, had really poor results with their stuff. And probably more than my fair share of drill bits / driver bits of all sorts of MFGs, and a couple of one time use only HF tools. The cheap hole saws etc…

I knew they were one time use disposables going in, and I used them like they were… I just needed to make that one hole in some nasty material kind of stuff…

Having said all that, I do have one B&D tool that just won't die, and that is the RTX variable speed rotary tool…. It gets a LOT of use, and isn't babied at all. It should have died a decade ago by the results of the other B&D stuff I have owned…

As much as some folks cry about HF tools, if you are a hobbyist, or even lower production pro, you will most likely never have a HF tool let you down unless you dredge the bottom of the barrel, and even then then are fine for the price paid…

They have several newer lines of product that seem like they are trying to go more upscale. I just can't see paying HF $400.00 for a Dual Bevel 12" SCMS though!


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## Mike_in_STL

Had one, couldn't drill into my porch concrete pad, not enough hammer to the drill. Into soft masonry or mortar, no problem. I burnt it up trying to mix mortar with it, my fault, not enough torque from the motor. It was a glorious cloud of stinky magic smoke. Bottom line, don't ask too much from this drill. Otherwise, it'll be fine, as long as you don't overtax it.


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## dbhost

Like with most tools… YMMV. I got mine because of my friend's experience with his. 5+ years of commercial abuse with no failure… If you had a dud, and don't mind, or even a good one, please post up a review…. The more views we get on different tools the better off we are. And mind you, mine is a view of initial build quality and use… Time will tell for sure!

You just brought to mind one HF tool failure I had that I had forgotten about. I had to return my HF Earthquake 1/2" impact wrench as it was super weak out the door. Unit #2. was strong as an ox…

I think the big thing with HF is you the consumer can end up being the QC department.


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## Mike_in_STL

I don't knock HF. I have plenty of other tools that originated from that store and they truly hold a value.

I have a mantra that says if you use it once it pays for itself. If you get two uses out of it you're making money. I got my fair share of uses out of the one I had, I just asked it to do too much.


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## dbhost

So very true…. and let's face it…. you can buy this thing after tax for what renting a premium brand bottle for less than a day would cost you.


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## jbertelson

Back in the day I bought my hammer drill, Skil was the goto brand. I also bought a Skil branded Skil saw that works flawlessly nearly 40 years later. I keep a good blade in it, but it needs no other attention. It is mainly used for dividing up large sheets of plywood.


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## Tennessee

Had one of these years ago. Sort of worked. Sold it at one of my garage sales. As Mike says, not enough hammer action. Mine did not burn up. It just would not go through concrete as I thought it should, and was too slow with too much torque to be a decent daily drill.
Got a heck of a deal on a Milwaukee Hole Shooter, (free when I got laid off from a job and they let me keep all the tools they had bought me), so I never looked at the HD Harbor Freight drills again.


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## dbhost

Comparing this drill to say a Milwaulkee which is easily 3x the cost, is an apples to oranges comparison. The price points are way off, as is the intended consumer.

Comparing the HF drill to Milwaulkee for example, which retails for $125.00 more than the $34.00 retail on this drill…. Well for intended use, for most DIYer / Homeowner and even many professionals, their company isn't going to be buying their tools. So they have to factor the hit to the budget in as well. Wish I had access to one of those Hole Shooters though, it would be a great side by side to give folks a fair view of what they get for the money…

I haven't had the time for it, but I will be doing a video demo of the drill with the hammer turned on. I do wholeheartedly agree that this thing has far too much torque for it to be a decent day to day drill.


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## Fallon

I bought mine 6+ years ago to put in anchor bolts into for a gun safe. My normal drill got me 2ish inches in 10-15 minutes if I recall. Picked up this drill & drilled the remaining 3.5 holes in like 5 minutes or so. So it did what I bought it for & a few jobs since. The impact function works & beats a non-hammer drill by far.

But it's not a real hammer drill. A real hammer drill has a SDS type chuck. Those have divots on the side that the chuck clips into rather than clamping between 3 jaws. With a friction type drill chuck they have a hard time holding onto a bit. The standard chuck type just isn't up to the forces from hammering. but it's a more flexible chuck style than SDS.

I got my money out of mine & don't regret getting it. I wouldn't trust it for a lot of work (as with most Harbor Freight electronics), but good if you only have an occasional need for it.


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## dbhost

Absolutely agree on the concept that this isn't an SDS rotary hammer. It is a hammer drill. The two are very different things… An SDS rotary hammer is more of a one trick pony…. And simply put, if you make your living poking holes in concrete / stone and / or have to pole BIG holes in said same materials, you will want an SDS rotary hammer.

For those that have drilling concrete as a minor part of their job, or something they have to do on occasion at home, this is a great tool, as long as the hole isn't too big.

This all goes back to the concept of use the right tool for the job. I bought this thing to trash it. Run big long spade bits for stump rot duties, poke an occasional hole for a concrete anchor that sort of stuff. If I need to bore a hole to run conduit through a slab, this is the WRONG tool for the job….


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## SirFatty

I have one of these and it's great value for the money.


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## dbhost

I've got a couple of extra projects coming up quickly for this hammer drill. Specifically I am going to be hanging some Mexican Talavera pottery on teh brick of the garage. We are going to be converting the strip of grass between the garage wall and the main walkway to a small flower garden with a shop built / restored cast iron / teak bench.

It won't get much use, but owning it sure beats renting or borrowing one!


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## dbhost

My inbox is getting flooded with this POS spammer. What the heck are the mods here doing?


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## dbhost

So update on this thing.

It has poked the holes I needed for my wifes painting over the mantle. I have poked holes in my friends workshop floor as his tools were still packed up, to mount his drill press, And loaned it out to same said friend to poke a mess of holes in concrete to install anchors for footers in a new slab when he was building a new garage.

This thing has punched probably so far 200 holes in concrete no problems.

I stick with my assertion. Is it an SDS Rotary hammer drill? Nope. not even, if you expect it to be you need a therapist.

Is it a good hammer drill particularly considering the proce tag? Absolutely. However, if I had it to do over again, I would probably have just gotten with a few of my friends, bought the thing, and foisted off stowing the thing with one of them after I was done with it.

I seirously doubt I am going to need to use this again in the next 10 years.


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