homefixated.com: One of the most useful tools I own is my impact driver. This amazing little tool can drive a fair-sized lag screw through several inches of wood. What’s so amazing about that? It does it without wrenching my wrist around. Impact drivers do a great job of putting the torque to work on the fastener, rather than into your arm. The downside? They’re LOUD. As in hearing-protection-required loud. A new breed of drivers, using quieter hydraulics rather than the hammer and anvil method, is on the rise.
5 comments:
Hello, yes, I’ll take five. I cannot stand impact drivers; I’ve always hated them because they seem to make people incapable of using a regular drill for anything after a certain amount of time using them. I’ve had it happen to myself, and it’s pretty embarrassing to not be able to drive a screw into a 2x4 after weeks of doing it with an impact driver. However, a part of me also hates all drills because of my wrist injury and even after using a regular drill for a few hours, it feels like my hand is going to fall off. This newer technology will definitely make impact drivers more bearable and I’m definitely interested to hear the difference in the sound profile seeing that a 50% decrease is definitely a big improvement. My main curiosity is how well they can actually perform and if the information will become any type of available for other companies to develop this tech.
When you are outside on a jobsite with loud saws, load heavy machinery and constant popping from a nail gun, the added dbs provided from an impact driver are relatively miniscule. However, in an air conditioned shop with volume controlled tools, an impact driver is really loud. This is pretty much the reason we don’t use this tool in our shop according to Ben Carter. There is no doubt that impact drivers drive screws faster than any drill in its class, even most cheap impacts drive faster than a top of the line drill. Purely based on the way they are designed impacts have so much more torque. Never the less, the volume is a killer. So these new quieter drivers are great for shops. This is about the 3rd “quite impact driver” I have seen since I became impact driver aware but it is the first that is actually redesigned to be quieter so I have high hopes.
Wow, this was a very thorough tool review. I also have never heard of hydraulic impact drivers, but it sounds like a real game changer. I can't stand impact drivers due to the noise they generate. It's bad enough at school when an overhire carpenter brings in their own impact driver. If all our drills at school were impact drivers, I'm sure the noise in the shop would be deafening.
I think for a product like this, you really need to try it in person to determine if it is a good purchase. "50% quieter than a standard impact driver" sounds really good, but I still wonder how that compares to a regular drill. Maybe 50% quieter really is quite tolerable. Certainly the small form factor and light weight are large draws to this product and impact drivers in general. My only other question is the substantially lower sustained torque rating. The article claims it is not a problem at all. Again, I think it really is one of those try before you buy products.
At my high school, we had an arsenal that was made up of half drill, half impact driver. I never really noticed how loud they were because most of their pros made them the go-to driver. However, once my ears started to go and get really sensitive after 3 years of carpentry, I realized that the impact is one of the tools whose volume really isn't helping. I actually have been wondering where the impact drivers have been at in the scene shop. I'm really glad that there has been research and improvement on one of my most beloved tools. It's interesting to learn more about the power of hydraulics when it comes to vibration reduction and lessening metal-on-metal contact. If they truly made this tool 50% quieter than that is a huge reduction in the amount of decibels messing with your ear. Besides that, if the gun really is more efficient by reducing the wear and tear that goes on through the hammering action, this is definitely a buy.
I love my impact driver. When working with driving a lot of 3” screws into 2x4, it cuts down on the work. I’ve heard that the reason Ben Carter doesn’t have any impact drivers in the shop is because of the noise. And he’s right, they are loud, but that’s what we’ve got hearing protection for. With the new Surge from Milwaukee, I might be able to make a case to him to get some impact drivers. If his main concern is the noise – this certainly seems like the way to go. For driving lag screws into wood or into the deck in the theater, there really is no better tool than the impact driver. It’s cordless (always a good thing when working in a crowded theater or shop), compact, easy to use, and gets the job done quickly. These new impact drivers might make Ben change his mind. And who knows, I might just be able to convince him to buy one.
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