Bosch Pocket Driver Packs a Punch

I have been eyeballing one of these for a few months. I may just have to take part of my bonus at the end of the month and treat myself for a change.

-- Grant...."GO BUCKEYES"

Nice review!

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

I’ve been lusting after one of these for a while now…

-- Tom, Southwest Florida

i bought one about 8 months ago and i agree its a great tool . i also picked up the 90 deg. angle model at the same time it seems good as well although i havent used it as much

I recently also purchased this driver on Amazon.com and when it arrived I also received a free flashlight. The battery life is good and the kit came with two batteries. Full charge in 30 minutes. The driver is light and compact with good power and a nice adjustable clutch. It feels almost like an extension to your hand. It’s great to have the driver available and reserve the larger cordless drill for actually drilling pilot holes.

I had been looking at the Metabo cordless driver that was on sale at Rockler at the time. I asked one of the guys working at the local store his impression and he quietly recommended the Bosch. Nice to have a salesperson who gives an honest opinion.

-- CutNRun - So much wood, so many trails, so little time

Any hint on the outlay on this guy?

-- Maplewood, MN

rikkor i think i paid 109.00 for mine but i think they go for a little more like 120.00 i got mine from a bosch rep that was doing a showcase at the time so they were giving a little break on them

Blake,

Thanks for the review. Sounds like lots of LJs either have one or are looking.

Dalec

Blake,

How do you think this little guy would do with lag screws in the 1/4” to 1/2” range and with tightening up nuts on carriage bolts, etc? I am looking for a good impact driver for the shop, and this one is appealing to me. However, I have a project coming up where I will probably be using quite a few carriage bolts and lag screws. I was wondering if this little guy had the stamina. I am sure it will be ok for my normal furniture building activities. It’s just that I want to spend my money wisely and get something that will also work when I need to pull it out on the deck and kids play-set projects.

Thanks for the opinion,
Rob Hix

-- -- Rob Hix, King George, VA

This is not an impact… Just a driver. They just came out with an impact version of the same thing. I just wanted the pocket driver because I was afraid of the impact breaking small screw heads for hinges, etc. But on this one, with a full battery charge I haven’t had any problems with it bogging down on anything yet.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com

I just thought I’d add a few things rather than post a new review:
I’d been eying these things for a while, and once the price hit $85 on amazon I couldn’t resist.
Pros:
-Love the size. This gets places my corded drill and 15.6V craftsman can’t, like inside a shelf mounting bracket
-Plenty of power for pretty much everything I do (for other things, that’s where the Milwaukee corded comes in)
-Battery life is amazing. One charge has survived screwing together a few sets of shelves in the basement and mounting shelves all around the perimeter of the garage
-Quick recharge. I’m not even sure if I could drain one battery before the other one recharges. Maybe with a whole room full of drywall, but I’m not tackling one of those projects again for a bit.
-Maintains power. I think it’s a property of the lithium ion batteries, but they seem to maintain full power until they die.
Cons:
-Maybe it’s not a con, but I don’t find the light that helpful. The ring arrangement on the PS40 seems like a better setup.
-I wish the hex chuck would snap open when I take a bit out, so the next one could snap in (my ryobi set does this, otherwise I’d probably never notice the difference)

And once the free extra PS20 from the mail in rebate comes in, I’ll be able to do just what Blake suggests, and keep one in the house and one in the shop. I haven’t really drilled anything with the PS20, but once I find a set of hex shank drill bits I like I’ll post an update.

Quick summary: this thing rocks

-- Steve -- Cleveland area, Ohio