jeffmcmillan

The compound mechanism is stronger than the metal, or more accurately the metal is weaker than the compound mechanism.

Now that the horse is dead with the potential for other people to hack tools I think we can stop beating it. But no one has brought up the potential for the end user to hack the tools though. The tools have all sorts of special controls built in, but through the one-key interface it could be possible to override these. Most of these tools are run well below their limits, but in this case it means drawing about the same power from a compact battery as the new high demand ones. This would void the warranty and damage the tools and batteries, but also with careful usage get people out of some tough situations without damaging the tools. Imagine getting upwards of 1500 ft-lbs from an impact wrench. Just wait and see, soon your drill will start shipping with bloatware.

Personally I couldn't stand building a form every time I need to make a corner. Keep in mind the size of the clamp you get because most are not designed for large clamping forces and can easily bend or break.

If you really want compact, go for Bosch.

Thanks, but I'll stick with my normal variety of things that spin with their various speeds and torques and occasionally impacts. No need to overcomplicate and overprice things.

Crimped wire brush on an angle grinder followed by 220 grit sandpaper. Once you sand the faces, the rust in the engravings gives a nice contrast. As the specificity indicates, I've done too damn many of these.

I wouldn't use either of those for siding. You really want a nail with a larger head to hold the siding on.

I heard at one point Wiss switched from forged to cast snips which may be the problem. Unfortunately all the good snips I've used have been quite old so I can't say much about newer products. You may have better luck getting a used pair on ebay.

The simplest explanation is to think about how long the torque is applied. This depends primarily on the hammer and anvil setup. A short pulse of high torque will do about the same as a longer pulse of lower torque. The soft impact is slower because the special impact mechanism has more friction, plus it's designed for lighter interior work where noise matters more and you want a less powerful impact for smaller screws.

It also depends on the energy behind the impact. Most impact bits have that flex region to reduce the torque so you don't break bits and screws by distributing the energy. If the improvement with milwaukee impact drivers is really just about that new anvil shape they showed, it's likely the increased torque will only contribute to breaking bits and screws. Look at Makita's soft impact driver; only 355in-lbs of torque and it still drives screws almost as fast as their normal brushless.

From experience those are actually very good extension cords except the lock. The sheathing is strong and holds up to being shut in doors repeatedly at the same point which is pretty impressive for a cheap extension cord. The lock, however, is flimsy junk and only holds one prong of the extension cord. This means if you're working with someone who doesn't know it locks they can easily think it's just a tight fit and go on ripping a prong out of whatever's plugged into it. The lock tab can also easily break off in the locked position which due to its shape makes it incredibly difficult to unlock. If you just snap the lock tab off and superglue the hub you get a nice extension cord at a good price though.

More info Overall disappointing

Rees, does the stanley antivibration actually work or is it just another gimmick? It seems like anything but wood handles tries to vibrate your arm off, but I've heard good things about those.

- Does the disc rpm exceed your grinder? - Does the disc fit your blade guard? - Does you grinder have enough power? If so go ahead, but you're almost certainly going to grind faster with a 4-1/2 inch disc. Larger discs bog down before you can get enough pressure for the grit to dig. They don't just shake a magic-eight-ball to determine the size rating of a grinder and if they did I doubt any of us would have one to answer your question. They just just optimizing motor power then building safety features around that grinder type.

Selector switches break all the time. Just pop it open and superglue whatever snapped back together.

Yeah it only has 2.5x the cut depth of a 7-1/4 inch saw. Pretty lame. /sarcasm

Hakko makes excellent soldering irons. Mine heats very quickly and holds temperature very well even with fairly large joints. Of course at that price you can buy a new drill. If you just want something just to re-solder some brushes you'll do fine with any cheap soldering iron from Amazon. Edit: Well you guys beat me to it. I have the same one as NaluRash. Then again half the people I know use those.

If you think electronics are not reliable it's because you have cheap electronics. They're subject to the same cost cutting as everything else, but manufacturers can do that because people blame electronics failure on the electronics instead of the manufacturer.

How large a screw can you drive with it? I've found drywall guns work surprisingly well for deck screws even but not sure how this little guy would do with such large screws. I miss the comfort of old L-handle tools anyway.

Experience.

Actually the pliers trick might help. The trick with masonry is always just to have impact of some sort. You dont cut concrete. You grind it or you break it. Even though the action of an impact driver is not ideal for drilling concrete it helps quite a bit the same way using a hammer drill strips screws less than a regular drill. Apparently it wasnt clear in my previous post I've tested all the methods I mentioned.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=186145 fwiw

Everything depends on what you're drilling. A carbide bit will go through most masonry without hammering but not well. Then again you can run a spade bit through some brick without hammering. Using an impact driver does have some advantage over a drill but thats only if you press hard enough to cause impacting which is almost impossible with a tapcon bit.

The big difference is silicon carbide for masonry rather than aluminum oxide normally used for metal. You can use either wheel on either thing but the proper one will cut faster and last longer. In my experience silicon carbide masonry wheels also work better if you need to grind gummy materials like aluminum because less sticks to them and they tend to give a smoother finish than aluminum oxide grinding wheels. Your experience may vary though. Of course if you got a diamond wheel, which I doubt you'd mistake for a metal wheel, it will dull quickly and not grind well on metal. tl;dr: grind away

Someone goofed