morally wrong to drill with an impact driver

Whilst shopping for a cordless drill/driver I was impressed with how small the cordless impact drivers were and yet deliever about twice the torque of the larger cordless drill/drivers.

Can impact drivers drill alright? A few on the web talk as if it's morally wrong to drill with an impact driver, but never cite the chapter and verse.

Makita makes adapters going from 1/4" hex shank to keyless 3/8 chuck, so if you want to use your normal round shank drill bits, you can.

I know an impact driver is noisier. That's OK with me. I know an impact driver can be slower. That's OK with me. Any other drawbacks?

I work with wood, concrete and steel, but 90% of the time it's wood.

--zeb

Reply to
Zeb Kagloonpop
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My hitachi came with some quick change drill bits and I have had no problem drilling (up to 1/4"). For the bigger stuff or when I have lots of holes, I pull out my 18v dewalt. SH

Reply to
Slowhand

No. A few can, in a non-impact mode, but they have feeble torque.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Buy a 18v Bosch.

Reply to
rednelb

Check rpm i suspect it is real slow,to slow to drill with. I drill at the fastest speed unless it is concrete. Look into Milwaukee, they have different speed units.

Reply to
m Ransley

Zeb:

No problem using an impact driver to drill holes in wood, but a caution for using it to drill steel..

Impact drivers only provide the rotary impact when necessary to overcome the material's resistance. With the Makita impact drivers I use, the driver essentially functions as a drill (without any impact function) until the bit is deep into the material or if the bits diameter is enough to provide the resistance necessary to cause the impact function to kick in. So basically, when drilling wood, I almost never detect the impact function.

The one caveat I would mention relates to drilling steel. Drill bits are brittle, by necessity. I can envision the use of an impact driver causing a larger drill bit to shatter when drilling steel if it were to bind or become sufficiently stuck that the impact was simply torquing the drill bit. I have not experienced this, not have I heard it reported, so I may just be overly cautious.

HTH,

Jim Ray, President McFeely's Square Drive Screws

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BTW, Makita has a great promotion out for a 12 or 14.4v impact driver and a free driver drill of the same voltage. This may make it easier to decide since you would have both tools!

Reply to
Jim

OK, just where do I find out about it? Christmas gloat . . SWMBO got me the

12V impact driver! Now how do I find out about the "freebie"?
Reply to
Norman D. Crow

Well . . . POO! Just checked the Makita site, it's the newer ones with the LED light that they give you the freebie for.

Reply to
Norman D. Crow

Too bad you can't get the free drill but you're going to love the impact driver anyways. Mine will drive 3 inch screws like there's no tomorrow!

Bryan

Reply to
DamnYankeeBastard

That's why I asked *Santa* for one. Heard nothing but good stuff about them on here.

Reply to
Norman D. Crow

One thing to pay attention to and I think there is a warning about it in the manual. DON'T put a 1 inch bit (by itself) in this driver. They get stuck and are almost impossible to get out. I needed to get into a really tight corner and forgot this warning. It took me an hour to get the bit out. I won't do that again!!!

Bryan

Reply to
DamnYankeeBastard

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