Funny lift story: When I was in South Carolina we were installing the first 4-post lift at the car club's "Man Cave", a building that started out in life as a warehouse for heavy boat equipment. We were told by the guys selling the building that the floor was 12" thick and cross-hatch reinforced to support things like the big winches used for commercial fishing boat booms and nets.
It was a 4-post lift and we had gotten holes drilled for two of the four studs that held up one corner post. The studs were, IIRC, 3/4" moosey things and we were using a 1" masonry drill on a two-handled, 1/2" electric drill for the holes for the floor inserts. One of the guys starts on the third concrete hole and gets down about half way, maybe 3"-4" deep and it just kind-of stops there. We're all off getting other stuff marked and ready and Bill's over there drilling away...and drilling.....and drilling. After what seemed like a loooooong time and not seeing him moving on to the other post locations, we go over to see if he's finished the 4'th hole, but he's still drilling away on hole #3 and STILL at about 4" deep. WTF????
I took us a while to realize that there was something down there, and that something turned out to be a crossed, 5/8" reinforcing rod in the concrete that the masonry drill was not about to make even a dent in. They work great through concrete, maybe even mild stone, but steel? I don't think so! We couldn't move the post location due to other stuff around it, so one of the guys tore off to Lowe's and returned with a carbide/steel 3/4" metal bit, pops it in the drill and starts drilling.
Just then, Dave, the guy who got the metal drill, gets called away for something else needing his attention, so Bill (remember Bill? He had already been drilling for a while. He probably weighs all of 135 pounds after a big dinner at the "Golden Corral") gets back on the drill to "get through that damn rod!" He grabs the drill handles, hits the "go" button, the bit starts spinning but grabs the rod and immediately stops, but the drill body doesn't, whipping Bill around and flopping him to the ground, like "WHOOP-DE-DO!!" Unfortunately, that caused a big bruise on his arm (he eventually recovered - lots of beer helped) and he sat out the remaining holes and was happy to read us the assembly directions, instead.
