Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T) wrote:
This afternoon I went down to the local tool rental place to see about
renting a hammer drill. They have one that's considerably larger than the
ones recommended here (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/33zcrr) for rent for US$60
per day. I showed the guy a printout of the nut driver adapter
(http://tinyurl.com/2bohkg) and asked where I could get one, and he looked
at me like I was from Mars.

So, I'm looking for a nut driver adapter... went to Home Depot and they
told me where to try and I'll call them tomorrow.

I'll tell you, though, even the big rental unit sure doesn't look like
it's up to this job, to say nothing of the much smaller ones at Home
Depot. I'm fairly good sized (6 ft 2 in and 230 lhs) and using a standard
sized two-handed sledge hammer I can't move this rod more than a tenth of
an inch, at most, per strike. Are you guys sure that a hand-held hammer
drill will do the job?
yes..

In the same way that a pneumatic or electric jackhammer can make short
work of concrete that would take you hours with a single jack and a sledge.

Many short, sharp raps that are quite forceful does the trick.

These things (e.g. the Bosch Bulldog) revolutionized the rock climbing
world. What used to be many arm tiring minutes of hammering on a star
drill, just to make a 1" deep hole for an expansion bolt turned into
seconds with the hammer drill. On the one hand, it made protecting
routes with a lot of exposure easier and safer. On the other, maybe
unassisted man wasn't meant to climb certain things.

(but the battery powered hammer drill was a lot easier than Maestri's
dragging a compressor up Cerro Torre)



I guess it's worth $60 plus the cost of the nut driver adapter (if I can
find one) to find out...