Should a mini-impact driver come down my chimney

[os1kne]

I have a Dewalt 18v impact driver, and I like it a lot - I rarely drive more than a few screws with a DD any more. Like others have stated, they are great for driving screws and lag bolts.

A few months ago, my father-in-law was in town for a week and spend a couple of days helping me assemble a large wooden playset (swings, slide, monkey bars, etc.) for the kids. Lots of lags, etc. At the beginning, he stated that he'd always thought that the cordless ID's were a gimmick - after 2 days, he bought one for himself. (It does take a bit of time to get the "feel" for the tool, since they don't have adjustable torque settings.)


There have been several times that I've thought that a smaller, compact ID would be useful - so, yes - I think that one should find it's way down your chimney.

[Uncle Hook]

On Dec 11 Woodcraft will be selling the Porter Cable set for $125.99. Don't know anything about this set but it appears to be a reasonable buy.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Tab/001.aspx

[tjr]

Thanks everyone. I was at Lowes to get an air filter for my mower (as an aside, have you ever had the air filter fall off your mower then you run over it and chop it into a billion pieces? Well, I have. Miraculously, the air filter cover made it without a scratch.)

Anyhow, the DeWalt/Porter Cable rep was there. He showed me the DeWalt 12V impact driver. Very nice balance and grip with plenty o'power. $159 for the driver kit with a free third battery plus he would have thrown in a set of bits. Great tool, just a little out of my price bracket. 2pc set with drill is $199. Probably wouldn't be too hard to round up a 10%off Lowes coupon somewhere.

He had a Porter Cable 12V demo also but it wasn't charged. It's designed more like the Milwaukee and Makita with a fatter grip but no battery cube on the bottom. In fact, the both the PC impact driver and drill are so similar to the Milwaukee ones that if you tossed both brands in a gunny sack, you'd be hard pressed to tell by feel which is which. For my small hands, the DeWalt/Hitachi style seems a better fit, but the PC/Milwaukee/Makita style would be considerably easier to stuff in a pocket or toolbox.

The PC set is also available at Farm & Fleet for $129.99 if you're busy on December 11.

So, thanks again. If anyone's got more opinions, I'd love to hear 'em.

[Chris_B]

I just found that DeWalt set on Amazon. Link

It looks very nice, and you have already test-driven it!

You could always use the $25 Off $100 on DeWalt at Amazon (see thread in Bargain Alerts), which would be $174 delivered (and maybe out of your price range). But if you can find the rep again, I would value an extra battery and bits more than $25-off... You will definitely use these tools a lot.

FWIW, although I prefer the more compact battery-in-grip style, one advantage of the DeWalt style (like my Hitachi DD) is that you can usually stand the driver/drill on the battery. Sometimes this is more convenient in-use.

BTW, the one review for this set posted yesterday on Amazon (Link) reminded me of my reaction the first time I used an impact driver: "And the impact driver was simply amazing. Why had I never owned one of these before?" Exactly!!

[tjr]

In the end I did order one of the reconditioned Hitachi sets - figured that Hitachi quality was "professional" enough for me and that I didn't want the fat grip of the Milwaukee, Makita, or Porter Cable drivers. Plus the extra drill sorta sucked me in.

Will play fair and wait to open on Christmas, but can say at this point that Reconditioned Sales shipping is muy pronto: Ordered Thursday around noon and it was here in Milwaukee today (Saturday) well before noon! The Reconditioned Sales elves must just be a-waitin' for an order to print out so they can run and grab it off the shelf.

Will use the tools to put together my mother-in-law's gift of a BBQ grill. Hmm, maybe I should ask for a set of impact bits as a stocking stuffer?? A few weeks ago Ace Hardware here had a real good price on a set of Milwaukees like this one.

[TheOne]

I have had this kit for about a year now. Used it for various tasks around the house as well as in my basement shop. I used both to build my router table, mud room cabinets and kitchen drawers. They work very well. My previous cordless was a 9.6 Ryobi. The batteries finally gave up after 10 years. The Hitachi's are definitely lighter than the Ryobi and seem to have lots of torque for driving screws. The only short comings I have is 1) if a larger amperage battery was available I would buy it today and 2) the impact driver just sucks the juice out of the batteries so be prepared to recharge a lot if using it extensively.

Overall I really like them.

[SHADOWFOX]

I have the Bosch PS20 and the PS40 and I find myself using this set than my Makita LXT 18V drill or Impact Driver. For delicate work I like using the PS20 for drilling holes w/ counter sink, I also it for driving the screws because the drill has enough settings for speed to adjust based on your need.

Now for driving screws on everything where delicate work is not needed, I always reach for my Bosch PS40 first then if it is not powerful enough (hardly happens), I do have my Makita LXT 18V impact driver as a back up.

[43Hobson]

i don't think you want to use an impact driver for delicate assembly work. Take note:

Impact *Not-equal* delicate...

They are great for driving screws into hard wood, loosening very tight bolts and nuts etc.

Makita has a cordless impact driver with 3 impact settings, the hard setting will handle just about anything like deck screws, lags, but the soft setting is ok for some woodworking fastening like cabinet screws. Killer tool, btd144, I've been pretty happy with it.