dpb wrote:
On 2/18/2014 7:00 PM, Leon wrote:
...

I don't know, I can hold the impact with a large enough socket, with
my bare hand, with a little slippage.

Because impact wrenches don't actually deliver torque, per se, but an
energy impulse. Somewhat paradoxically, against a "springy"
resistance like your hand, there is very little, if any actual torque
delivered as opposed to it working against a stuck fastener.

There's a decent albeit not fully rigorous discussion at wikipedia
under a heading "Effect of Impact Drive"...in short to transfer the
hammer action to the driven part requires an essentially elastic (the
cue ball on the object ball thingie) impact whereas your hand hold is
very non-elastic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_wrench

Boy - this group can dive down into esoteric rabbit holes! Why doesn't
someone just try it rather than deliberating all of the theoretical
I-don't-really-know stuff?

--

-Mike-