Not all of us are particularly handy with tools, but there is perhaps a surprising amount of people in the UK with basic DIY skills; according to a 2019 YouGov survey, only one in six UK adults do not perform any form of DIY.
One of the crucial parts of undertaking DIY successfully in the home is sourcing the right tools. Without the right equipment, it can be easy to get stuck halfway through an important intervention in your home. This is just as true for drills as any other tool, and perhaps more crucial. Here are three common types of drill, and the things that distinguish them.
Drill Driver
The drill driver is the most common kind of powered drill, being a hybrid tool that can be used for most household applications. A drill driver is a combined drilling and driving tool, to be used both for drilling holes in lightweight materials and for driving screws or other fittings into materials.
Drill drivers typically have two torque settings, enabling you to use high torque and low speed for driving, and low torque at high speed for drilling into woods and plastics. These kinds of drills can differ by manufacturer; Milwaukee drill drivers are battery powered and compact, with quick-change attachments for ease of use. Where other kinds of drill tend to have a keyed chuck system, these will use a simple sleeve mechanism to secure drill bits and other attachments into place.
Hammer Drill
The hammer drill is a slightly more heavy-duty implement, used to drill holes in tougher materials for construction and home improvement purposes alike. Hammer drills apply force in a forward direction as well as laterally, mimicking the effect of a hammer striking the back of the drill. This allows the drill bit to penetrate materials like brickwork and masonry more effectively, and remove more material.
Hammer drills are necessarily more powerful than other forms of drill, and there are different sub-types for different applications. Smaller hammer drills can be used for light brickwork drilling, such as for hanging shelves on external walls. SDS drills, meanwhile, utilise special drill attachments to drill larger holes for plumbing and wiring purposes.
Drill Press
All of the above examples are handheld and portable drills, albeit with varying degrees of portability. Some drills are corded and use mains electricity, tethering them to within a certain proximity of a power source, while bigger SDS drills are bulky and sometimes difficult to manoeuvre.
The drill press, then, is the only type of drill on this list that isn’t portable. Commonly referred to as a pillar drill, the drill press is a permanent fixture in workshop spaces, enabling the precision drilling of holes in materials. The drill’s chuck is mounted on a plunging pillar, the depth of which is precision-controlled by a rotary handle. Pillar drills are powerful, and can be used on a variety of materials. Their lack of portability, though, has them mainly suiting workshop-based construction and repair projects.
