Not positive if you will really use a cordless impact driver too much if you get one? Or maybe you have got one already but are not doing work too much with it. Check out these ten ways to use your tool and finish the job fast!
Build a deck
Work smarter not harder next time you build a deck – use a cordless impact driver. You will set the screws in no time, and regardless of the fastener type you won’t strip the heads.
Purchase one with a low weight li-ion battery pack and keep from getting fatigued!
Am I boring you?
There’s nothing like curing boredom than creating something round the house. Like wood chips. Or a hole. A huge hole. Bore some massive holes using some massive torque.
If you need to hog out some huge holes with that spade bit, and you are not close to an outlet for your regular drill, use an impact driver to blast through without killing your battery. Since the power isn’t provided just by the motor, even difficult jobs won’t kill a battery as quick as a regular drill.
Replace those tires
You will probably need a minimum of an 18 volt model; however if the mechanic who put on your wheels wasn’t too aggressive you most likely have enough torque to take off those lug nuts in no time.
If they’re too tight or rusted or otherwise stuck, use a breaker bar to knock em loose, then move over to your powered impact driver to make short work of the rest. Then grease everything up, and screw them right back on.
Another tip: for those of you without a regular floor jack, speed up the tiny scissors-jack that comes with the automobile and use the cordless impact driver rather than the tiny lug wrench.
Rock your socks off
Yes, you can put up wall board with an impact driver. In fact, the low weight and small size make it easy to wield and less tiring, too. Be careful not to become too carried away! Some impact drivers are too hard to regulate with a light press. If you think you would possibly have that issue simply grab a drywall screw adapter and go to town.
Pre-drilled holes
With a chuck-adapter or a set of hex-shafted drill bits, you’ll be able to transform your driver into a drill. Quickly drill out holes near the edges or ends of the workpiece. Although the powered driver has the strength to sink a screw without the assistance, this can prevent splitting and cracking.
Do not lag behind
Driving lag bolts is where these tools show off their strength. A cordless drill simply does not have the power to set long lags while not killing the batteries. You will still want to drill a pilot hole to prevent the wood from cracking, but luckily you already have the tool for that job, too…
Make certain you’ve got an impact-rated socket or you may break it and be looking for a new socket set before you know it.
What’s so screwy?
Driving screws, of course! This is why most people get an impact driver to begin with. Quick speed, high power, no cam out, easy to handle… should we continue? Of course, you will now have to worry about tearing the heads off of some of the weaker screws. It’s a small price to pay!
If you have ever attempted to put a 4″ polymer-coated exterior screw into pressure treated wood, over your head, with a drill, and barely got partially in before it started to strip… you understand what we are talking about.
This is illuminating
Many of the current cordless impact drivers sport a bright LED in the front. This allows you to work in the back of the cabinet beneath the sink easily.
Get one like the Makita with ‘Afterglow’ and you’ll be able to even see for 10 seconds after releasing the trigger switch – that ought to be long enough to get to that mini-fridge within the garage without anyone seeing!
Nutty!
We’ve already written a very little about lug nuts, however there are heaps of nuts out there. And they all need to be tightened. Or loosened.
Anyway, the point is that by using a nut-driver attachment, or with a socket adapter and socket set, you’ll be able to quickly finish any nut-wrenching jobs with minimal effort.
There’s a reverse mode, too!
So you have already engineered a deck, but now you’ve got to disassemble the old deck before you rebuild. There’s not much worse than 15 year old rusty looking screws that are buried in wood. You’ll be able to tell in a glance that they don’t want to turn. And you know from experience that a drill will end up stripping half of them, if you are lucky.
Conversely, impact drivers have the power to loosen them up while not stripping those heads – which you already knew if you were paying attention.
Start off simple if you’re dealing with old fasteners – an excessive amount of power, too quickly, and you will rip the top off while leaving the remainder of the screw buried within the decking. And then you’ve got another kind of problem.