On Nov 22, 10:59*pm, John Rumm wrote:
On 22/11/2010 17:14, David Robinson wrote:

I just phoned Makita to ask. The guy in the service department claimed
that he could stop all their tools with his hand in screwdriver mode -
it's just that some took more effort than others. *????

Well having just managed it on the top of the range (as was) 18V
marathon motor combi, I would expect he is right.

(if you think about how much torque you could apply with a screwdriver
with a handle the size of the chuck on your drill, its going to be
fairly substantial. So I would be surprised if you couldn't get pretty
much any screwdriving clutch to slip (although don't try on a core drill
clutch!))

It's interesting the different answers I've got on this in the thread.
I suppose it depends on your grip, whether you wear gloves, and the
friction on the surface of the chuck. And, of course, the clutch
itself.

I'll try some different sized screws straight into some 4x2 with no
pilot hole. Usually I'd use a pilot hole (but not for the full length
of the screw). The feeling I get is that I have higher torque settings
on the old Focus(!) no-name combi I've borrowed - which seem
ridiculous, except, as you say, maybe I've been mis-using it...

I get the feeling you might be expecting the clutch to do a slightly
different job from what its intended to do. Its main virtue IME is in
repeatable setting of smaller screws (say 1.5") to consistent depth
quickly without worrying about over driving.



If you want something just for screw driving, then an impact driver
would be another option. The 18V version will stick out over 150 Nm of
torque! Either the screw goes in or something breaks (usually the
screwdriving bit!)

I guess that would get 3" screws in no problem?


The trick I used with the Focus drill was to do them all on max torque
setting, which got them all but the last 3-5mm in, and then go back
using the drill setting when the battery was getting a bit flat. They
went all the way in and then the motor stopped with breaking anything.
Obviously the right tool would have been better!


Perhaps it depends on the jobs you do, but I find almost zero use for my
mains "hammer" drills these days. I find the combi does pretty much
everything apart from big deep holes in masonry, where the SDS comes
out. (although my combi is the 80Nm one IIRC)

Yep, that's my dilemma - keep this one and resort to the SDS sooner,
get something like this pair...
http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/...&product=94367
....and maybe a mains drill, or get one of the far better (and
expensive) ones like yours...
http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/...&product=36503

To think this time last year I was happy with my 20 year old Black and
Decker mains drill. That was before I had an SDS and borrowed a
cordless. Now I realise the old adage "a bad workman blames his tools"
is crap - while a good workman can probably do the job with almost
anything, decent tools make a job 10x easier and sometimes 50x
quicker!

Cheers,
David.