Cordless Drill/Drivers vs. Impact drivers for deck work??
In another forum, I recently had advice to switch to using cordless impact drivers instead of cordless drill/drivers for deck work. The advice was that the job is easier with impact drivers. I have used three Dewalt drill/drivers for several years for building decks, and wondered what the consensus is here at SMC. I had a little experience using a small Makita impact driver on one deck and found it to be painfully slow. Driving hundreds of 3 inch screws is not an easy task. Speed is important but so is ease of use. I'd be interested to hear what you folks prefer. Thanks.
PS - Just looked at the Dewalt site for their current offerings. In addition to the "normal" drill/driver and impact driver offerings, they have a drill/driver specifically oriented to drywall and deck work. Interesting!!
Oops, did I say 1-3/16 I meant 2" stuff, sorry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Falkenstein
Driving hundreds of 3 inch screws
Are you talking about through 5/4 deck boards :confused: ?
If so, why use 3" screws. From my engineering background any penetration over twice the screw diameter is overkill. In another words the thickness of a typical nut is around a diameter to two diameters of the screw body (I realize that's machine screw talk).
In a 5/4 deck board (really 1") and a #8 (around 11/64 dia) screw technically you would only need about a 2-3/16 long screw. If you want to acount for the taper maybe 2-1/4 to 2-3/8. [Changed all 1" to 2"]
If you ar talking 2X stuff, OK, I'd conceed.
Finally, something that I know a little about!
Hi Dave!
Like you, I've used Dewalt cordless driver/drills for years. About a year ago I picked up a Dewalt 14.4V Impact Driver and I can count on one hand the number of times I've used the cordless drills since.
As General Contractors we drive and remove a lot of screws and 'Little'y' (as my crew calls it) was the most argued over tool on the site, prompting the purchase of two more.
Oop, posted correction above
Don't know what I was typing :o . I wouldn't use 3/16 in wood either. I intended to add an inch so you would end up at 2-3/16" to 2-1/4". and the nearest availble length would be 2-1/2"
Sorry :o