Published

[DiscoStu]

Not sure if this is the right section for this!

I recently emailed Good Woodworking to point out that Makita's claim to have produced the worlds most torquey impact driver was wrong. As my much cheaper Ryobi Impact driver was more powerful.

Anyway they published my letter and it was letter of the month!!!!


They even publish a picture of me at the oak desk I made! Only I never sent in a picture and I've never made an Oak desk and I'm probably quite a few years younger than the chap in the photo. I'm really sorry as he has made a beautiful desk and got zero credit for it! Is it anyone on here?

 

[Argus]

Are you suggesting that highly esteemed journalists don't get their facts straight?

Whatever next!

 

[Penny]

They even publish a picture of me at the oak desk I made! Only I never sent in a picture and I've never made an Oak desk and I'm probably quite a few years younger than the chap in the photo. I'm really sorry as he has made a beautiful desk and got zero credit for it! Is it anyone on here?

Maybe you should write and tell them, including a photo of you in your workshop. You never know, you might win Letter of the Week! :wink:

 

[rafezetter]

I would email them - after all, why on earth would you use an impact driver on that oak desk??

(I'm in the market for a ID though and £60 sounds a bargain if it's that powerful!)

 

[DiscoStu]

I will write back to them and let them know what they've done. I do feel sorry for the chap with his desk as it looks really nice and he obviously spent a lot of time on it and then gets linked to my 2 minute email.

As for the Ryobi impact driver I really am a fan. I've got a lot of their 18v kit but the impact driver really is a stand out bit of kit. I've seen them starting to appear onsite. I bought mine for doing decking and it slammed in screw after screw with no effort. I also have an older 18v Makita NiCad and that struggled to put in one screw so I just used the Ryobi impact and a Ryobi drill.

So I really would recommend the Ryobi impact driver. I recently build a Spa house and used it a lot for that and it's just a great bit of kit. I don't think any of the Bosch, Dewalt or Makita do anything better.

 

[Philbo]

+1 for the Ryobi impact driver, given mine quite a hammering with various jobs and its brilliant!

Seems to run forever on a 4.0Ah battery as well. Speaking of which, don't buy the batteries at silly prices over here. I bought a pack of 2 4.0ah batteries from the US on a well known auction site and paid less for the 2 than for one from over here. that included customs and shipping!

 

[DiscoStu]

I bought two 4Ah batteries with a drill and a fast charger for £150. It was the same price as two batteries. I'm ok with buying a lot of stuff from abroad but batteries are often dodgy copies. Should be ok from the US though. I actually bought an impact wrench and angle grinder when I was in the US as they were a lot cheaper than the UK. Must have looked odd when customs xrayed it!

 

[loftyhermes]

Good Woodworking has had it's fair share of mistakes like that, more so it seems since the last editor took over, in this same issue they even reprinted an old article about a round window, they even reprinted one of Steve Maskerys furniture making articles a while back.

 

[No skills]

+1 for the ryobi imact drivers, I've been using them since they came out in blue one+ nicad form.
Powerful enough and very robust, I much prefer it over others I have used.

 

[andy king]

In the interests of fairness, the question that was emailed was asking why Makita were claiming they had the highest torque level for an impact driver yet Ryobi have a higher torque model - it wasn't a mistake on the part of the magazine or indeed the journalist not getting the facts right.
I answered the reader with the info we printed - my assumption was that as Ryobi are seen as a DIY aimed brand (By their parent company TTI) Makita's claim was maybe made as a brand for the trade/pro user where it currently does have the highest torque range in that arena as far as I am aware.

Andy King
Technical Editor
Good Woodworking Magazine

 

[DiscoStu]

Hey Andy, I had no issue with the original article, I wrote in after I was surprised to find out that the Ryobi had more power.

What I was a little surprised to see was a photo of Stuart (me) at the Oak desk that I had made using my Ryobi kit. I think I am qualified to say that it's not me sitting at the desk and I do feel a little sorry for the poor guy who had obviously spent many hours making a beautiful desk.

Still I was excited to get to be star letter.

I was also excited to read about the new Ryobi kit and I'm keen to get my hands on it to test it so if you need any readers to test it then please put me top of the list!

Btw I don't expect you or any journalist to know the torque ratings of all tools - I think that would make you pretty boring!

 

[andy king]

No problem Stu I understood your posting was down to that - It was a comment later in the thread that seemed to be saying that the initial difference in the torque ratings was down to an error by us as a magazine not getting the facts right, hence the defence from me.
How the pic ended up there is a different matter though - that's down to the editor and page layout person - as you say, the person in the pic deserves credit for it!

Andy

 

[DiscoStu]

Yeah! I spent a couple of minutes writing about torque and the poor fella who obviously spent months crafting the beautiful desk gets no credit.

Hopefully he won't be offended. Mistakes happen, it's hardly the end of the world.

Andy when are you going to send my some Ryobi kit to test!

I like the look of the new drill and I'd like to trial the newer jigsaw to see how different it is.

 

[Wizard9999]

How the pic ended up there is a different matter though - that's down to the editor and page layout person - as you say, the person in the pic deserves credit for it!

Andy

And you'll be letting them know about the mistake and suggesting they rectify it I guess.

 

[andy king]

Already done - I emailed my editor around 2pm this afternoon when I saw this thread.

Andy