Cordless Impact Drivers ??

[Tee Blue]

Anyone have experience with these?

I'm getting tired of wrestling lag bolts and stripping screws with cordless drills when building decks.

I've been looking at 12v models. Makita, Panasonic, DeWalt

Any info would be appreciated.

[Jamie Norwood]

My buddy just bought 2 of them to use on a large metal building he is putting up. He bought the 14v Dewalt and the 12v Makita. He likes the Dewalt, I like the Makita (I don't like anything Dewalt makes so far). They are great for screwdriving especially long screws or self tapping screws used to attach metal roofing to c channel. They take the torque out of driving screws. Just when the regular cordless drill would start to twist your wrist, the drivers go into impact mode and continue to drive the screw. I would never go back to using a drill to drive screws. The drivers are lighter that most drills also. I don't know if they have the torque for driving large lag screws, perhaps the Dewalt

18v does, otherwise get the cordless impact wrench.

Tee Blue wrote:

[Larry Laminger]

Not the 12V but,

About a year and half ago, a rep from Makita gave me a 24 volt cordless impact to try out. (They were trying to get my company to buy their product.) The Dewalt corded impact I use is going on 7 years old. I use it day in day out driving tons of 1, 3 & 4 inch lags...it's never failed. The Makita felt like a toy. I could feel the tool coming part at the seams when it was working under a heavy load. So bad, that I had to wear a glove to keep from getting skin pinched. In tough wood, it would just bog down and die. The beefy weight of the corded Dewalt makes easy work of driving lag bolts. The Makita gave me real work out. Even with what the rep said was Makita's top of the heap, most advanced battery and charger, I'd get about 12 4" lags driven before the thing would be too dead to carry on. (I can get 3 times that out of a single charge on my Dewalt 18 volt drill!.) I had to use 3 batteries to get through a job. I would drain 2 in the time it took to charge 1 on the 20 min. fast charger. So even with a cordless tool, I had to have electrical power nearby to complete a job. I can't imagine any battery lasting very long if it needs to be charged several times a day. And dem batteries aint cheap! I ended up using the Makita for about a month. When I returned it to their rep, it and the batteries were pretty worn out.

IMHO, if you'll be driving very many lag bolts at one time, the corded Dewalt is the way to go. I replaced the factory cord with one 30' long. The extra long cord is handy. Never tried driving deck screws with the Dewalt impact...it might be a little much.

When power is not available, I use the 18V Dewalt cordless drill. It handles the job better (in my opinion) then the 24V Makita impact ever did.

Did I mention that I didn't care too much for the Makita? Hope this helps.

Tee Blue wrote:

[AL]

Lowes has a Hitachi 12V impact driver for $170. I don't know if it is any good, but it is quite a bit cheaper than the competitors.

[Bay Area Dave]

I've got the Makita 12 volt model. cheapest price was from Spokane Power tools that goes by another name on the 'net. something like northwestpowertools.com or similiar. maybe northwesternpowertools?

I can't say enough good about it. Used it today, as a matter of fact. Very compact, very str> Anyone have experience with these?

[Bay Area Dave]

[Jeepnstein]

I have the Hitachi and it is great. It's so small and light it feels like a toy but it can really drive screws home. I'll let you know in a year or two how durable it is. The battery holds up for about 150 or so screws meaning you have to keep a spare on the charger at all times. I will probably wind up using it more than a cordless drill.

My Hitachi cordless drill has been really dependable so I expect the impact driver to hold up nicely. For anything really heavy I'd still break out the air hose and my air gun.

Jim

[Tee Blue]

Tee Blue wrote in news:1Xctb.119$so3.28@okepread05:

Thanks to all for the info & opinions.