I'm looking to get an electric impact wrench. Anyone have experience with them? Any brand better than the rest?

 

I bought a very beat up dewalt at the local pawn shop for $40. It has not failed me yet. It sees quite a bit of abuse as it is used to make 4"X4" barrel racks for boat houses on a regular basis in less than freezing temps.

 

I have an old 1/2" drive Ingersoll Rand #IR2136 electric impact gun that works good.

Had it for about 20 years.

Had to have the clutch rebuilt awhile back.

Money well spent, thought.

What's nice about an electric gun is that with quicky jobs, you don't have to fire up the compressor and mess with the hoses and stuff.

 

electric impact wrenches usually have less torque than air impacts.
Approx 250 ft. lb.
Where if you need more than that to loosen tight or frozen wheel nuts.
Need over 350 - 400 ft. lb. with good air pressure over 110 p.s.i.

 

I have used the DeWalt for driving lags and loosening nuts, it works fine and is fairly heavy duty for what it is. The rocker (for./rev.) switch is nice.

 

I bought three electric impact wrenches on a Lowes clearance rack sale. $100 @.
One was 110 Volt Milwaukee and it is wonderful.
Other two were Milwaukee 18V cordless.
Sold one cordless on e-Bay to bay 60% of the other two.
Now have about $40 in each.
Have used the cordless to remove lugs from large SUV on the roadside whose factory lug wrench wouldn't even phase the lug nuts.
May not be the optimum in the garage, but I carry the cordless with me at all times on the road.
Especially nice in the bone yards.
Also carry the Craftsman 3 piece lug nut removal set which removes 'keyed' lug nuts and or chewed up lug nuts.
FWIW
DaveP

 

Where did you find the lug nut removal kit? I had heard there was such an animal a while back but neither Sears store had it. Do you have a part number for it? Thanks.

 

Like to never found the correct item
#947392000
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00952165000
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00999303000
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00947392000
If I had it to do over again I'd look real hard at the set #952165000.
May be more universal.
I found my set on e-Bay searching by product #.
I see Sears sells the Milwaukee cordless for $299.
Sure do like those Lowes clearance tables!
As a sidebar, After I loosen the lugs, I found it best to reseat them and spin the driver back off the lug.
Then reloosen it.
This was so as to be able to get the lug nut out of the driver easier.
First time I had to take the socket off the tool and pound the bejeebers out of it.
second time after reseating the lug and then loosening a second time it came out fairly easy.
Oh the set delivered was less than retail when I bought them on e-Bay.
NAPA wanted about $130 or so for a set. More sockets but the 3 piece set has 6 different sizes.
FWIW
DaveP
PS were I looking on various sales arenas I'd look for
'Craftsman 10 pc. Impact Grade Bolt-Out Damaged Bolt/Nut'
:-)
Beware the Milwaukee cordless impacts on e-Bay.
MANY have NO,repeat,NO batteries included.
D.

 

We have a couple Hitachi 1/2" electric impact guns and one 3/4" of the same brand. If the 1/2"ers can't do the work, the 3/4" can.

Air tools are nicer since they are lighter for equal power. No big magnets and coils to weight the tool down. Also, no sparks so smaller chance fumes will ignite if present. We use electric for our timber construction because there is a better chance electricity is at the site than a 60 gallon air tank/compressor.