Leon wrote:
"Mike Marlow" wrote:
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?


Well actually, as indicated with one of my last reply, I have tried
it.

You get the beer prize then. I just sometimes find it funny how much we
kick ideas or thoughts around here instead of putting some of them to the
test. It does show we've got some thinking people here and sometimes I'm
downright amazed at what the guys here contribute, but still...

--

-Mike-