One day, my husband and I decided to insulate one of the rooms in our basement (really just a closet). After some research, we chose to use foam insulation with 2×2 boards.

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And yes, we were using the correct drill bit for the job.  We even switched drill bits often but after about one hole, the new bit was shot.

I’m about 7 months into my CNC woodworking Journey. It all started when I came across this video on YouTube and pretty much instantly thought this was going to be my big side-hustle-turned-business-windfall idea. CNC also seemed like the perfect marriage of technology and tangible durable goods which checked a lot of boxes for me.

The boards would have to be secured to the cinder block, meaning we needed to drill into the cinder block. We bought our supplies (which included masonry screws and a masonry drill bit) and started the project, thinking this would take no time to complete.

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I TOTALLY jumped in and ordered a OneFinity Woodworker X-50 last November after extensive online research. It’s been an incredible machine so far. At this point I’d say it’s been a great learning experience peppered with an extensive series of realizations and reality checks so far. Here are a few things I have learned along the way which might help you if you’re interested in taking the leap:

Are you working on finishing your basement? Or do you need to drill lots of holes into cement? Skip the frustration and do what we did – buy a rotary hammer!.

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We continued using this process for a few days, not getting anywhere. Except maybe getting more frustrated and worried about how we were ever going to finish our whole basement.

I’m going to bookend this piece with another video very recently released by the same guy, Ryan, that created the initial video mentioned in my the opening paragraph above. This second video goes WAY MORE in-depth to show what it REALLY TOOK to scale his CNC business up into the 7-figure range. It shows in detail what it took to ramp into it from those first few sales to thousands of sales. Family pitching in. Boxes filling the family room. People staying up all night to mail stuff out. This would be a living nightmare at this point in my life and I didn’t see any of that side of this initially.

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But again, hours later, we only had 10 finished holes drilled (this worked better than the regular drill but still not easy).

Based on all of these real-world learnings, I’ve completely re-framed my view of my CNC business journey. From now on I’m thinking of it as a low-volume hobby business that may, if I’m lucky, pay for itself at some point. At this volume it’s still fun, it’s still really satisfying, and should really fit in well with the rest of my day-to-day life.

Before, we were using all of our strength (guess we could have skipped the gym that day!). Now, the rotary hammer was doing all the work; we just held the drill in place.

Hi, I’m Megan Taylor, an experienced home renovator and woodworker, mentored by my father, a professional contractor. I'm the creator of TwoFeetFirst, where I share my DIY knowledge with you. My mission is to guide and inspire you in transforming your home into something you love. Welcome!

Why was it so difficult? We watched lots of videos of people drilling into cement and they did not have this much trouble. What are we doing wrong?

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We completed 3-4 holes in the time it took us to complete one with the regular hammer drill. And it was even easier to use!

We returned our hammer drill and we got the Bosch Rotary Hammer Drill with a drill bit. Then, after saying a few prayers, we tried the rotary hammer.

So if you are wondering how to drill through cinder block or cement, the answer is a ROTARY hammer drill! It will make your project go a lot smoother.

If you’re worried about how to drill into cinder block for your next project, we’ve got you covered! Find out how to do it right the first time.

UPDATE: We are still loving this drill. We have used it to drill holes through brick & concrete and also remove tile – this thing is amazing for demo! I would recommend it to anyone

But then we got a big slap in the face. After hours of drilling into the cinder block, we only had about 4 finished holes. You can imagine how frustrated we were.

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Let’s start with a little backstory on how we came to know this and finally learned the easier way to drill into cinder block.