Looking for a good Rotary Hammer to remove floor tile and do some concrete drilling
I went out venturing today, first to a pawn shop to see just what kind of good deals they had for rotary hammers, none. When a hammer is listed as retail at $180 and they are selling it for $140 and it looks like it has the hell beat out of it, well, it's not that good of a deal, especially with the cheaper models whostart their brief lives on death's door due to cheapness.
Then I went over to Harbor Freight, that some of you are familiar with and looked at their Bauch brand models. They had a $94 and a $149 model. I had to figure out what bits that went to which hammers, because the people there, none of them, including the manager knew a thing about them. I figured out the difference between SDS, SDS+, and SDS MAX (bit shaft types) so you'll see a rotary hammers listed as SDS, SDS+ or SDA Max (a physically larger diameter bit). And my understanding there are other standards like "spline"? Anyway word has it that SDS and SDS+ bits are interchangeable.
Then I started to read the reviews of these cheap off brand hammers and got scared. Things like they broke on the first day, and the replacement model started smelling like electrical after a short term of use. I decided to go with a known brand and picked the DeWalt off this list primarily because of it's shock absorption features, although I almost went with the Bosch Bulldog, and I still stayed towards the inexpensive side:
https://morningchores.com/best-rotary-hammer-drill/
It should arrive in a few days.