Impact gun - air or battery?

[AceOfHearts]

PositronicRay said:

I'm struggling to see the point of a gun that won't "crack" nuts off. I can see the point in a cheapo mains Clarke, if it'll crack anything off. Who needs it for doing stuff up again, unless your a pro, in which case you'll buy more expensive stuff.

A small drill driver type gun is great for things like water pump bolts which are easily sheared. They break small bolts away without risk of shearing and do come in very handy

[Jakg]

Dave. said:

but I wouldn't want to be doing wheel nuts up with it.

You shouldn't really be doing nuts up with an impact wrench, especially not a powerful one - if you did want you can get a torque stick which acts as a torque limiter to prevent overtightening.

[Lord Pikey]

GC8 said:

The mains powered Clarke will win any fight! Masses of twisty power and very cheap relative to even entry-level battery powered kit.

I just got that Clarke for Chritmsas from my sister. I came to use it last week when fitting my winter wheels and it was useless. It couldnt undo the wheel nuts that i could easily undo with a 1/2 ratchet and some mild strenght. I have sent it back to England for her to return.

Has anyone else got one so i can work out if mine was duff or i just have very tight nuts and superhuman strenght!

[SamR380]

Were you using any socket extensions? Mine wouldn’t shift much with an extension on but it’s unstoppable with the socket directly on the end. Try a longer ‘deep’ impact socket if you still have it.

[joe_90]

the Clarke is great, the only thing that lost are some bolts on the exhaust to manifold on my e36 track car. I did use an extension to get to it, Andy I think all the energy gets used up in wiggle the bar around, so a direct connection is required. Also it's quite large so has an issue fitting in some places under the car.. hence I have a smaller gun on a compressor too.

But it just rips of hub nuts etc (without even popping out the tabs).

Edited by joe_90 on Saturday 14th January 22:04

[Dave.]

Bit of a bump, but just for the sake of closure, I bought a.......


Compressor, and a bucket load of air tools.



Budget creep and manmaths at its finest.

Thanks all for the input.

[ian_uk1975]

I faced a similar dilemma and, in the end, went for a battery (Li-ion) Milwaukee impact wrench. I wanted something that was compact, but powerful enough for wheel nuts and most stuff I'd be likely to encounter doing DIY jobs on the car. The trouble with the mains-powered ones (and most of the cheaper 1/2" drive battery wrenches) is they're very bulky and no good whatsoever where access is limited.

Compressor would still be nice to have, but I'm at the stage where even a double garage doesn't seem big enough and I just don't have the room for a decent size compressor and all the associated gubbins.

[Cactussed]

I had the Clarke gun beat last week on some wheel bolts.
Battery and mains wouldn't touch them.

Took a breaker bar and a 6ft scaffold pole with me doing chin ups before they cracked.

Effing useless tyre shops...

[Dave.]

This helped my decision....

https://youtu.be/1o1aKt0c_MI?t=892

Granted I doubt I'll be removing any crank pulleys in the near future, but there's always that one nut/bolt that won't shift as above, & hopefully the compressor & tools will last a long time.

[cylon]

Dave. said:

Bit of a bump, but just for the sake of closure, I bought a.......


Compressor, and a bucket load of air tools.



Budget creep and manmaths at its finest.

Thanks all for the input.

What did you go for in the end (links) and would you recommend, am in the same thought process of purchasing something.. thanks

[Dave.]

I've send you an email.