OT Makita Drill/Driver Sale, Amazon.com 149.99

[Evodawg]

This is the best price I've seen on this drill ever. 24 hours only. I have one and love it. Light but strong. I'm not affiliated with Amazon just thought some might want to know.

Rich

[Evodawg]

Opps forgot the URL

[notbob]

IOW, is it a linear hammering force into, say, a phillips screw head to prevent stripping of the cross slots or a rotary hammering force to further drive the twisting torque for hex head lag bolts driven into wood? Or, is it both? I have a great DeWalt 13V drill/driver, but now see how it is lacking when driving phillips head deck screws.

nb

[Gerald Ross]

I have a 12v Makita which was a gift. It is light, strong and looks like a sneaker. Only problem, the chuck will not tighten enough to keep drill bits from slipping. Hope the more expensive ones have a better chuck.

[Gerald Ross]

Oops. My Makita is flawless. It is the Hitachi that slips.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 06:28:50 -0700, Evodawg wrote the following:

people don't drill holes all day long so the smaller 1.5Ah batteries would probably be OK.

When I do decks and such, I need an impactor. I just started another deck job last Friday, so I ordered the following kit, replacing my Bosch 14.4v Impactor with the Makita 451 kit.

It has the LXT 3Ah lithium batteries. $269 at Amazon, $30 to $200 cheaper than anywhere else, and they throw in free shipping.

-- It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

[notbob]

OK, I see. Hammer vs impact, impact obviously being rotary impact like an air impact wrench. Got it. BTW, here's a mini comparison from popular mechanics on the Makita hammer drill:

a great deal for the price.

nb

[Elrond Hubbard]

Larry Jaques wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I've owned this unit for several years, and it has held up well through a lot of hard daily use. My only small gripe is that there is no storage on the unit for other driver bits, like DeWalt usually has on their drills and drivers, but it's a minor oversight.

When I first bought it, one of the crew dubbed it "The Stupid Drill" 'cause he thought it was useless; it was loud, it had a silly LED light on it, and it couldn't be used as a drill without an adaptor chuck. After using it for a while, including finishing up a drywall job in an attic during a power outage (remember that LED?), it's now the first tool he wants to borrow... unless he actually needs to drill a hole.

Scott

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:48:05 -0400, Gerald Ross wrote the following:

The best solution is either to install a keyed chuck or use hex bits (or hex bit adapters.)

I have one of these for my impactor

and some of these ($17) for my little Ryobi drill driver. I got tired of buying new sets when I broke the 1/8" or 1/16" hex-mounted bits like these the Snappy'dapters, I can mount forstner, bradpoints, or twist billdrits. The extra hex/hex nut slides over the 1/4" to make tightening the bit into the collet that much easier and considerably firmer.

-- It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

[Larry Jaques]

On 06 Jun 2010 18:50:53 GMT, Elrond Hubbard wrote the following:

Glad to hear yet another good review, Scott. My Ryobi has a pair of bubbles on it for flat and vertical drilling, plus places on top for two bits. The Bosch has a single hole in the bottom rear of the main housing for a single extra bit. I use it to swap out phillips/square bits. I guess I can figure out how to attach something to the Makita if needed. I hate having to take off gloves and dig in my jeans pockets for a bit.

-- It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

[RonB]

I have owned the 14.4v Makita, driver for about five years. I put up about 270 feet of cedar fence and a new deck; not to mention day to day use and it performs like a trooper. It isn't quite as stylish as this one but a good machine. The 14.4 version will drive a screw all the way through a cedar board if you aren't careful; but with a little finesse it is easier to control than my regular cordless Makita drill.

RonB

[Lobby Dosser]

Sold Out!!

[Leon]

Typically impact drivers work like any other impact driver. Does not answer your question... Because the impact is for a split second repeatedly over and over a Philips head screw comes out easier because the torque is not constant and the bit does not normally climb out of the screw head like it will with a drill driver. With my impact driver I was able to remove kitchen cabinets that a customer had previousely used wood putty to hide the Philips head screws. My regular drill driver cammed out. My impact was able to remove the screws with minimal engagement.

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2010 07:14:49 -0500, "Leon" wrote the following:

I'll have to strongly disagree with that, Leon.

I haven't physically had the mechanisms apart, but I understand that hammer drills have an axial hammer (like tapping the back of the bit) while impactors have a rotary hammer effect (hammering down the end of the breaker bar, a torsional hammer.)

That's a major difference both in concept and result. An impactor won't drill concrete and a hammer drill won't work nearly as well as an impactor for installing or removing long, tough screws.

-- Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -- George S. Patton

[J. Clarke]

The drill under discussion is a hammer drill, not an impact driver. The hammer on a hammer drill is of no utility in driving fasteners, it's used to drill masonry, and it's a linear hammering action, not rotary. The drill turns the bit while the hammer pounds on it.

[Leon]

I misread and did not catch the fact that he was asking about a hammer drill vs. an impact driver. Agreed a hammer drill exerts force in a totally different dirrection than an impact driver.

[notbob]

I probably misstated my question. Let me greatly simplify my query:

I will probably be doing more rebuilding and further improvments to my deck. I see the use of hex head lag bolts already used for the frame, which is quite sound, and I've used 8" phil-hd deck screws to rebuild the steps. While assembling the steps I discovered my 13V DeWalt drill/driver was less than thrilling for driving phil-hd screws and needed pre-drilling of deck screw holes. So, a couple pertinent questions for the future:

1. Which is the best type of driver for phil-hd deck screws and do all types of drivers require pre-drilling the deck screw holes? Howzabout for removing old phil-hd deck screws, many rusty and close to breaking?
2. Would I be better off in the future paying extra for allen hd deck screws?
3. Which driver for the lag bolts?

Thank you.

nb

[notbob]

Yet, it's that hammer pounding action that keeps a phillips-head bit from "camming out", as one poster so accurately described it. In motorcycle mechanics, an impact driver is one that gets torqued phillips head screws out without stripping the phil slots. It's designed to turn whenever bashed on the back end with a 2lb hammer, the hammer action making sure there is HUGE inward driving force to prevent camming out. I want that inward linear force driving the bit INTO the phil slots when I'm driving deck screws! That Popular Mechanics review of the Makita hammer driver I posted even talked about driving deck screws, but also mentioned changing the bits and drills so often his hand was raw. You gotta pre-drill for deck screws even with a hammer driver!?

Another thing I notice at the lumber store. At the counter is a whole bowl full of those hex-drive phillips bits, like it's a given they won't last long and you best stock up. Wear and tear on the couple bits I have would seem to support this. My Korean hammer driven impact driver bits are as good and true as the day I bought them, 35 yrs ago! Anyone making bits that good for the construction industry or is cheap Chinese metal all that's available?

nb

[Puckdropper]

notbob wrote in news:T29Pn.36626$ [e-mail]:

*snip*

I've been using the DeWalt Phillips bits with good success. I have to switch to a new bit once a month or so, doing hobbiest level work with lots of Phillips screws. They fit the drywall screws I use for pineywood perfectly.

For some reason, the double ended bits included with many screwdriver tools seems to be better than the insert bits. Even the B&D and Skil screwdrivers include a good double ended bit.

Puckdropper

[keithw86]

There is a large variation in the quality of driver bits. I've found that the DeWALT "impact ready" are by far the best bits available, followed by Bosch.