Cordless Dril/ Impact Driver Combo

[RJH]

That looks to be a good price - ISTR I paid £150 just for the drill and

2 batteries.

[RJH]

18V from the battery pic

[John Rumm]

The main benefits touted are longer battery life per charge (i.e. less heat generated / power loss in the motor), and more precise speed regulation under changing load.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? When I changed my CU, I fitted a temporary 13 amp outlet. Just to keep the fridge etc going. And for working light - most CUs tend to be in dark places. Or you could run an extension lead from next door.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

+1

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Thought all batteries had to have the voltage etc on them? Never seen any which didn't.

But don't you remember what you bought?

[Andrew]

1. use a hand-drill or one of those rawlplug drifts that had to hammered while twisting ?.
2. Do all the necessary drilling before removing all mains power?

[charles]

mm, but if I need to mount the new CU in the same place as the old one, it's difficult to deal with the new mounting holes.

an interesting thoght - my CU is mounted on a baseboard which is, no doubt, flammable;

[Bill Wright]

It makes the blue flashes less noticeable.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

Oh no! Nightmare! My dad used to fix aerials to walls like that. Ghastly.

I wish my brain would allow such clever methods.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

I think setting fire to it would be a last resort. far better to see if it can be unscrewed from the wall.

Bill

[Bert Coules]

Forgive what is probably a daft question but why does one of them not have a chuck?

[Bert Coules]

I've now looked at other impact drivers and none of them appears to have an obvious chuck. But the one in that particular set seems to have an external thread - if so, what is that for?

[alan_m]

[alan_m]

Possibly more informative

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that: an excellent explanation. I'm a little surprised at the lack of a clutch in the driver: doesn't that, especially with the impact power, make it easy to drive screws in too far?

[alan_m]

The second video possibly explains the control of the driver a bit better

[Bert Coules]

Thanks, I'll give it a look.

I've always found it useful to have two drill/drivers, especially for a job which needs pilot holes for the screws. I've rarely found even a modest cordless drill too lacking in power for most of the work I do, and if more heft ever is needed then I have a considerably larger mains drill. But both my cordless drills are on their way out, so reading about the options for replacements is proving very useful.

So far, the impact drivers seem to offer power at the expense of sensitivity, but that might be a false impression.

[John Rumm]

Its a spring loaded collet chuck for want of a better description.

It takes the hex shank of normal screwdriver bits and bit holders. It also has a sprung retention mechanism that keeps the bit or bit holder retained in the chuck. To free it, you normally need to pull on the sleeve - the the bit will then be easy to pull out.

What you see as "threaded" is just a circumferential ribbing or knurling to give you better grip on the sleeve.

[John Rumm]

Kind of... you learn to do it by feel, and use of the accelerating trigger. So you can slow the impact rate right down for tweeking the final setting point of the screw.

You can also use a trick where you hold the body of the tool loosely, and let it kick out a bit in your hand as the screw reaches its "stop" position.

(IDs are not ideal for very small screws and fine threads)