Does anyone know about drill bits?!

[Jarstastic]

We bought a Dewalt drill and also bought 'DEWALT COMBINATION DRILL BIT SET 100 PIECE SET DT71563-QZ , Black'
We thought this would be all we needed but we can't manage to drill holes for curtain poles in the original exterior walls. We are using the masonry drill bits.

Looking at buying more drill bits and don't know what to buy! Looking at a 5-piece dewalt kit but also Bosch. Is it worth paying the extra for the latter?

Are they definitely masonry bits?

Does your drill have a hammer action?

Make sure you have it on the hammer setting

What do you mean not managing? Are you pushing weight on the drill? Is the drill powerful enough ad/or have a hammer function?

What is the actual drill like? If it's not very powerful and you are trying to drill into the concrete lintel above the window/door frame that could be the problem.

You have to get the settings right on the drill, provided your drill is powerful enough.

is the drill a hammer drill?

SWS masonry drill bits should do the job. The sort of drills you get in those multipacks won't do it usually.

Your drill needs to be on hammer setting.

We had to borrow a diamond tip drill bit to get through our lintel to put our curtain poles up.

Thanks for helping!

The drill is a cordless DeWalt DCD776.

I’ll check with DH if he used the hammer setting (I think there is one, I can see an icon which looks like a hammer on the dial). He was putting some welly into it and he is generally very handy so I was rather surprised.

he also had a challenge putting a mirror up on the same wall but downstairs but did manage in the end. so maybe it’s like @Notjusta said. But i want the curtain pole up 🤣

You might be trying to drill into a lintel - which is basically very very hard. DH had a nightmare with one of our windows with this

Corded drills have more oomph than cordless, I can only use mine for plasterboard .

I don't use cordless for masonry, unless it's a good make. Battery charged Dewalt are OK for occasional small indoor jobs, but for stuff that needs the hammer setting over long periods (if you'll be doing a lot of renovation) I'd go for a corded Bosch. I have both myself 😊

Hammer setting and corded you will need as much power as possible and cordless just won’t do that. We had loads of drill issues and had to invest in one while renovating just so we could drill into walls

Yep you need a cordless drill more power.

Walls, plaster and concrete are generally pretty soft. Even a pretty crap low cost masonary bit should do the job. If it doesn't the likelyhood is that you are trying to drill into something much harder. Like steel. A masonary bit will not go through steel.

You mean drilling into INTERIOR walls for curtain rails, I guess? What are you drilling into- brick, concrete, plasterboard (it wouldn't be thar if you're struggling), granite? Down here all old houses are granite, and you need a special SDS drill for that.

Agreed- cordless doesn't have quite as much oomph as a corded drill- can you borrow one, preferably of 750w or above?

As others have said it is likely the drill not the bits. Even on hammer action it won't have enough power. If it is a steel lintel then only an SDS drill will make it through. If not steel you might be OK, I have done it before, but it took ages, I kept having to let the drill bit cool down, it won't do the drill any favours either!

For occasional use you don't need anything super duper fancy. Some good price ones on screwfix and you can check the reviews. It's always a useful bit of kit to have around.

The Mcallister drill is on offer af Screwfix for £40. I picked this up intending it just to tie me over when I finished off our house (had already spent too much), it's still going strong now!

I use drill action through the soft stuff and once I hit the lintel switch it to hammer. Makes light work of it.

Also; when drilling to fix up a curtain pole, ideally, the brackets need to be fixed at least 10cm above the window and 10cm to each side of the window recess - to avoid the aforementioned lintels.

@Jarstastic an 18v drill should be fine for most things. Make sure it's on hammer, avoid steel lintels.

If you can smell burning back off immediately, you're either melting the drill bit or frying the drill.

These are pretty much all the drill bits you will ever need for DIY.

Just about to reiterate you needs hammer drill, if still resistant ask around locally, there's bound to be a neighbour with the right tool who loves sharing his expertise (my dad spends most his week it seems doing this since retiring)