What Does S.D.S. Stand For?

Yesterday, I made reference to an email that we received some time back. I located the first of his emails and thought I'd share it with you, along with the answer to his question.

Hello,
I am a Tool Specialist at [big box store], what does S.D.S.
stand for? I sell Bosch and DeWalt Hammer Drill bits and
a customer asked what S.D.S. was. Thanks.
Louis [last name removed]

Well, what Louis did was made us all laugh here. Any tool geek, or "Specialist" as he put it, should be able to tell you that SDS is Slotted Drive System or Slotted Drive Shaft. I found the following information on their website now, which makes me wonder if they published some of our answers to him on their site.

• SDS (or Slotted Drive System) bits for hammer drills/rotary hammers allow the bit to slide in the chuck and enhance the hammering action of the tool. For most applications, these bits provide plenty of torque.

• SDS Max bits are similar to SDS bits, but have larger shanks and come in larger sizes than SDS bits. These powerful bits are useful in industrial applications.

So, now that you know what SDS is, here are all the cordless SDS drills, electric SDS drills and SDS drill bits you'll need to get the job done. Oh, and I'll mention that SDS has moved on to being SDS Plus (or SDS+) which has some minor differences but still works the same way.