Is 70nm torque much greater than 65?

[keiron99]

I'm in the market for a new Makita. I already have a charger and 12v battery, so have my eye on some body only deals on ebay. (One battery will do, it's only for light DIY). But I'm thinking I may be tempted by something more powerful, just for the odd occasion.

The 12v models (MXT range) are listed as 65nm torque, yet the next model up, the 14,4v (which I wouldn't want to go bigger than), gives "only" 70nm. Now, I have as much understanding of these figures as Nigel Tuffnell does of amplification, but does this mean there is only negligible more power, or is it measured on some kind of scale where this might mean there's disproportionately more power than the figures suggest?

[Ben Blaukopf]

It's a linear scale. 1Nm is a force of 1 Newton, applied at a distance of 1 metre from whatever it is you're trying to turn. Or alternatively,

65Nm is the equivalent of me standing on the end of a 10cm spanner, and 70Nm is exactly the same, except I've just had dinner and a bottle of wine.

Ben

[Roger]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

7.7% more torque is not negligble in my book but it is not exactly a big deal is it?

[keiron99]

Ben's term "linear" is what I was looking for! Yep, not negligible, but for my light duty purposes probably not worth the extra expense and weight. 12v should do the trick (it always has in the past)

Thanks.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm slightly confused. If you already have the battery and charger then the body you buy will have to be for that.

However, very few modern decent make drills are short of torque for 'light DIY' with the proviso you check on the maximum diameter it will drill into the sort of things you may want to drill. Certainly for general screwdriving they're all ok. Higher voltage batteries really just give you longer between re-charges. Assuming the quality of the cells is the same.

[The Medway Handyman]

65nm will break your wrist in the right circumstances. My Wickes 'High Torque' mains drill is 85nm and will mix concrete, run a core drill & put in a 12mm x 100mm coach bolt with contemptuous ease.

My Wickes 14.4v only has about 30nm and has never failed to do anything I wanted it to do.

65nm is more than enough for anything.

[John Rumm]

It is a linear scale, so it is a little more but nothing much to write home about. The main thing the extra voltage gets you is the ability to carry about more energy in a single charge. The little extra torque is a bonus but not a major issue in most cases.

[Tom Woods]

The most demanding job ive found for a drill is using a hole saw to put 80mm holes through kitchen worktop.

We have had to buy a mean clutched one for doing this at work after destroying a couple fo normal drills and getting flung round the room when it snatched!

[Robert Laws]

Can you actually hold the tool against a torque of 65Nm? If your grip is, say, 10cm from axis to edge then thats' a force of 650N. That's about the weight of 65kg - the weight of a small/medium sized person.

Robert