Home DIY

I dunno, impact driver has changed my life, MASSIVELY reduced the number of chewed bits and rounded out screws vs using a regular drill/driver combo type, much less strain on body if using for hours in a day, get one with power settings, lowest is often enough, gives you lots of control without having to 'adjust' the finger trigger as daft as that sounds it is a help.
Yes, ability to pile drive massive huge fixings into just about anything if you turn the power up.
Still controllable though, i'm on an M18 brushless job (gen 3 or 4 whatever came out last year) and have no problems getting bugles in and not through plasterboard.
Last night whacked some 2x8 framing together for a shower pan, 100-150mm large size screws all round. 25-30 of them took around 3 minutes to sink them all perfectly with zero slips.

I would say though, unless your doing big jobs, the dewalt/makita/milwaukee brushless 12v ranges are just fine, much lighter to use, amazingly powerful for their size and weight, rugged enough for keen DIYer to actual tradee (many of my mates are on dewalt and makita 12v ranges for 85% of their work). Lifting an M18 impact + 5.0 (or larger) battery around all day is not the lightest, a 3.0 HO battery would be my choice if I was to do it again. 5.0 battery does last a full days work on these things unless you are a framer.

Its not like 15 years ago where you'd have a literal army of nicad and nimh batteries beeping away on chargers in a row and having to go and swap them to the next in line every 15 to 20 minutes.

A decent impact driver should have a switch to turn the impact function on or off.

Cheers both, interesting. I assumed that you'd be able to dial down the impact driver so it's less vicious.

The other reason is it just gets annoying to repeatedly switch from drilling to screwing with the one drill/driver.

My blown mould case holds Drill, Impact, 125 grinder, multi tool, 4 batterys, charger and some extras. I'm keeping it till it falls apart which tbh I think is coming in the post and ill need to get one of the milwankie big fancy cases

I have a milwaukee one and you cant turn it off I dont think but you can turn it down, i only ever have it on setting 1 and it gets used all the time.

No impact driver that I'm aware of does this. Are you not thinking about the hammer/percussion setting on a drill driver?

I suppose you could make one where the hammer and anvil lock so they don't slip past each other and give the "impact". But seeing as that is the reason they exist, I don't think anyone would bother. If you just want a turny thing, you use a drill. If you want a high torque turny thing, you use a drill with a gearbox.

A decent impact driver should have a switch to turn the impact function on or off.

As above. Say what?

Now on the lookout for a circular saw with a switch to disable 'sawing'.

I assumed that you'd be able to dial down the impact driver so it's less vicious.

Trigger control does this. The impact will still kick in at a proportional point of resistance.

Yes, speed control (by trigger or setting) will stop you from going past the "Ah, well that's fucked now" moment. I was putting together some beds for a friend's allotment with the Milwaukee. I was glad of both the #1 setting to not inadvertently send the skinny decking screws into a low earth orbit and the "fucking HAVE IT!" setting for the big 6" bastards.

Any more and it too much, i dont think I’ve ever needed it more than one tbh when working with it

Thanks so much for the advice!
I'll give it a go and, if successful, post photos.

I think you might be surprised by the lower voltage higher torque stuff. Impact is a pretty basic way to avoid needing torque. All the same I don't do a lot of screw based carpentry and would likely use a bigger drill maybe with impact if I did for all the reasons you mention.

The recent milwaukee blown cases are like glass ime. Think only one of 6 survived a year of half time use.
Older makita blue boxes are ok, as are many other brands, think milwaukee just"help"folk buy into the stacking boxes ;)

I really want 12v DC bayonet cap lightbulbs to exist, but it's looking like they don't.

Am I wrong?

Aye but the prices of they stacking boxes are wild, they do offer great cock measuring kudos tho I’ve heard.

There is B and Q own brand ones that are meant to be good, I might just buy them as they are like a 1/3 the price of the pack out

I've never come across them. Most of the 12v stuff has tiny connectors. It helps to stop people blowing them up plugging them into 240v fittings.

Mines 5' high now ;)

They aren't cheap, but best storage I've used for fixings, spares, misc loose small tools and bits etc. Beats lumping tote and bags for life around with endless small pots and tubs inside.

Yes a collar that rotates to lock out the impact.
Mine are too old but some newer ones have a hammer icon and a screw icon.

I think you're misunderstanding. What you are describing is known as a 'drill driver' - a universal tool that has a normal drill setting, a hammer drill setting and sometimes a third torque sensitive driving setting.
What is generally being discussed above is an impact driver which works on a different system and is good only for driving tough fasteners. I've never seen an impact driver where you can switch off the impact, but perhaps there is one that exists somewhere.
This article discusses the general differences between them but tldr is that a hammer drill provides impact along the axis of the drill, whereas an impat driver provides impact as a rotational force.

I had an impact/drill/percussion combo, the Makita DTP141. The RRP is like £3-400 for the bare unit (bought mine on eBay for about £150). This and the previous model are the only drill/impact combo I know of.

Sadly I killed it recently trying to take some stuck pedals off, lol.

Hive mind. Any bright ideas how to restore this (I think) ikea work surface we inherited? It’s permanently sticky and there’s water damage around the tap. Would love a new surface but this will have to suffice for a while.

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sand down and refinish

and then replace all the wood within 60cm of the sink with something more appropriate : )

Cover it with vinyl / sticky-back plastic