Power Tools: Battery Power vs Air Compressor

jgaz said:
I’d like to try that tool!
If you have experience with a pneumatic 1” impact wrench, what air pressure did you use to run it?

My only experience with a 1” drive wrench was the unit we had at work for doing the old Chrysler, screw in, ball joints.
That gun would not do the job on many ball joints that were exposed to Michigan salt with just shop air pressure. (probably <125 psi.)
We had a nitrogen tank and used the gun with the regulator set at 175 psi. to do the tough jobs.
I could certainly see the use for the battery powered unit with a fully charged battery.
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Ya, I wore out a bunch of 1” guns. In the shop I was working in, it was a hydraulic 1-1/2” drive on a trolley.

In the field it was all air. On the big bolts, 1”, 1-1/4”, etc. we would have a guy over ride the regulator to hit 180, 190 psi. But under that like 7/8” or under, usually 160psi. We were pulling the track bolts on crawler dozers. They were usually tight and dry. Often the heads were worn bad too. The gun liked to jump off the heads. The tough job was replacing the rollers that the tracks ran on, the gun had to be held upside down fir long periods. Hoping you did not break any off in the holes.

Just noticed the end and you were using nitrogen, how long would a tank last? I assume it was a 80cf size tank.
 
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Zorba said:
What's the deal with Craftsman now? Both Lowes and Ace Hardware sell them...
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They’re owned by Stanley Black & Decker. Apparently they are trying to bring the manufacturing of the brand back to the USA (at least according to the head of the mechanics tools division when I interviewed with them a few months ago).
 
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Now for the real question, how are the battery powered compressors compared to a 110v compressor?
 
Apparition said:
@Zorba how’s that Milwaukee tool working out?
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For what I need it for, its fantastic. Not even so much because its battery powered - although even I think a power screwdriver should be - but because of the impact feature. It just drives screws better than anything else, and beats using "old grandad" to drive balky screws!
 
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Zorba said:
For what I need it for, its fantastic. Not even so much because its battery powered - although even I think a power screwdriver should be - but because of the impact feature. It just drives screws better than anything else, and beats using "old grandad" to drive balky screws!
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Wait until you switch over to Torx bits and Torx drive screws. They make all other non 6 lobe drives seem like something out of the stone age.
 
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mrblaine said:
Wait until you switch over to Torx bits and Torx drive screws. They make all other non 6 lobe drives seem like something out of the stone age.
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Agreed. I've been using Torx drive screws for several years now. They even beat square drive and sure as Hell beat anything Phillips! I bought a set of Milwaukee impact bits in a nice little case to supplement the bits you so kindly send me.
 
Zorba said:
Agreed. I've been using Torx drive screws for several years now. They even beat square drive and sure as Hell beat anything Phillips! I bought a set of Milwaukee impact bits in a nice little case to supplement the bits you so kindly send me.
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As an aside, the Project Farm goober fully believes it is a bad thing to for bits to fit the heads of screws very tightly like the Milwaukee bits do.
 
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mrblaine said:
As an aside, the Project Farm goober fully believes it is a bad thing to for bits to fit the heads of screws very tightly like the Milwaukee bits do.
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So they have a better chance of stripping out the heads and/or the bit; and they don't hold the screw as well pre-installation either?
 
Apparition said:
How does he justify that?
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I ran across his stuff quite awhile back. I watched a few and figured out that he generally seems to find a way to do things that skew the results in some manner that renders them mostly useless for my needs.

I'm also not a few of his price per whatever increment of performance scale he manages to come up with.

He just stated that bits that fit very tightly are not as good as the ones that don't, I didn't pay enough attention to figure out his logic since he tends to annoy me if I watch him more than a few minutes at a time. I can't figure out how he doesn't know that all bits fit pretty nicely when new and as you use them, they get to the point where they don't fit well and start camming out. If the fit starts out very tight, that generally means it will turn more screws before it has to be trashed, all other things being equal.
 
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mrblaine said:
I ran across his stuff quite awhile back. I watched a few and figured out that he generally seems to find a way to do things that skew the results in some manner that renders them mostly useless for my needs.

I'm also not a few of his price per whatever increment of performance scale he manages to come up with.

He just stated that bits that fit very tightly are not as good as the ones that don't, I didn't pay enough attention to figure out his logic since he tends to annoy me if I watch him more than a few minutes at a time. I can't figure out how he doesn't know that all bits fit pretty nicely when new and as you use them, they get to the point where they don't fit well and start camming out. If the fit starts out very tight, that generally means it will turn more screws before it has to be trashed, all other things being equal.
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I agree with your logic.

What do you expect from a guy in Missouri with a mannequin and a Winnebago?
 
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The there might be a few others but off the top of my head, I can only think of a few uses for my compressor these days…

  1. Blowing stuff up, off or out
  2. Running a small die grinders (areas my M12 die grinders won’t fit)
  3. Running a small aircat body saw.
For all other tasks I have found a cordless tool that does the job.

It might seem petty but I find the cordless tool so much less frustrating (I do have a lot of batteries) since I am no longer yanking on an air hose wedged under a tire when I just need another foot or getting the hose stuck under my creeper etc.
 
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