Folks, I don't know if I've mentioned it but I'm due to move house this summer (once the new place has been built) so I've been informed that I'll be fitting a lot of shelves/curtain rails and general crap. Normal, I guess. However, her ladyship sweetened the deal by suggesting that I get an electric screwdriver. That has, of course, been translated in my brain into an opportunity to buy an electric impact gun. I've been very impressed by the ones you guys have been using at Summer Camps - what would you recommend?
I have a very few impact sockets in my socket set, so do I need to get some more of those too or do electric guns not really need them?

Sadly, I don't think I'll get away with air tools at this point ;)

Electric impact driver isn't really suitable as general purpose electric screwdriver. Tends to snap the heads off unless you are very careful with the trigger! Combi drills with a torque setting ring are much safer

For vehicle use with sockets I'm impressed by the cheap mains electric ones. Got mine from Lidl for £50 (ish). Bulky but does the deed. First job was the "invisible" rear damper top bolts which came out without a burp. Thought something had sheared. Breaker bar didn't really want to know.

When I had some serious house improvements to do some years back I got Makita 18 Volt and 14 volt Combi drills at very attractive prices. Big boy for drilling, smaller one for screw driving. Much faster thanks swopping drill for driver bit and back again. The big 18 V ones tend to be heavy in the hand when screw driving. NiCAD so battery life issues but they have done me over a decade so can't grumble. In retrospect a 10 volt one for screw driving duties would have been just as good and much lighter. The impact driver companion to the 18 V drill fell into my hands at the right price, "free if you fix it". Pretty impressive in impact mode but you do need to let it rattle for a bit on tight bolts. Shifts wheel nuts in about 5 seconds. In contrast the Lidl electric one only needs about 2 or 3 rattles. Which I think is better.

Were I buying now the Screwfix offer of the latest Makita 18 V Combi Drill / Impact driver pair for £250 seems good value for trade rated brand name tool. Impact driver goes to 140 Nm, 100 ft lb so will handle most things with the hex to square drive adapter. Lotta folks reckon the Erbauer ones are decent at under half the price. Know of one builder guy who just buys a new set every year as being good enough and keeps the old ones as spare. Name brands tend to get nicked! Says they aren't as reliable as the name brands but Screwfix are good at exchanging broken ones in the 2 year warranty period.

Clive

PS My local Lidl have a cordless screwdriver for £20.00 listed next Thursday offers. Looks the bees thingies for putting kitchen cabinets together. Only 5 Nm max output so not really up to major work.

Impact drivers and impact wrenches work on the same principal, but with varying levels of ugga duggas :)

I'm partial to Milwaukee... I have a 1/2" impact wrench that will undo just about anything - laughs at crank bolts. On paper its about three times as powerful as any of the cheapies, and it really shows.

My impact driver is actually about as powerful as a lot of the cheap 1/2" impact wrenches, but has 3 power settings as well as the variable trigger, so you can tickle screws in without the impacting action. The downside is they're not cheap, but once you have a decent set of batteries bare tools aren't too bad.

I use impact drivers, and drills all the time for work on exhibition stands.

I've got the 18V DeWalt XR Lithium Ion version years ago and they are still going strong. I don't use the impact driver much on vehicular bits, as I'm more worried about snapping the adapters I have.

I think the impact driver goes up to about 180Nm at full rattle - but primarily used for hanging screen brackets on walls. Again, like Sloth says - it has variable speed trigger, and for most things doesn't even start hammering, some of the guys have the 10.8V Makita's, which are easier to transport, but you can always hear when they're trying to do something as they are sound like a bunch of woodpeckers hammering away.

At home though, for 'normal' DIY, then the 10.8V version or a lot of brands would probably do the trick, as you don't need stupid power, or things like that. If you are planning on using on the car, then something with a bit more grunt for some bolts would be handy - but then as mentioned already, an actual impact gun with a 1/2" shank, rather than the more 'domestic' hex socket would be better.

My 0.02 :)

I'll second the 18V DeWalt XR Lithium if you want a combined drill/screwdriver. Unlike the earlier NiCd or NiHM versions, the Li-Ion batteries are less prone to dying and charge a lot quicker too. As for impact driver, I've got a Clarke CIR450C (https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cir450c-12-drive-24v-impact-wrench/) but it's crap. It's OK for spinning bolts out but if they are tight they need to be slackened off with a breaker bar first, so go with the recommendations from others.

I assume this new house will have a double garage with sufficient headroom to install one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-POST-LIFT-CAR-VEHICLE-RAMP-LIFT-HOIST-3-5-T-3500KG-TWO-POST/253473094034

That's actually the same unit I bought and took down to France for my mates workshop and 8 years later it is still working fine (I think in 8 years they've got cheaper too!).

Sadly a single garage which will be filled with cr@p from day one.
Although I could put one of those in the garden and offroad to it from the "bridleway" next door :)

I guess what I'd really like is a cordless spinning device which can take drill bits and sockets. It would have a selectable hammer/impact action and would be calibrated so you could do up nuts/bolts to correct torque, drive screws without snapping them and undo horrendously stuck bolts with large applications of POWAH.

From the sounds of things, this sort of device doesn't exist :(

Don't think so, lots of power for nuts and bolts doesn't fit well with a power screwdriver. I must admit, I've used a standard battery drill for smaller nuts and bolts, particularly when there's lots of them all the same size.

But I think you've got your priorities all wrong with this new house. Surely the list of priorities should go:

1. Large garage, at least double width, preferably 1.5 cars length long and with enough headroom for a car lift
2. Separate workshop with room for a good sized bench, air compressor, tool racks, etc
3. Lots of parking space outside for the next project (or the donor car)
4. Large storage area for all the crap that lesser mortals fill their garages with
5. Easily accessible toilet
6. Somewhere to sleep
7. Somewhere for a sofa so you can relax and watch TV when you've finished playing outside
8. Somewhere for a fridge and microwave so you don't starve.

Although I have a sneaking suspicion that Mrs Morat may have different priorities......

lol :)
Her priorities aren't terribly far from mine, but she does still have her previous house packed in the shed (and we haven't moved in 10 years) so our garage is going to be storage for some time.

I tell you what we are DEFINITELY having in our new place - level parking! and we're the end of the road so we can get a few cars in when necessary - and one of these bad boys :)

Nice to see the BBQ king has the priorities correct, lol

Does that mean the next Summer Camp is at your new house??

OldShep56 wrote:

Does that mean the next Summer Camp is at your new house??

You'd be welcome - there are no tools there! In fact, not even a house yet. But I guess we could have a northern meet some time?

Gilbertd wrote:

Surely the list of priorities should go:....

The list reminds me of one time many years ago I didn't come out of the garage for 3 complete days and nights except to use the toilet, no sleep or rest, soup brought in, working on a car the whole time. Dad was helping and was with me the whole time, all eyes on the ball the whole time with just a couple of conversations that went 'we should get some sleep', 'well you go and sleep then', 'no I'm not sleeping until you do' lol.. Not something I'd do again but the job was done on time when otherwise it wouldn't have been, then we drove the car the 200 miles according to plan and feeling surprisingly well rested after only 4 hours sleep before the drive. Both of us stubborn gits!

The firepit has been ordered. They've got an offer on firebowls here
I got the 60cm seeing as we've already got the barrel barbeque and we're getting a range cooker in the new kitchen.

Hope the house goes through! :)

See you on Friday, Simon! (I'll get that photo of the LPG injector plug when it stops pissing down)

Morat wrote:

See you on Friday, Simon! (I'll get that photo of the LPG injector plug when it stops pissing down)

Yeh see you Friday Miles.

Morat wrote:

See you on Friday, Simon! (I'll get that photo of the LPG injector plug when it stops pissing down)

Have you broken it already?

it's the Jeep, it needs some TLC.
Sadly it's just started throwing a check engine light with codes for the MAP sensor. I've changed the sensor and then it did it again :/

Gilbertd wrote:

Morat wrote:

See you on Friday, Simon! (I'll get that photo of the LPG injector plug when it stops pissing down)

Have you broken it already?

Morat wrote:

it's the Jeep, it needs some TLC.
Sadly it's just started throwing a check engine light with codes for the MAP sensor. I've changed the sensor and then it did it again :/

I know the Jeep ran better on the way home, is it still OK Morat (besides the PAS pump)?

Yep, it ran like a top all the way home - as long as I could mentally tune out the horrible noise from the PAS pump. Just the short commute today, but the gas kicked in at the expected times and ran really smoothly. I topped her up on the way back so I can see what to expect from a full tank of gas.

When I get a chance I'll have a look at the earth strap from the engine, I suspect I'll find it in a pretty dodgy state. I hope it's that rather then chasing the wiring for the MAP sensor, I hate chasing wires especially when they've all been taped over a zillion times :/

I hope you've warmed up again! I was getting pretty cold after the first couple of hours :)

Good stuff. Yeh I'm warm in my long sleeve Tshirt, jumper, another jumper, coat and hat :-)