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About Drills

A drill is an essential construction tool found at worksites throughout the world. Horizontal drill (or horizontal directional) models are used to lay underground utility lines and pipelines, drill blasting holes to make tunnels, and tap into oil and natural gas deposits far from the drilling site. More traditional vertical drill rigs drill downward to sink water, oil, and gas wells, as well as to explore soil and rock layers and drill blasting holes in quarry faces to extract monolithic sheets of rock.

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Vermeer D24x40 S3 Navigator Horizontal Drill

Drill Features

Typically, as the hardened drill bit cuts the hole longer or deeper, the operator or an automatic mechanism adds threaded lengths of drill pipe between the bit and the motor, forming a drill string. A hammer mechanism, situated either just behind the bit (or DTH, short for “down the hole”) or up on the drill itself (or top hammer), is often used to tap the rotating bit into rock or compacted soil many times per minute for vastly greater effectiveness. As the bit progresses, the drill rig conveys the rock cuttings or dislodged soil back up and out of the hole via drilling fluid (such as water or “mud”) or compressed air forced down through the drill string and out near the tip.

Besides their intended use and horizontal or vertical orientation, drills are marketed by a number of other specifications. For example, the diameter class, also called the hole range or recommended diameter, is the range of hole sizes the drill can produce. A drill’s horsepower, meanwhile, is important to its intended use, as well as its diameter class, and relates to its thrust (ability to push the drill string forward) and its pullback force (ability to pull out not only the drill string but also possibly a reamer, pipe, or utility conduit). Manufacturers usually report how much air or drilling fluid a unit can flow per minute to remove debris from the hole. Elsewhere, used drill models should be accompanied by their number of hours on the engine and drifter (rotation head) and the number of percussion hours on the hammer mechanism, if present.

Find The Right Drill

MachineryTrader.com is your leading source for new and used drills, including horizontal and vertical rigs. More popular manufacturers of drills on MachineryTrader.com include Atlas Copco, Ditch Witch, Ingersoll-Rand, Sandvik, Tamrock, and Vermeer.