ATS diamond tools - thin wall diamond core drills

[Concrete guy]

What would be the benefit of these core drills, over the cores we already have in our toolboxes (presuming the test goes well of course..)?

The answer to that is part of the reason we're testing.

Do they cut quicker, cleaner, last longer?

 

[Qwerty]

Bits just arrived. Cheers Alan. Will get together a handful of tough porcelain and get drilling this weekend!

 

[Concrete guy]

Bits just arrived. Cheers Alan. Will get together a handful of tough porcelain and get drilling this weekend!

Perfect, feedback good and bad is all welcome.

Try them wet first Geoff, then try them dry and tell me how quick you can kill them.

 

[thompsonbrown]

Look similar to my PCT hole cutters.
Cost a fortune, so any product that can do the same at a cheaper cost is good news.

 

[Concrete guy]

Look similar to my PCT hole cutters.
Cost a fortune, so any product that can do the same at a cheaper cost is good news.

#

ooh, do you have a link so I can look at those?

EDIT:- I think I found them, that's the Armeg PTC set?

You wouldn't happen to know what thread fitting is on those would you?

 

[Qwerty]

So today on my weekend off I was given an hour by the long haired colonel indoors to go outside and test the new ATS thin walled cores.

Alan from ATS diamond tools had sent me 6mm, 12mm & 20mm bits. Cheers mate

I had to use my Makita cordless (at 1300 RPM) on drilling mode. I tried them all wet first and then dry. Tested on 10mm full bodied grade 4 porcelain.



My first observation on these bits are that they are very well machined and the metal appeared to be of a very "engineered" high speed (high temperature) steel. The bits came in some small plastic tubes and were covered in engineering oil. The diamonds appeared very fine and I noticed that there were no notches in the leading edge of the bit to aid in debris extraction that you find in regular ATS diamond core drills and other makes.

6mm bit (wet). Drilled 3 holes in quick succession. Average time for each hole was 1 min 51 secs. By the end of the 3rd hole the water surrounding the hole was boiling and bubbling away a treat. Diamonds on tip seemed worn too.

12mm bit (wet). Drilled 3 holes. Average time for each hole was 1 min 13 secs!....the fastest of the three. Drill bit did not seemed phased at all really and provided consistent results.

20mm bit (wet). Drilled 3 holes. Average time for each hole was 1 min 32 secs.

I noticed that each one gave off what appeared to be a metal oxide where it was wearing down slightly. I can see this being a major downside if tiles were drilled once fixed due to the grey metal sludge getting onto finished grout!
I was not surprised that each bit seemed to chip the surface slightly but to be honest I wasn't really trying to be ultra precise at that point. I did produce some lovely clean holes at a slower speed though. I found the cores got stuck in the drill bit so had to resort to removing it from the drill and tapping it out from the backside through the hole in the shaft with a 3mm drill bit.









The dry testing went surprisingly well really.

6mm struggled slightly but still managed 3 holes even if it was literally red hot by the end. Cut the first dry hole in 1 min 54 secs and two more at around 2 mins 10 secs.



Change of battery then onto 12mm. Cut first hole in 1 min 32 secs and a few more in under 2 mins each.




The 20mm one surprised me as it was the fastest dry at 1 min 20 secs with a few more just a bit slower.





All of them produced virtually zero metal oxide when dry. The cores were an absolute nightmare to remove from the bits when dry. I resorted to using the 3mm drill bit trick with the help of a hammer to tap the core out.

Bits still seem to have a fair bit of life left in them and I think they will still go on to cut plenty of stone or ceramic with ease. They seemed fine in my drill and never slipped when drilling. Machining on the shaft may be an idea but then again no other diamond cores have that!



All in all I'm quite impressed!!!

 

[Ian]

Nice review. How do they compare to the electroplated standard cores?

 

[Qwerty]

Nice review. How do they compare to the electroplated standard cores?

To be honest Bri they are about the same except they seem to be able to cut well dry too. These ones dry would be great for cutting tiles in situ. They seemed to wander less too when starting drilling

 

[Concrete guy]

To be honest Bri they are about the same except they seem to be able to cut well dry too. These ones dry would be great for cutting tiles in situ. They seemed to wander less too when starting drilling

Really thorough review Geoff, thanks very much.

I see these bits used extensively in glass and stone and wondered if they would be viable in Porcelain.

From a producers point of view 6mm holes are a headache. It is the most common size by a country mile, we literally sell thousands a month in just 6mm. There's not room for a huge amount of diamond on the head and it's not really a core in the traditional understanding of the term.

The inexpensive electroplated bits work, because they are inexpensive and effectively disposable items.

Our dry vacuum brazed drills are a compromise, they work but at 6mm they still don't produce as many holes as I'd really like. That's the reason why many manufacturers don't offer anything below 20mm in Vacuum Brazed, or only advise the smaller sizes are suitable for stone.

The bits Geoff has tested above are going to be a similar price point to the vacuum brazed items, I'm not sure if I see a market for them at that price to be honest unless we were able to manufacture a 6mm bit that genuinely produces 30 - 40 holes rather than the "up to" 30 -40 holes that most claim.

It's also interesting what Geoff mentioned about core ejection - I'll ask the factory why these bits are not slotted to allow easier core removal, there may be a technical reason for that.

Would you buy them Geoff? If you did buy them would you consider them an alternative product to other types of drill or would it simply be a different type to solve a specific problem?

 

[Gazzer]

Maybe the slots are omitted for extra strength as I regularly see this size buckle .