Getting more impressed with power tools

[andydclements]

After years of working on cars and generally not using air/power tools beyond an electric drill & sander (I think the first power tool use beyond that was to gut through door pins on the Europa Special), I've now realised that I must have been missing out on something, either that or I'm getting lazy / weak.

Today I needed to free off a front calliper on an Excel, so the high torque battery impact gun came into play, it meant I could jack the car up, take the wheel off with no battle of big bar Vs wheel dragging in gravel. Then, with the calliper off (it's one 12mm head bolt and brake lines, so I used spanners). Calliper apart and then need to clean up the inside of the bore where it rust and the part of the piston covered in stuff, die grinder with those little scouring pads, OK that's seconds each job instead of a lot of awkward angles with my hands and wet & dry. OK, in reality, it saved minutes not hours but it probably saved a lot of hand cramps and saved faffing about with a breaker bar and extension tube. Oh, and bleeding, I used air, but it was from a tiny compressor that's also battery powered so no massive airline just a spring plastic one.

The power these little battery tools can put out is amazing these days, and that's only increasing week by week (new tools keep coming out, updated versions giving more power/ torque/capacity etc. How the heck did I play with my cars for all these years without them?

[Escape]

I completely agree. I never liked faffing about with airlines and don't like a compressor coming on regularly, so when I started working on cars I rarely used things like an impact gun. Then I got a corded one, which proved very helpful for things like wheel nuts but also crankshaft bolts etc where it's difficult to get a breaker bar on and/or lock the crank. Now I'm on my second battery powered impact and it has become my weapon of choice if space allows. I also have a battery powered ratchet and although lacking strength (probably the battery getting tired as well) it does make a lot of jobs much easier.

Don't think of it as us becoming lazy or losing strength, just being more sensible and making life easier. 😉 

[Sparky]

Milwaukee, yeah baby.

[jonwat]

12 hours ago, andydclements said:

the first power tool use beyond that was to gut through door pins on the Europa Special

I remember doing that by hand power only, not fun.

[Chillidoggy]

4 minutes ago, jonwat said:

I remember doing that by hand power only, not fun.

Presumably before the Industrial Revolution?

[andydclements]

6 hours ago, Sparky said:

Milwaukee, yeah baby.

I'm using their other brand, partly because of cost (although if you see the range of tools I have cost can't be a big factor) but also because they do lots of garden stuff as well all from the same batteries.