Dan
Regarding SDS and 1/4" hand drilling, they simply don't progress fast enough and the hammer blows feel soft. I think they function better with the gazillions of tiny blows from a rotary hammer drill as compared to the perhaps only hundreds of really hard blows of hand drilling.
Sean and I did a route and tried a new 1/4" SDS and each hole took so friggin long we eventually switched to 3/8" shorties and got them in about the same time. To be clear, that is a 1/4"x 1-1/4" buttonhead in about 15 or more minutes and the 3/8" x 2-1/4" wedge anchors in about the same time.
I almost exclusively use my own homemade "spade"-type drill bits and homemade holder. The bits are modeled after the 5.10 bits and can get a bolt in granite clipped in about 3-5 minutes if I don't stop and rest. You can really feel that the hammer blows are more solid. They are nearly a solid shaft of hardened and tempered 1/4" HSS rod so they transmit blows as good as you can get. The bad side is that they need to be sharpened pretty often. I carry two drills when on a long FA, but they are so small and light, I am sure that two or maybe three of my drills weigh about as much as a single Hurricane drill.
As far as bits sticking, brush on some anti-seize compound on the taper and it should not get stuck. I think it is a powdered alloy of copper and some other goodies mixed into a paste and it forms a layer between the taper and bore that gives when drifted out. You can get it from any automotive supply store.
I am glad to hear your reamer worked. Too bad they aren't commercially available.
