On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 13:44:13 -0400, "Existential Angst"
wrote:


Yes indeedy....

I couldn't figger out the functional diff between the drill/driver and the
impact driver I bought
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051
and was initially going to query the groups on this, but then I found
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-...t-drivers.aspx

an inneresting review of a variety of drivers (and shows how an impact
driver works, via the internals, fascinating), which indeed states that
these impact drivers are specifically for driving tough, deep screws. I was
initially thinking, Dayum, this impact driver seems awfully small to remove
the lug nuts of my car..... doh
Just in case others have shared my conunudrum....

The above HD Makita set ($99, 12V drill/drive+impact driver, charger, two
batts, in a bull**** alum "camera case", like Aire Jordans) is cheaper than
other stuff, and the power of the driver seems substantially less than the
similarly sized Milwaukee drill driver (also 12V, also made in Chiner) that
my buddy has, as we were able to do a side-by-side comparison.

And the makita battery doesn't last nearly as long. But, those small
milwaukee batts are $70 all by themselves -- holy **** -- but seem to last
forever.
So actually, I couldn't say f'sure whether the raw power of the makita was
less, or that the battery had just gotten comparitively weaker by that
point -- but, which is sort of six-one/half-dozen, from a practical use pov.

Still, the Makita set is neat, useful, relatively cheap. Note that these
drivers are much smaller than the big-battery style, but really handy, and
did well on some substantial-sized projects. . Even the above reviewer
comments on size/convenience.
I'm almost done with my outside home-moaning projects (boucou fencing,
gates, etc), but if I were to do it again, I'd buy like 3 sets of those
makitas (6 drivers altogether), just to have the right driver bit, drill,
etc always handy -- helpful in the heat of home-moaning battle and
confusion.

Note that altho impact drivers always seem to be chuckless (that spring hex
ditty), that drill/drivers also can be chuckless with that same spring/hex
ditty. Fortunately the makita drill/driver was chucked, altho if you catch
one of the HD demo videos on this makita set, the drill-driver is not
chucked.... weird.... but this could be a different set, as I think they
mentioned 10.8V, and this set is jalternately listed as "12 V" or "10.8-12 V
max"..

Plus, these impact drivers *sound* really cool, seem to amp up home-moaning
testosterone a bit.... which would proly be a really big plus for Trader4 et
al.
I have the small 10.8v set. It comes in that aluminum box. I like the
box and it has held up well. I fill it with all sorts of bits and
things along with the two tools. I use the impact driver the most and
I use the **** out of it. I am amazed at the long battery life and the
short charge time. For the size it is the best tool of this type I
have ever used.
Eric