The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

DeWalt impact driver review

DeWalt impact driver review with field notes


The DeWalt impact driver is an awesome innovation in drill technology.

We've been using ours for a few months now. I could tell you how the torque feature lets the drill decide when to add more power or back off by making a loud clicking sound, but the best way to appreciate what a great tool this is would be to look at the reviews on Amazon. 111 five star reviews with only 1 one star review from a guy who had issues with how his driver smelled.

A good example is shelf brackets. I was putting up a new shelf in the barn recently trying to use the old Dewalt regular drill. The wood was hard enough to cause problems. Either it would break off the head or stop gripping and begin to strip the screw. When I finally walked over to get the impact drill the difference was obvious.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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If the wood is very hard, it is usually better to drill holes for the screws. Otherwise the wood may split.

Comment by Roland_Smith Sun Jul 8 16:53:15 2012
Roland --- Mark usually does predrill for that exact reason. But it does slow you down to have to swap back and forth between the drill bit and the driver bit, so I can see why he'd want to do without the pilot hole if he can get away with it.
Comment by anna Sun Jul 8 18:30:24 2012

That's why I bought a cordless drill with a removeable chuck. It has a hexagonal bit holder, and a chuck that just snaps on over that (even with a bit installed). It's very convenient; drill a hole, take off the chuck (quick-release), put in a screw.

Mine's a Black & Decker, but they don't seem to make them anymore. Maybe you can still find them on craiglist?

Comment by Roland_Smith Sun Jul 8 19:33:25 2012

Here is one: http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW0521-Connect-Impact-Conversion/dp/B000KKWLE8

There are better versions and cheaper also. I have a similar one and it is very useful.

Comment by Marco Sun Jul 8 21:45:55 2012
Roland and Marco --- Mark actually has a quick change adapter that he uses quite a bit. It sure does speed things up, but is still slower than just using the impact drill if the latter gets the job down without cracking (which it seems to).
Comment by anna Mon Jul 9 11:42:28 2012





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