Since there is no topic about this type of power tool, I want share my 'limited' experience using it. I already posts some messages related to impact driver in my Rotary hammer thread, and I want to dedicated this thread to impact driver.

To be clear, impact driver is NOT impact drill. Main purpose of the impact driver is for driving screws or bolt. With drilling bits, it also can drill small holes into wood, plastic or steel.

For many years, I was using hand tools, such as screw drivers and wrenches for my home DIYs, Most of us know how hard or exhautive when using screw driver to drive screw into wood, especially the long screws.

In about year 2000, I tried, Black and Decker's cordless screw driver for PC repairing, then I realized how convinient the power tool is. So, I bought Bosch iXO compact screw driver. It works well and really make things easy, driving screw into wall plug for cuitain rail anchoring. It was slow and easy to drive the screw, but much in torque to drive a long screw into wood, so, still I need to use hand tool. I moved to new house, and it need lots of drilling and anchoring. The iXO battery failed, while lots more to go, and I don't have time to go to service center for battery replacement. I decided to get a corded power tool, and I got this Makita TD0101F impact driver. I don't mind the corded power tools because, I have 2 units of 10m extension cable, which will cover every inch of my house. BTW, I never used impact driver before, and very suprise of the result. Most of the screws driving were quick and not going into the 'impact' mode at all.

I did some experiments with this impact driver, by driving longer (3 and 4 inches) screw into wood. As we can see, when the impact mode is engaged, you can hear the familiar sound like at the tire workshop when removing/installing wheel nuts, the shaft turn slower, just like it was on very low gear. If I maintain to push it at certain force, it never slip at all, and the screw's head/slot is not going to be damaged.

I published a video clip in youtube, demonstrating the power of the impact driver.

Enjoy


Update 1: 20120221
As we already saw in the youtube clip, the 'impact' mechanism is the secret to get more torque from small motor.
There are 2 types of impact driver.

1) Typical impact driver.
The one the most popular and available. Its come as corded and cordless type, in several size.
The cordless impact driver usually small, lightweight and compact. The torque range from 90Nm-165Nm

2) Soft impact driver
This new type of impact driver uses hydraulic oil to soften the impact, and make it more silent. The torque is around 30Nm. I never saw this type, but you can find it from Makita and Hitachi Japan.
Makita 6963SPK : From latest Japanese Makita catalogue
Hitachi WP12VA : http://www.hitachi-koki.co.jp/powertools/p...2va/wp12va.html

There are even higher torque impact driver, which called impact wrench. It can take a larger socket diameter with torque between 200-2000 Nm.

Updates, 2012-03-04


Demonstration screw driving using several hand tools and power tools. For details, go to page 4 in this thread.




To be continued....



Thank you.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Mar 4 2012, 04:10 PM

Reserved for accessories and references.

This clip explains how impact driver works. Now I understand, why the impact driver is a great tool for fasterning or driving screws or nuts, even with a small compact impact driver. The secret is, how the 'impact' mechanism works.


This clip show the differences between impact driver, drill driver and combi drill driver
Notice that the impact driver has small hex shaft quick change chuck.



See, how convinient to drive these long screws... I am wondering how long I'll take to drive these long screws with handtool screwdriver.


Corded and cordless impact drivers. There are pros and cons, but I loving my corded impact driver. Nowdays, it is really very hard find corded impact driver...




U[date: 2012-03-05
Impact driver vs Soft impact driver
Coparison of normal impact driver and soft impact driver. Even though the soft impact driver has lower torque 30Nm, but, it is cool. The model is Makita 6963SPK which only can be found in Japan.



Check this out, this one is much advanced... 100 % electronic control for torque and impact.

BTW, it sound similar to oil damping soft impact driver.
Hitachi WM14/18D
http://www.hitachi-koki.com/powertools/pro...bl/wm18dbl.html
How the mechanism works.



Enjoy


Thank you.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Mar 5 2012, 04:39 PM

Why do you need impact when screwing in?

I'll answered it later in 'references' post. The 'impact' feature will increased the torque without lowering the motor's speed. Normal drill driver's motor speed will decrease when higher torque is needed. If the motor speed slows down, the effective torque also decreasing, until it cannot turn the screw anymore.

Got what you mean, I like cordless tool with "gearbox" can increase the torque. But I seldom see this here in Malaysia

I saw a few cordless drill models at Living Depot@Bangi, and usually expensive. I think the 'expensive price' is not popular in Malaysian market.

Yeah, economical is majority concern. But I prefer to buy one that can use for many application. Since now I use 2470 for screwing also (I know is overkill), can slowly find one with the gear option and reasonable price.

wei kee, eh using 2470 damm heavy le to screw things. get impact driver like bahathir's makita around rm260, light and easy

+1 .. so where to get at that price or cheaper ??

Yes, you can use rotary hammer (drill only mode) to drive screws. BTW, IMHO, HR2470 is not too heavy, at 2.6 kg, which is about as heavy as a brick. There are a big and heavy cordless drill driver which can reach almost 4 kg!! The problem is, the rotary hammer is long, and quite difficult to control the screw driving. If it is a long and big bolt using hex socket, it will be not much problem using with the rotary hammer.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Feb 20 2012, 05:45 PM

the place i got my bosch 2-26 at masai. the uncle quote me rm260, but i think their cordless more expensive.

masai ??? cordless is always more expensive...

but if the bosch impact can get for 300 then its a good buy else... better get a corded...

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Added on February 20, 2012, 5:52 pmbahatir : maybe you should change the title/topic to cover

discussions like power screwdriver and so on...

some people don't know what impact driver is...

at least that way we can keep discussion about tools that drive things into a wall/wood/etc

This post has been edited by JinXXX: Feb 20 2012, 05:52 PM

I already started rotary hammer and impact driver power tool threads. So, I hope other DIY sifus can create other power tool's thread and share your knowledge and experince. The most common power tools that I think of is..

1) Angular grinder
2) Multi tools
3) Saw
4) Measuring tools.
5) Plane..
6) Multi cutters...

I hope with those threads, we can educate peoples to do DIYs much efficient with more productivity. I alsp hoping this kind of threads can be 'sticky' as a references to others.

Thank you... and happy DIYing

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Added on February 20, 2012, 5:58 pmThank you for the suggestion. I'll put the description in a moment.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Feb 20 2012, 06:02 PM

Ok lah nit too heavy but for lots of screwing better get smaller unit. But I got no budget yet.

Just to share my new toy Bosch GDR10.8.
just to share reference size between 226(nearly same size as 2470) and small impact driver


Attached thumbnail(s)

how much for your " Bosch GDR10.8." ?

Thank you for your power tools' pictures. Great matching combos


I am sure, both are working hard to make your jobs easier.

Bought RM330. Special price from boss

Bahathir, need some time to get used to new tool.

That's OK. at least your masonry drilling already taken care... If you got your impact driver, please do share with us too ...

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Added on February 20, 2012, 8:27 pmYeah, every new things, skills need training and experiments. I am sure you dan get used to it...
When I was using the impact driver for first time, I also thought my previous Bosch iXO screw driver is better... but, once I knew it's behaviour, everything about normal screw driver goes away..... Just take time to get used to it. As always... starts slowly. Learn how to control the trigger.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Feb 20 2012, 08:27 PM

oh.. okie..

guess i need to find a boss that can give special price.. else just take the makita corded

then no need waste time pusing pusing the screwdriver and hurt my wrist