Compressed air or electric

[stanlee]

What are we talking about here? For home garage/automobile work there is nothing picking up cordless impacts and ratchets can't do proficiently without the inconvenience of air hoses and compressor noise. I do it nearly every weekend with two 3/8 impacts, two 1/2 impacts, 3/8 ratchet and a 1/4 impact driver with wire wheel attachments for cleaning rust off metal surfaces (soon to be put back to impact driver only use by a Milwaukee cordless angle grinder)... Even still hand tools are far more important, the cordless tools just cut time WAY down. I've never even come close to running down a battery on a single project. Have a bunch of spare batteries that do nothing but sit.
The advantage of air tools is you still can't get everything you want in a cordless tool. Many Many times an air hammer or just a cheap blow gun pistol for debris would have been useful. Many times I've wanted to fill up a tire without unrolling my neatly stored Viair which takes more time to neatly put back than to fill the tires. I'm still considering a small (8-12 gallon 4cfm @90psi) for little things like that but I have NO need for air to take bolts off.

I figure if your working industrial or professionally it shouldn't take more than a week of trying whatever to figure out of it works well or not.

edit: I was so impressed with the battery powered impacts now my lawn mower, hedge trimmer, chain saw and leaf blower are all 80v cordless too! And they do get the job done as well. No gas or air around here.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted by willbur

Interesting-
Are you saying the air in the air impact driver is acting initially somewhat as a shock absorber due to its compressibility and longer time to build up pressure to deliver impact blows vs instantaneous impact from a big cordless?

Its the mechanism they use to make the impacts, it isn't just about torque. The old IR231 was low power on paper compared to almost any newer model but in fact would remove rusted old fasteners much easier and quicker than many of them usually without breaking anything eg the stud on a pipe to exhaust manifold connection.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by Trav

Its the mechanism they use to make the impacts, it isn't just about torque. The old IR231 was low power on paper compared to almost any newer model but in fact would remove rusted old fasteners much easier and quicker than many of them usually without breaking anything eg the stud on a pipe to exhaust manifold connection.


I can attest to this!! Still use a IR231 daily....It's easier to control than some other air impacts, I can dial-in pinion bearing preload (crush sleeve) with one!

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted by stanlee
What are we talking about here? For home garage/automobile work there is nothing picking up cordless impacts and ratchets can't do proficiently without the inconvenience of air hoses and compressor noise. I do it nearly every weekend with two 3/8 impacts, two 1/2 impacts, 3/8 ratchet and a 1/4 impact driver with wire wheel attachments for cleaning rust off metal surfaces (soon to be put back to impact driver only use by a Milwaukee cordless angle grinder)... Even still hand tools are far more important, the cordless tools just cut time WAY down. I've never even come close to running down a battery on a single project. Have a bunch of spare batteries that do nothing but sit.
The advantage of air tools is you still can't get everything you want in a cordless tool. Many Many times an air hammer or just a cheap blow gun pistol for debris would have been useful. Many times I've wanted to fill up a tire without unrolling my neatly stored Viair which takes more time to neatly put back than to fill the tires. I'm still considering a small (8-12 gallon 4cfm @90psi) for little things like that but I have NO need for air to take bolts off.

I figure if your working industrial or professionally it shouldn't take more than a week of trying whatever to figure out of it works well or not.

edit: I was so impressed with the battery powered impacts now my lawn mower, hedge trimmer, chain saw and leaf blower are all 80v cordless too! And they do get the job done as well. No gas or air around here.
Every one of the tools you listed will be in the landfill in 10-15 years because battery supply dried up or you bought the next best thing. My lawn mower is 35 years old. I have a bunch of power tools over 20 years old. Still running fine. I have an old 1/2" drill that I have no idea on the age. That thing will spin you around like a helicopter if you're not careful. I'm sure if I look on the Milwaukee site their new wizbang has like double the torque rating.