Ground Rod Hammer Drill

The drilling action of a hammer drill or rotary hammer buys you nothing.

Ground rod hammer drill.

The rod just drops right out of site with water gushing into the air. At the electrician i worked for we had a spline drive rotary hammer drill that we used to drive ground rods. I have had this for about for over a year using it with my dewalt sds max hammer drill driving in 5 8 ground rods. Note that because it s just a smooth pointed rod a ground rod doesn t need to be rotated.

The dewalt ground rod driver sds max shank features fully hardened steel body for durability. I m sure the drill couldn t take much of that abuse but it was over 90 degrees at the time. August 15 2016 on rod 11 the driving head just snapped off and i came very close to impaling myself on that ground rod since i was over it. I could have never completed this job without the bosch rh432vcq 1 1 4 inch sds plus rotary.

You need to drive your rod all the way into the ground. Forcing the drill can plug the end or in some cases bend the conduit. Using your hammer drill or driving tool gradually drive the rod vertically into the ground. The drill is the way to go.

The downside is 800 00. This was a pretty tough install with all the rock i encountered. This is compatible with sds max demolition hammers and rotary hammers with chipping function. It did not have any bits to do this.

I have a makita demolition hammer with a ground rod driver attachment. Milwaukie hammer drill and a hole saw without a pilot bit. Driving a ground rod into the ground can take a long time and can. The hammer drill could not be set to hammer only so it tried to spin the rod some.

My average time is less. It only takes a minute of two to get the hang of it. I drove in 5 rods in 2015 and in august 2016 was putting in 14 more. It took longer than with the big roto hammer but less effort than swinging a sledge hammer.

It takes longer to roll out the cord and set up the hammer than it takes to drive the rod. When driving ground rods i ve gotten lucky with one of the lighter duty tools. The hammer weighs around 40lbs and i can drive a ground rod through rock in one minute. As someone who has sunk them both manually and with the hammer drill.

I highly recommend it. From then on you can drill an eight foot hole in about a minute to two minutes. All except the last can be picked up with one hand. It is ideal for installing ground rods parking bumper stakes.

The demo hammer almost always works.