Dewalt cordless Impact Driver

I couldn't resist sharing this. For 40 odd years I've had a 1/2" drive manual impact driver which has a head on it to accept screwdriver bits, slotted and Phillips. You set it on the screw and rotate it in the direction you want to turn the screw and impact the end of it with a hammer. Never failed me and what I liked about it was you could square it up to the screw and the hammer did all the work. Much better than trying to put weight on the screw and turning because inevitably you'd end up with the screwdriver on an angle and mess up the head. Also, if you came across a screw with a slightly damaged head, the manual impact would reform the Phillips drive in the head of the screw and at the very least you could get the screw out and replace.

A couple of years ago I bought a Dewalt cordless tool package which came with the 1/2" hammer drill, a 6" skilsaw, a work site radio and this cordless impact driver. The price was slightly more than the price of the hammer drill that I really wanted, so I bought the package deal. I thought I'd never use the cordless impact driver because I have a number of air driven impacts that I use all the time. The other day I was rummaging through my tool drawer and saw this impact driver and realized that it took the same size bits as my drywall screw gun and thought what the heck, go buy some bits for this thing and try it out.

OMG. What a dream taking Phillips heads screws out with. Put the bit end in the screw, put a little weight and the impact driver and burp the trigger and Magic. A couple of impacts and the screw spun out. I had my carbs off the KZ1300 sitting on the bench and without a word of a lie, in less than 2 minutes had the tie bar on the bottom of the carbs off, all of the diaphragm lid screws off, and all of the carb bowls off. If I had been working on those screws with my Snapon screwdriver, I would have been an hour. And best of all, didn't damage one head.
The bit set I bought was from Milwaulkee and they're impact rated. Cost me $20.00. They have Phillips #1,#2 and #3. Slotted bits that fit like a dream in there for the main and low speed circuit jets. A set of torx for I think #5, #10 and #15.

Hi KB,

I've got that exact tool as well and I agree it'll flat out drive screws into most anything. At work I'm surrounded with folks who are just knowledgeable enough to get in trouble. One of the my co workers needed to drive some TapCons into a concrete floor. I sent him off to find a rotohammer. He returned from the Home Despot with an impact driver and a masonry bit which wouldn't even fit up in the impact chuck. You should have heard me trying to explain the difference between radial and axial impacts. He said "What's the diff? It makes a hammerin noise."

Bill

There are those who should never be allowed in public with a spanner or screwdriver for fear of the chaos they cause.

Those impact drivers are the ONLY thing to get out Philips screws on these old bikes. I have the pull the oil pump and oil pickup here pretty quick, so I have to steal my brother's. THEN I have to save my money and buy one of my own.