Is there such a thing as an impact screwdriver that you can hit with a hammer (as opposed to the £££ for an electric one)?
I'm removing some old cast-iron guttering and no way the screws will undo so may have to rip them out. Unless an impact driver exists...
Yes.
At least, I have one, which I've had for decades.
In fact, it's one of these;
They do. Mine cost a couple of quid from a market stall years ago.
Try your local decent car parts shop or google "impact screwdriver" and the shopping results show a dozen on the first couple of pages.
They exist, about £5 from car spares shops, etc. Hitting one with a hammer may break the guttering, I suggest an angle grinder to remove the old bolts.
Cordless impact drivers are mostly used to drive large screws into wood (although they're not bad on stuck metal-to-metal fasteners), or drive auger bits into wood.
Old-fashioned mechanical hit-with-a-hammer impact drivers were intended for loosening corroded fasteners - for small/home outfits that didn't have pneumatic impact tools.
Sorry - I didn't read your Q properly.
I think you might find an impact tool damages the screw-heads, particularly if they're slotted screws. If they're hex-head, you might have a chance.
Yes. They were the original impact driver before the name was stolen for drills.
Any decent toolshop.
They are usually 1/2" drive - for car socket sets.
Yup, the original owner of the name. See intro here:
The sort you hit with a hammer have a very strong pre-load spring. You have to hit them very hard indeed before this is compressed enough to make the bit turn - too hard for cast-iron guttering, I'd suspect.
But yes - they look like this...
Yup. Bought mine in 1967, and still have it!
If the screw heads are in good condition, they usually stay that way. If they're not, the impact driver is what gets them out.
As I said, I still have mine. The Honda CB72 is long gone - with its replacement Allen head screws!
And how many times have you used it since?
(I bought one probably in the early 80's and have used it about twice... found more use for the bits from it when I discovered they fitted in the chuck of the old B&D drill and could whizz screws in!)
Ah, but it's one of those tools where the least times you have to use it the better! :-)
Given how cheap they are I'd say they are also a worthwhile one to have around 'just in case' as I suspect many people, like me, had the inconvenience of having to go out and buy one as a last ditch effort to shift a particularly stubborn nut/bolt.... When working on the car I am now quick to resort to it if there's any danger of me rounding off whatever it is that's stuck by using conventional methods!
Mathew
Thanks for all the pointers. The Machine Mart one looks fine, will get one of those. btw The screws are the ones that hold the brackets to the facia - nothing to do with the gutter itself - sorry didn't make that clear.
Ditto. I'd just grind out the bracket and screw head until the bracket slips off, so that you can put the tools down while everything is still supported and use two hands to ease it all free. Then you can either grip the remaining screw shank with a mole wrench to see if it will unscrew it, or failing that, grind it off flush.
Then I don't think the impact driver will work, the facia is going to flex too much. Back to the angle grinder!
I was trying to imagine how it would feel to be bashing at an impact driver up at gutter level while leaning back on a ladder......Hmmmm - I'd go for the grinder, I think....although i once nearly took a finger off grinding a steel tank 10 feet off the ground, but that's another story....
Mmm me too. Fortunately this is only on a garage :-)
I don't believe anyone under the age of 30 would even know they exist.
Used mine about 5 or 6 times in the last 20 years but on each occasion it was the only tool for the job.
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