Drill vs. Hammer Drills

We’ve all been there. You are drilling into a surface and you hit a blockage. The drill is spinning, but you are getting nowhere fast. It could be time to switch to the hammer drill.

Hammer drills make light work of robust surfaces and materials because of the way they work. They come in all varieties, and you can even get cordless hammer drills.

It’s time to put a drill vs. hammer drill under the spotlight to see what makes them so different.

Quick Comparison Chart

What is a Drill?

If you know your early 17th-century middle Dutch — and we’re sure that you do — you will know that the word drill derives from “Drillen,” which means to bore or turn in a circle. So, as we are fond of saying, the clue is in the name ⁽¹⁾.

A drill is a boring tool that makes round holes in all manner of materials. You can achieve this by either using a drill bit or a driver, secured by a chuck, and you choose your bit depending on the content you are drilling.

Drills vary in size, power, and speed, and some drills have a hammer setting built-in for robust material. These are called combination drills. Electric handheld drills also come in all varieties, including corded and cordless drills.

What Do You Use a Drill For?

You would use a drill to make round holes in the material, most commonly wood. With the right drill bit, it is possible to drill through plastic, composite, melamine, tiles, metal, and MDF. Drills are also excellent when you are undertaking construction projects or hanging items to plasterboard walls.

You can even convert your drill to act as a knife sharpener, an electric polisher, a screwdriver, and a metal grinder. All you need are the right attachments.

If you are working with wood, a drill will speed up the job and create a more precise and neater finish. It will even bore countersink holes and mix paint, plaster, and grout for tiling.

What is a Hammer Drill?

If a standard drill rotates and bores a round hole, think about what a hammer does. It moves up and down with force, creating an impact on the object in its path. So, a hammer drill is a tool that both rotates to bore round holes, but also reciprocates to create impact.

All the force culminates behind the chuck to drive the bit forward while rotating at the same time, creating a battering ram effect.

Hammer drills are sometimes called percussion drills. Percussion means to strike one solid object with another solid object using force. All that extra force translates into a noisy power tool that creates a loud ratcheting sound that echoes through the walls.

What Do You Use a Hammer Drill For?

A hammer drill has the sole job of impact driver, drilling through dense and hardened material like rock, concrete, stone, and brick. Anything that requires force to bore a round hole will need a hammer drill.

The good news is that hammer drills typically come as a setting on your standard drill. It means that you get the best of both worlds because you can switch between the two when needed.

Drill vs. Hammer Drill

So, you’ve gathered by now that rotary drills are better for use on softer or more delicate materials like wood and tiles. In comparison, hammer drills prefer the challenge of hard surfaces like rock, stone, and masonry.

But there are other differences. Rotary drills have a less pronounced chuck because there is no hammer action to add extra size. Also, rotary drills tend to be smaller and lighter than hammer drills. This makes them a great choice when you have limited space to work.

Rotary drills are also less expensive.

Hammer drills are heavier, and because the hammer action comes from the type of chuck, they have a more pronounced profile when compared to standard drills. This makes them heavier and harder to handle. They are also a lot noisier!

Hammer drills are also more expensive to buy.

Finally, there is the combi drill, an amalgamation of the hammer drill and the standard drill. Most drills sold in home improvement stores are of this variety because they are ideal for the DIY community and everyday use.

Can You Use a Hammer Drill as a Regular Drill?

Hammer drills are not suitable for regular drilling because they are aggressive. It would be like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Drills have many uses because they are gentler and can double up as drivers.

Hammer drills work best on hard surfaces like stone, rock, and concrete. If you have a combination hammer drill, you can switch the mode from hammer to rotary when swapping between jobs. Still, hammer action is ineffective when drilling softer material like wood.

Now We’ve Hammered It Out

So, you can see that hammer drills are very different from regular drills. They are the go-to tool when you need a bit of brute force drilling harder materials. The drill is more of a multi-use tool for everyday DIY and woodworking, as well as acting as a driver.

If you want the best of both worlds, try using a combination drill. That way, you can switch actions dependent on the job you are tackling.