![]() ![]() They offer power and control and, by stripping fewer screws, they’ll reduce the need to resort to salty language.Īudrey and Kent Lewis mess about with their fleet of small boats in the shoal waters of Northwest Florida. Impact drivers are useful additions to the tool kit for boatbuilding, woodworking, and household jobs. The Kobalt has a no-load speed up to 2,700 rpm and can deliver 3,500 impacts per minute and 1,800 inch-pounds. The Kobalt has a “finish” function that shuts down the driver after the impact mode has been activated (for one second in order to prevent overdriving the screw), but we found this reduces our control of the tool. It is a “smart tool” that senses reduced loads on soft materials and decreases demand on the motor, and provides only the required power. The DeWalt driver has a no-load speed of up to 2,800 rpm and drives screws with up to 3,200 impacts per minute and a maximum torque of 1,500 inch-pounds. The LED light on the head of the driver is also handy in remote corners. Skipper likes the smaller DeWalt which weighs in at 2.1 lbs it has nice balance and weight and it will fit into small spaces. ![]() Both tools have brushless motors, which are more efficient and use less power than brush-equipped motors, so our batteries last almost twice as long. Recently we bought the DeWalt’s DCF787 20V impact driver, which is lighter and smaller than the Kobalt. Kent and Audrey Lewisīoth the 24-volt Kobalt and the 20-volt DeWalt impact drivers have efficient brushless motors. The impact driver also had the powerful yet controlled torque we needed when using long temporary screws with fender washers to pull plank sections together for scarfing or to set Dutchman patches tight for gluing. Our impact driver had the finesse to drive #6 and #8 marine stainless screws on 1/4″ (6mm) planks, where exact depth setting was critical. While the impact driver has lots of power, more than enough to shear screws, the variable-speed trigger provides the operator with very good control for the depth of the screw. Impact drivers are loud when they switch to the impact mode, so be prepared for that and wear hearing protection. The mechanism gives the impact drive much more force, but doesn’t transfer any torque to the user, so it is easier to use for long periods of use. The forward motion into the screw head greatly reduces the tendency of the bit to cam out of the screw slots. The impact driver spins the bit first then when the resistance increases, a rotating weight inside the driver slips, stores energy in a spring, and then releases, creating an impact that rotates the driver bit and pushes it forward. Setting the clutch helped a bit, but variations in wood grain and density made for unpredictable results. Sometimes the drill drove screws right through a plank. We tried a variety of fixes, like waxing or greasing the screw, with poor results. With the drill/driver we had been using to drive silicon-bronze screws into the skiff’s cypress, the driver bits tended to “cam out”-that is, strip out-and damage the soft bronze Frearson slots with disturbing regularity and at other times shear the screw’s shaft. We were not sure exactly what it was used for, but when we found it could drive screws even better than the drill/driver, we were extremely pleased, and it has driven countless screws in the four years since then. When I went to purchase the second drill/driver, I found a combo package from Kobalt that included a 24-volt impact driver. Back in 2016, while we were restoring an 1880s Mississippi River skiff, we needed a second cordless drill/driver, so we could have one to drill pilot holes, and the other to drive screws. ![]()
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