1/2" Impact Driver

Itching to buy a new tool for the man cave and I really fancy a battery powered 1/2" impact driver :laugh:

Any recommendations?

Sam

I use a kielder 1/2" impact wrench. It shifts 95% of the rusty nuts and bolts I want it to on tractors, golf buggies and commercial mowing equipment that I work on for a living. Sure it's not the most powerful out there but it's relatively cheap, compact, reliable and the batteries fit the other kielder 18v tools. Would I buy another? Yes.

Interesting, one of my contractors uses Kielder and has recommended them! It's definitely on the short list! Thanks for your thoughts! Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of them!

Sam

Makita. I have a couple, one 1/4 hex for smaller sizes and limited access and a gurt heavy 1/2 square one with 450nm in reverse which so far has yet to be defeated, though I don't have anything much bigger than m20 for it to play with.

For work on cars I'd prioritise compact size over outright power. You can always loosen off really tight fasteners with a breaker bar before running them out with the impact driver, but if your impact driver is too bulky to get to it in the first place it's pointless. And even the most powerful impact driver will not replace a bar with a bit of pipe on the end When it comes to putting things back together, you'll want to be using a torque wrench anyway so the impact gun only needs to get it finger tight.

I wouldn't recommend it for car work, but I have a tiny Makita 10.8v impact driver that I use when I'm not in the workshop. Even though it is very low powered it still speeds things up no end.

Bought this a couple months ago:

Link - Makita LXT 18V Impact Driver

Works like a bomb, and is their most compact 18V impact gun. A few bolts on my old Jimny have defeated it, but I think they'd have defeated anything. Breaker bar sorted it out.

The Makita LXT batteries are outhstanding, I've got one of the 5.0 amp-hour ones and it lasts a long time. A whole weekend of fettling the car didn't even see it drop one (of five) bars on the battery indicator.