Impact drilling

[DFB]

I'm curious who uses their 1/4 in hex shank impact driver for drilling holes. I never have...yet. Mostly because I never have had the proper shanked drill bits.

I guess mainly wood or wood products drilling is what talking about here, unless someone offers up a real world experience in some other different materials.


What are the benefits...the convenience of obviously of using just one tool is the first thing that comes to mind. I read that it Is very helpful when you encounter a knot and would that be the only time the impact action would kick in? And when using a screw type tip others say the torque twist greatly reduced using an impact tool too.

Caveats? Again the recommendation is to use only impact rated accessories. Some opinions digress and say they have been using spades and other type drill bits for impact driver for long time now. Is there any real accuracy sacrificed with wobble considering the inherent looseness of the hex chuck design or is that negligible. That probably doesn't matter much with general rough-in work and maybe you wouldn't use it for finish work but the again maybe you would.



Any other benefits?


I'm all googled out with the pro's and cons :confused2:

I leave it up to you guys to say

 

[davesl708]

I use spade bits in my impact drill. (Makita) Works great for boring holes in joist for wire.
I have a 1/2 impact drill for masonry.

 

[DFB]

I use spade bits in my impact drill. (Makita) Works great for boring holes in joist for wire.
I have a 1/2 impact drill for masonry.

Good to know that!

Now when you say impact drill for masonry I assume that be a hammer drill?

The actions of the two are quite different.

 

[davesl708]

Yes a hammer drill.

 

[k0ua]

I have never tried using bits on my 1/4 impact. I might try it. I have lots of bits that would chuck into it. I have always used them in my Rockwell thrill drill driver. It has an impact setting also, but I have never tried drilling any holes in that setting on it either.

 

[rgr33]

I use my impact driver all the time to bore large diameter holes In fence posts for gate hinges and other large timber. I use the drill for normal wood and metal drilling. I think drilling metal with an impact driver would be awful hard on the bit.

 

[Mendonsy]

I have a set of bits that came with my impact driver (Ryobi) but I have never used them. I guess they would work OK in soft material like wood, plastic, or maybe even aluminum but I don't think they would last very long in hard materials.

 

[bigtiller]

I watched my electrician use an impact drill with a 1/2" masonry bit, bust a hole through a wall of sheet rock and 5/8" plywood. What an ugly mess! He wanted to put an outlet in the wall of my garage and it was the only power tool on the property. After he busted through, he finished with a keyhole saw.

 

[DFB]

I watched my electrician use an impact drill with a 1/2" masonry bit, bust a hole through a wall of sheet rock and 5/8" plywood. What an ugly mess! He wanted to put an outlet in the wall of my garage and it was the only power tool on the property. After he busted through, he finished with a keyhole saw.

Geeze...not to change the subject much here but I had installed this nice cabinet sink base for the donut shop at work and we had a small 6gal hot water underneath inside behind the doors. So all I needed and WHAT I WANTED was an outlet to plug it into and since there was already one for the counter just above it how much trouble could it possibly be to drop a wire and install a box inside and out of site for the 3 prong plug wire this unit had



But alas that was not be for being it was a commercial job my boss by code brought in a licensed electrical guy who took one look and promptly drilled a 1 inch hole thru the freaking side wall on my cabinet and ran the plug out to a lower wall outlet we already had wired in for an under the counter refrigerator

I said I could have done that by myself and we didn't need to hire you.


Really sometimes I got to wonder about you guys

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Spade bit in an impact driver works really well for me. Not broke one yet.