1/2 air impact wrench as impact driver (screwdriver)?

[julianf]

I borrowed my friends Milwaukee impact driver (18v) the other day for putting some wood screws in. It really was like a knife through butter.

But we're talking a £300 screwdriver!


Can I somehow use my 12" air impact wrench in the same way? Is it as simple as buying a 1/2 inch to hex adapter?

 

[Gareth0123]

Yes and no. An air impact driver is just a little too heavy to handle for constant use on woodscrews and will deliver just a little bit (lot) too much torque which could strip your screw heads.

It just so happens that I have a specific Air screw driver with 1/4 hex safety quick chuck for sale

You have to push the bit down lightly on the screw head for the driver to work.

It came from a production environment several years ago

It has since been used by me on my many woodworking projects and was last used on Thursday (320 of 5mm X 40mm screws albeit into soft wood) so it is in working order, inc 1/4 PCL male......
.... £30 + delivery at cost.

 

[Pete.]

I borrowed my friends Milwaukee impact driver (18v) the other day for putting some wood screws in. It really was like a knife through butter.

But we're talking a £300 screwdriver!


Can I somehow use my 12" air impact wrench in the same way? Is it as simple as buying a 1/2 inch to hex adapter?

Yes you can I have got one.

 

[julianf]

Yes and no. An air impact driver is just a little too heavy to handle for constant use on woodscrews and will deliver just a little bit (lot) too much torque which could strip your screw heads.

It just so happens that I have a specific Air screw driver with 1/4 hex safety quick chuck for sale

You have to push the bit down lightly on the screw head for the driver to work.

It came from a production environment several years ago

It has since been used by me on my many woodworking projects and was last used on Thursday (320 of 5mm X 40mm screws albeit into soft wood) so it is in working order, inc 1/4 PCL male......
.... £30 + delivery at cost.

Thank you for the offer, but im not needing to do a whole load of work -

I can borrow my friends milwakke if i have a lot to do, but it was more a case of "i have the 1/2 impact driver, so, if i can buy a £4 adapter for the odd time it would be useful...."

Pete - what's the adapter you have? Is it just a hex, or does it have the sprung locking ring?

 

[dannyp]

done it before but a good 1/2 drive npacter will smash pz2 bits ect f your driving into something a bit tough

 

[anjum]

Go out and treat yourself to a reasonable impact driver then buy torx bits and screws. You won't want to go back.

 

[Bill Edwards]

I know you can get the adaptors, but don't impact drivers deliver a much more controlled series of knocks and I think also pushing the screw in as well as turning?

I know that my impact wrenches wouldn't be any use for putting in screws, I'd use a drill. They'd just spin them in most of the time without offering any impact until you met something really hard or got the screw in, at which point I've no doubt they would snap screws and bits as though they're plastic. Admittedly my impact wrenches aren't bottom end but I don't see them as a suitable tool for screws.

 

[Pete.]

Mine looks like a normal 1/2" drive socket extension except instead of having a 1/2" square on the end it has a 1/4" socket for holding the bits. Dannyp is right you can smash pz bits really easily with it.

 

[gaz_moose]

if you have a decent air drill try using that.

 

[Robotstar5]

I'd always used battery drill/drivers for screws until I bought an Erbauer impact driver a couple of years ago, wouldn't be without now.

 

[armalites]

As an in between option price wise, the little 10.8v drill shaped impact drivers are good.

My Dewalt one has done many boxes of screws (and with an adaptor does well on smaller nuts/bolts too), and my dad had an erbauer one that seemed alright when I used it.

Personally, I wouldn't use a 1/2" windy gun on woodscrews - unless I already had it out and needed to bang a couple in and couldn't be bothered to get the driver...

^^
I have have some of the Dewalt 10.8v stuff, the 2 piece kit with a Drill/driver and Impact driver was about £160, they are sometimes on special at Screwfix. What they achieve in that package is amazing, super small/light and the batteries seem to last for ages. The only time the impact wasn't up to the job I was running 120mm stainless screws into rafters.It did put them in but with a bit of effort.

I was so impressed I bought the 10.8v 3/8 impact wrench too and a torch.

 

[Pete.]

No name on it I'm afraid, it came with an impact wrench set.

 

[Maker]

Yes and no. An air impact driver is just a little too heavy to handle for constant use on woodscrews and will deliver just a little bit (lot) too much torque which could strip your screw heads.

It just so happens that I have a specific Air screw driver with 1/4 hex safety quick chuck for sale

You have to push the bit down lightly on the screw head for the driver to work.

It came from a production environment several years ago

It has since been used by me on my many woodworking projects and was last used on Thursday (320 of 5mm X 40mm screws albeit into soft wood) so it is in working order, inc 1/4 PCL male......
.... £30 + delivery at cost.

I've got one of them, it smashed 3 pozi bits when I built my workbench.

 

[carbon]

I used a 1/2" impact gun years ago when replacing the floor on an artic trailer. The one thing I found was the screw driver bit needed to be the correct one for the screws being used or the bit got a little mangled

 

[anjum]

you could source an old manual impact screwdriver if you really wanted to try it out.

 

[Farside]

I borrowed my friends Milwaukee impact driver (18v) the other day for putting some wood screws in. It really was like a knife through butter.

But we're talking a £300 screwdriver!


Can I somehow use my 12" air impact wrench in the same way? Is it as simple as buying a 1/2 inch to hex adapter?

I was using a cheapy 1/2" air impact wrench to drive in concrete screws. It made a fair job of them, too. I noticed that the larger threaded coach screws, so beloved of farmers around here, had almost the same form, so tried it with some of them into concrete with good results too. Jury's out on how long they'll last, but they're under shear, to probably last me out.