Never drive screws with drill again

I have been looking at impact drivers for quite a while now. When I get one it will have a lithium-ion battery.

Does it use the impact feature when you remove screws?

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Yes Gary it does. It has the impact feature in both forward and reverse.

I just posted a link in the forums where Amazon has a good deal on this right now.

Thanks for the review. I just redid my deck last summer. Sounds like this would have been welcome. I used an 18 volt (heavy) drill motor.

The guys that used to install our cabinets swore by impact drivers for driving screws…not just lag screws but smaller wood screws, for the reasons you outlined! I agree with Gary though..any new tools I buy will by Lithium Ion! Great review..Makita never disappoints they always make a quality tool…I love my Makita 12” SCMS

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

I had the privilage of using that drill recently. Had no problem driving in 10” lag bolts. Two batteries did over 100 6” x 5/16th lag bolts. .............noisy as can be but effortless. Got home and drove a 3” screw through two pieces of 8/4 hard maple…no problem. I’m not one to give many tools a 5 star rating but this tool gets all five stars

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

I bought the Makita 18v cordless compact drill and impact driver in a set ((LCT200W). Both are great. With the limited use for far, I feel I have better control driving screws with the impact driver than with the drill.

Just a short aside, I had to remove some phillips heads that were very tightly screwed in. So tight in fact it felt from trying to remove them by hand with a phillips screwdriver, that I would strip the phillips slots. I pulled out the impact driver and put firm pressure on the driver and the impact did its work. No stripping and screws came out cleanly. I agree with DGunn, light weight and plenty of torque.

Dalec

The key phrase that makes the impact driver superior to a regular drill for driving screws is “rotational tourqe”..the impact driver has none and thats what makes the bit want to jump out of the screw when using a drill.

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

Is it so freakin noisy and slow as to be the most annoying tool ever invented ?? It seems like I’m the only who does not appreciate these things. My kitchen installer uses impacts drills and I gotta leave the room when he’s working, it gives me a headache being around him. No doubt they have lots of torque…..but at what cost.
I’ll plug away with my v28 milwaukee at lightening speed and power.

-- Paul

I love the LCT200W kit. I purchased it and then had to get my dad one too cause he liked it so much. Great weight and ergonomics. You can get the LCT200 for $199. reconditioned at Toolking. The cool thing about the Makita LCT kit is that with a little “modification” the LCT battery can fit on the LXT tools. There is a tab on the LXT tools that you just need to chip out. course, you probably void your warranty but….it’s sure nice to have the 1.5Ah battery fit on my cordless reciprocating saw now.

-- life can always be weaved into a song.

My only question is how much control do you have without any torque adjustment? I’ve been wondering if you would have a tendency to over drive the screws because of too much torque. That’s why I recently purchased a MILWAUKEE 12V SUB-COMPACT DRIVER rather than an impact

-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”

I also had concerns with the impact driver over-driving screws. What I have found so far is that you can drive a screw pretty well into a board without without much effort if you wanted to. I have found that I can control the speed of the driver with the trigger. I can ease off the trigger when I get near flush and it works fine.

I too had a cabinet installer use this tool in my house. I agree the sound when it begins impacting as it begins to tighten was annoying. But as the operator, I notice it less for whatever reason.

Dalec

I have been thinking about getting one of these but just can’t seem to justify it (since my tool wish list is rather long) as long as my Dewalt’s are funning fine. But I will have to put one of these on my wish list in case I come across a windfall.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.