I'm renovating my apartment and need to drill holes in concrete to hang some shelves. I've got a regular Bosch drill that works fine for wood, but I was wondering if I really need a hammer drill or if I can manage with what I've got.
Are you going to drill a lot of holes or just a few? If it's concrete, your regular drill is going to wear itself out and probably won't even penetrate properly, because the difference is that a hammer drill strikes while it rotates, breaking through the material instead of just trying to drill. For wood it works great, but concrete is a whole different ballgame. If it's just four holes for shelves, you could get by with renting a hammer drill for a few hours, which is cheaper than buying a new one if you're not going to use it much more.
A normal Bosch drill is going to frustrate you quite a bit with concrete, even though technically it can make holes if it has enough power. The difference is that a hammer drill doesn't just rotate - it also strikes forward thousands of times per second, which breaks up the material while drilling; without that, you're basically trying to burn through the concrete with pure friction and the drill gets hot, goes really slow, and can even jam on you. I tried once to hang a shelf with a regular drill on a concrete wall and it took forever to make three holes, the motor almost burned out and on top of that they came out kind of uneven. If it's just two or three holes you can manage, but if it's more than four or five I'd recommend renting a hammer drill for a day or just buying one outright - they're not that expensive and you'll save yourself frustration and time.
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