An impact driver for my birthday -but which one?

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+1 for the Makita 10.8V set.

I use the 18V system but bought my dad the 10.8V system when his old Hitachi fell apart. He thinks it's brilliant and I have found it more than adequate for most normal tasks.
 
Another vote for the Bosch freak. Excellent bit of kit, love that it does 1/4 bit holder and 1/2 wrench bit holder

BOSCH GDX 18 V-EC 18V - you can pick one up for around £100 bare tool
the new 4Ah Procore battery - £45ish / you can probably find the older batteries or lower AH batteries for cheaper.
18v Charger - around £20
 
MJP":61pgksz5 said:
Well, you're all going to laugh at me for this but I've just bought a Parkside (Lidl) impact driver.

£106, with charger and two batteries.

New stock, from an ebay seller.

If the drill turns out to be rubbish, the two batteries and charger are useful (I've already got other Parkside gear using the same batteries) and worth around £50 anyway.

I can sleep tonight now, without dreaming of impact drivers!
Martin.
If this is the 20v one I also have it and it's as good as any main brand one.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
 
Intrigued by this thread, I watched a you tube video yesterday of impact driver tests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvqar-4ZelA This was the skill builder guy, who seems pretty straightforward. There are lots of US videos too, which all end up with different winners.

In the UK, Makita, Milwaukee and Hilti did OK, but in the brute force test of driving timber fix he'd heads Ito hard oak, the surprise winner was the DeWalt, which did it in 17 second, or less than half the time of most of the rest.

My own view is that having had a few duff experiences, I avoid Aldi and Lidl power tools as in my experience they do not stand up to heavy work. Trade or DIY at trade level can put significant demands on tools and I doubt that any single brand is brilliant at everything.

There did seem to be some common themes from the reviews:

Single action chucks are much more convenient
Some brands are prone to chuck release failures (Milwaukee slated a couple of times)
Electronic push button speed controllers wear out quickly in trade hands
Brushless motors are more reliable
Very little difference between fluid drive and hammer drive performance in practice
The cheaper brands often failed on the heavy duty tasks
Triple piston hammers are a gimmick that doesn't work
Battery power and condition makes a stonking difference (amazing that)

And practically every tester said if you want to bang bolts on and off car wheels, use a compressor gun!
 
Sammy.se - thanks for your reassuring comments.

My Wera bits are supposed to arrive today, and my driver is "being shipped" I'm told, so I'll be able to add my comments soon I hope.

AJB - I agree with everything you say, For trade use it's the top brands or nothing, but I'm a hobbyist in the garage - a different scenario.

I've got a fair few Lidl/Aldi tools and none of them have left me down or disappointed me yet.
But that's with light occasional use, not heavy trade use.

I even have only good things to say about their clamps!!

Martin.
 
I messed somthing up a few months back -

I was screwing m8 stainless (which have a lower sheer strength than mild) through some m8 nuts that had been welded onto somthing.

The nuts were either all slightly heat deformed or, maybe had some weld spatter in the threads.


Anyway, after getting them all jammed using hand tools, I got out my Milwaukee impact driver.


...and promptly sheered the m8s one by one. (I knew I was going to have to grind off the nuts by this stage so I didn't stop)

I know it's over the op's budget, but I suspect only by about £20 if you shop about.


It was my first Milwaukee tool. Since then I bought the bare sawzall. Bought it for one single job (to hack through a 10" oak beam that was too naily for a chainsaw) but it's come in right useful thereafter.

Recently bought the drill. I mean it's a drill, so nothing exciting to mention, just useful.

They're a lot of money. I'm far from what you would consider wealthy.

...but I seem to find money for good tools, and I've not regretted the purchase of any of these.
 
Ps. Inc vat, I've just looked up the price of the Milwaukee

£90 for the tool
£60 for the battery
£30 for the charger

So £30 over budget. I thought the batteries were a tenner cheaper (for the 5ah)

If you're never going to use the battery on another tool, a smaller one would do, as they last an age on the impact driver, and it would be less weight also.
 
I have just ordered a Makita DTD154z from Nuts & Bolts (powertool-supplies.co.uk) so will see how that goes, they have Makita 3ah batteries for £31.49 which is not a bad price.

Went on their site because was looking at Festools new impact driver, very nice looking tool but could not justify £260 for the bare tool :(
 
julianf":2d8nsx6t said:
I was screwing m8 stainless (which have a lower sheer strength than mild) through some m8 nuts that had been welded onto somthing.

Did you use any anti-seize paste on the stainless fasteners? They're an absolute nightmare for galling up and cold welding when they're being done up (especially if it's a tight fit which may have been what happened with your welding) and good luck getting them undone when that happens.
 
No. I should have used mild steel fasteners but stainless was to hand.

It was just for a jig for glue up. I wasn't trying to be clever, just get it done. And, if course, my haste and stupidity cost me...
 
Doug71":3mv1albc said:
I have just ordered a Makita DTD154z from Nuts & Bolts (powertool-supplies.co.uk) so will see how that goes, they have Makita 3ah batteries for £31.49 which is not a bad price.

Went on their site because was looking at Festools new impact driver, very nice looking tool but could not justify £260 for the bare tool :(

if you're in the market for the 3ah batts - they pop up on Amazon every couple of months for ~ £17-£23 - altho they tend to go out of stock quite quickly at those prices
 
PUtcvNqa":206o49iy said:
Doug71":206o49iy said:
I have just ordered a Makita DTD154z from Nuts & Bolts (powertool-supplies.co.uk) so will see how that goes, they have Makita 3ah batteries for £31.49 which is not a bad price.

Went on their site because was looking at Festools new impact driver, very nice looking tool but could not justify £260 for the bare tool :(

if you're in the market for the 3ah batts - they pop up on Amazon every couple of months for ~ £17-£23 - altho they tend to go out of stock quite quickly at those prices

There is some firm on Amazon at the moment, think it is DVS Power Tools, every few days they seem to have them at £16.99 (max of 3 per customer) but when I get to checkout it says can't deliver to my address. They have other size ones which don't show this problem at checkout?
 
Just to round off my part in this thread, the Wera bits came yesterday and the Parkside impact driver came this morning.

Good and hefty with some weight, clearly not a toy.

Pulled 4" and 5" deeply embedded screws from rather wet pine baulks easily.

Job done.

Martin.
 
I got given an Impact Dewalt 18v with 2.0ah battery. So this will start my dewalt collection.
.
I was originally going to get the Makita black and white twin set deal from screwfix.
I must say I'm more than Impressed with dewalt and does more than enough for my DIY / woodworking needs.
I definitely don't need a bigger battery, plus I reckon I'd even go with a 12v next time.
I like the lighter battery and easy to hold.
.
But get a good long guarantee, (heard erbauer has battery issues after a while)
.
 
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