a hole 50cm deep, 25cm high, 45cm wide

I bet the surcharge for bit wear at HSS was a bit steep.

http://londonist.com/2015/04/hatton-garden-raid-first-photos-released.php

Made me think of this
[video]https://youtu.be/xVywuwMRaCQ[/video]

They were in there for a very long time, I guess that part of the operation was the reason why.

Nice thinking out of the box, ignore the massive armoured safe door and just cut through the wall next to it.

Going to be a bit of a job repairing that. Polyfilla ? 🙂

It’s great advertising for Hilti.

when i first read reports on this I couldn’t quite understand how big the holes were. Now I understand. That is awesome

One of these seems to meet the dimensions

https://www.hilti.co.uk/diamond-coring-and-sawing/diamond-drilling-consumables/430009

£526.50 a go.

One of these seems to meet the dimensions

*hits ‘request on site demo’ button and says ‘Hatton Garden 22:00’ for location*

Having drilled 140 40mm cores earlier in the year I wouldn’t want to have been sat behind the rig for those cores!

I thought the wall was 2m thick?

They don’t seem to have hit any reinforcement* either. Luck or knowledge?

*re-enforcement on the met police graphic 🙂

LOL – the shop thought the walls were 2m as well.
Shoddy builders cuting corners again 😆 Surprised it wasn’ back filled with plaserboard off cuts “for insultaion” guv!

No rebar?

Would have thought that was mandatory for a vault

It’s an impressive vault door though, even if the walls are made of stacked bags of cement.

Was I the only person on the edge of my seat cheering this as if England had just won the World Cup? I know people had there stuff taken, but it’s such a bold/brazen/balls-out non-conformist thing to do in such a bland as bran flakes era. I found it really exciting.

I fear I’m just a frustrated villain. Would’ve loved to be cracking safes and hiding out on the Costa. However, the idea of going to prison is an effective deterrent for me alas… so I’ll stick to obeying the law.

I want to know how many times they tripped the breaker on the fuse board / transformer

no style though…. should have left something like this

a hole 50cm deep, 25cm high, 45cm wide

Three holes, being pedantic.

Wonder if it was indeed Hilti? Be great advertising whatever brand they used…

Does that massive bit just go on the end of your bog-standard drill?

Unwieldy enough for ya?

That looks more plausible than the 2 metre thickness first reported

It wouldn’t have taken muc h to add things that would have made it much harder. I’m think lots of lumps of a harder material like granite. Maybe some scrap hardened steel

I also wonder of a less consolidated area in the middle would have made it harder

Steel rebar or granite etc wouldn’t even slow down a proper diamond tipped wet core set up.

Wonder if it was indeed Hilti?

Hilti DD350, apparently.

I have a DD110-D, that would sail through steel rebar without much effort.

The DD350 looks like it would do the same without even noticing.

househusband – Member
a hole 50cm deep, 25cm high, 45cm wide
Three holes, being pedantic.

Looks like one hole to me, even if they did take 3 goes to make it!

Does that massive bit just go on the end of your bog-standard drill?

It’d have been attached to a suction drilling rig.

Three holes, being pedantic

And incorrect 🙂

It’s one hole.

(If you dig a grave, for example, with a spade. Is it one hole or is it hundreds of small holes ?)

Three holes, being pedantic

And incorrect

It’s one hole.

(If you dig a grave, for example, with a spade. Is it one hole or is it hundreds of small holes ?) [/quote]

Aah BUT…

Point taken but in the context of this thread, the title of which is ‘Impressive holesaw use of the day’, they did actually use the holesaw thrice in order to create this one larger hole, no?

Point taken but in the context of this thread, the title of which is ‘Impressive holesaw use of the day’, they did actually use the holesaw thrice in order to create this one larger hole, no?

I’ve highlighted the important word 😉

Yes it took three passes to make the hole. Just like you would need more than one plunge of a spade to make a big hole.

Perhaps we can we ‘safe’ly, w’hole’ly agree that we’re both being pedantic…

8)

Anyways… I’m assuming that they took all the gear away with them afterwards? I’m with jambourgie… something ‘old school’ and nostalgic about good-old bank robbing like this.

Reminds me of when we had a visit from the local CID to where I was working at the time . . . . about 20 years ago we bought one of the early Hilti portable diamond coring rigs, and exactly the same rig had been used to break into a post office strong room. However, the villains had accidentally left behind a bit of the drill’s cooling system. Police were gradually working their way around everyone who had bought the same rig to see who’s rig had the same bit missing. Expect they’ll be talking to Hilti again to get their customer list . . .

Somebody knew that the concrete was not to safe vault standard, methinks 😉

Expect they’ll be talking to Hilti again to get their customer list

By all accounts there was an identical model stolen from a building site a few hundred yards away a few months back.

surely the door would have been easier to cut? Unless the concrete was very poor quality and they knew it? Or some kind of sensors on the door.

I wonder if the makers of Heat will get sued?

They could have just blown the bloody door off.

I wonderif they got inspiration from watching the film “the Bank Job”

Made me chuckle as the day before I’d been asked to quote on a job for 3 No. 200mm dia holes through a 2m slab. Could do with asking these guys for a quote 😉

I hope the 2m slab ends up 500mm like that one though

I’m surprised there wasn’t a lot more rebar and mesh in there, when we’ve removed vaults in the past they are normally riddled with the stuff along with drop bars which do exactly as they say on the tin.

We have a fleet of DD350/500s and recently trialled the new 350 which comes with an auto feed. Drilling 350 diameter in flint concrete with rebar it was taking under 5 minutes to a depth of 500mm. Basically with the new model you whack the rig on the wall, press start and it does the rest itself.

Would have been more impressed if they had rocked up with a Brokk 160.

Anyone know what they got away with – apart from 3 impressive paper weights

Would have been more impressed if they had rocked up with a Brokk 160.

I once saw someone turn up at a trail car park with one of those, you can image the smug look on his face when everyone else had DD350/500s.

LOL earnie