Some homeowners may wish to complete a core drilling task quickly by operating the drilling equipment at the highest speed possible. Such an approach may have many unwanted results. This article discusses some of the risks that you may face if you decide to run the core-drilling equipment at the highest speed during a DIY project.

The Concrete May Crack

The drilling equipment usually generates a lot of energy in the form of vibrations. That energy may be dissipated in a number of ways. First, the water that is used as a coolant or lubricant may absorb some of that energy. Secondly, the energy may be dissipated within the material that you are coring.

High speeds of drilling may not allow the energy generated to be dissipated by the options above effectively. Consequently, that energy may accumulate within the materials that you are drilling, such as a concrete wall. The accumulated energy may cause the material to develop cracks so that the stored energy can find an escape route. Such cracking may cause you to incur additional costs of repairing the damaged sections of the concrete wall or slab.

Shortened Equipment Life

Different components of your drilling equipment, such as the drill bits, will wear out very quickly if you use high-speed settings during the coring process. This is because the friction with the concrete that you are drilling will be very high. Consequently, the overheated drill bits will easily become dull as they rub against the concrete at a high rate.

You will end up replacing equipment components frequently if you do not keep the core drilling speed within the recommended level.

Accuracy Reduces

You may wish to drill a hole that does not exceed a certain depth within the concrete. Alternatively, you may also wish to drill a hole of a specified diameter. These requirements may be exceeded if you drill at a very high speed. For instance, the high speed at which the drill bit is working may cause it to bounce around very much. That bouncing may cause the radius of the hole to become bigger than you had desired.

It is therefore advisable for you to regulate the speed at which you are drilling so that you prevent the equipment from exceeding the dimensions of the hole that you wanted to drill. This is especially helpful for homeowners who have limited core-drilling experience.

As you can see from the discussion above, it is very risky to operate core-drilling equipment at a very high speed. It is therefore better for you to err on the side of caution by running the equipment at the slowest speed possible. Your project may take longer to be completed but it will eventually be completed without sacrificing quality and equipment life.