About to buy an impact gun and a ratchet...

[xagna]

thinking about buying an impact gun and a powered ratchet.Don't know which between air powered and electric ones I should decide.Which do you recommand?

Don't have air compressor right now.

If I get to buy what size should I go for?

[Fenvy]

aired one is probably better just because you can use different gun for it but it's noisy and uses a chunk of space, if you have a big garage all to yourself, get the air one. If you rent or move around often, get an eletrical one

[xagna]

Thanks, Loveless.

Is electric one less powerful that air one?When you said it could use different gun, what exactly did you mean? I am not really familiar with typical auto repair shop operation. Need more explanation.

[Nismo_Freak]

If you do most of your work at your house. Get an air compressor and an 1/2" impact gun.

If you do most of your work on the fly, ie. at events. Then opt for electric. However the electric impacts have alot less force, and are better suited for small tasks such as lug nuts.

[Fenvy]

the 24v eletric ones can acheive 350 in/lb or higher. This goes way beyong lug nuts

when I say you can use different guns, I meant you can use standard impact wrench, slim drive wrench, paint gun and other air tools if you have a compressor

[xagna]

24v? You mean the one that has an end that I can plug into a cigarette lighter in driver's seat or right onto a car battery??

Holy cow!

[xagna]

Do you know what kind of problems I will have if I buy one of these on ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...=WDVW

[Fenvy]

I think for something like this, you wnat to look at the torque

220nm... or newtwon metric is 162lb/ft I'd say it's pretty decent, but I am no expert. You probably want to look for a cordless one that output at least 18v and output 200lb/ft. Reason I say this is because that that torque amount is only achieved at peak rpm, not from a dead stop. So you might really be only getting 100lb/ft.

Again I could be wrong and maybe someone can shed light to this.

[xagna]

Loveless,

Thanks a lot for the reply.

One more... do you know if I can adjoust torque setting on wrench like this?Or can people at auto repair shop adjoust torque on their impact guns?

[Fenvy]

for eletric ones, most of them allow you to adjust it

for the air impact wrench the one I seen at local shop isn't adjustable one, the one at phase2 is adjustable

all depends on the manufacteur I suppose

[eddiec]

"most" air impact tools have ways to adjust the "power". air ratchets on the other hand generally do not (at least not in my experience). also if you go with air make sure the compressor can deliver adequate air for what you want. if its the occasional nut and bolt job then something small lwould do. however small ones usually run out of air and you'll spend time waiting for it to build pressure again.

i personally have no elec impacts. but some of the people i used to work with used them quite regularly. advantages being no cord and quieter. if you can afford it, snap on makes a really nice elec 1/2 impact. and i really liked the mikita 3/8 elec units.

[xagna]

" however small ones usually run out of air and you'll spend time waiting for it to build pressure again.

I never have used air impact gun with air compressor so I'm sking you this question.

What does running out of air mean? Do you mean that I won't be running the air compressor for like 3, 4 hours while I am working on a car?

[Hijacker]

if your air compressor can't deliver the air pressure the gun needs to operate, it just sits there wheezing instead of working. Most compressors will rate their effeciency rate, and as long as you don't go with a small mini-compressor with a 1/2 hp motor, you should be fine for most apps.

This shop I used to frequent a lot and do some work on my car had this huge industrial strength Ingersoll/Rand compressor. And of course, we only had one gun working off of it. That sucker would tighten any bolt to the "how the crap do I ever get this off again" level. It's also the reason I don't trust air compressors and torque sticks with lug nut duty. I prefer the old fashioned torque wrench.

I've used Snap-On's 1/2" electric impact gun at auto-x events (we would "borrow" it from my friend's boss [the guy with the I/R compressor]) and it works very well. The only issue with it is that you have to help it loosen lug nuts. It doesn't deliver enough reverse torque break a 90 lb/ft lug nut loose. Basically, we'd turn it on, and help turn the socket to get it to break it loose.

[Nismo_Freak]

24v? You mean the one that has an end that I can plug into a cigarette lighter in driver's seat or right onto a car battery??

Holy cow!

Automotive systems run on a 12V power.

[Chingon]

Electric ones tend to deliver half the max torque of their air counterparts. Having said that, it's still enough to tear a car appart w/o a hitch.

If you can, hit a pawn shop. They have impact guns at a fraction of the price and usually give a respectable warranty. Some brands to consider:Ingersoll randChicago PneumaticSnap-onCraftsman

There's other like black and decker and what not, I'd have to see the specs on those..