The benefit to air tools

So, I've recently bought some tools electric that usually you see as air tools. Air Compressors are loud and slightly unweildy so I've always used electric. I have a few air tools and a big compressor, but I try to use electric or cordless when I can.

That being said, I had two tools, an electric drill and a cordless impact wrench today puffin smoke. The drill still works but the impact is toast. I think I'll need to finish my work with the impact down at the shop with a tough air impact.

So what exactly are the benefits to pneumatic over electric. I always assumed efficiency, but on the 12 mile scooter ride home today from Harbor Freight I started thinking about maybe it's also longevity and strength?

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Grant Hughes

No electric impact can compare to this baby:

IR 2135TI
Light and powerful. 4lbs and more bolt breaking power than you really need.
Maintained properly they'll last 10 years and either loosen or break any bolt on a regular vehicle. And it never needs a recharge. Cordless is good for junkyards though.
I would think air has more tool options for it too. Impact wrenches (a little 3/8" one is great for zipping little fasteners), air ratchets, air hammers, nibblers, riviters, die grinders, angle grinders, buffers, saws, etc.
Some compressors arnt loud. The craftsman I have at home is, I dont know what we have at work, but they're quiet. I dont know the technical name for them, but the belt driven compressors are the quiet ones, as opposed to the electric pump ones like my craftsman is. They're not silent, but you can easily talk over them.

It may also be the Harbor Freightness of them. Seen a couple of those HF cordless impacts last a matter of minutes.

--Andrew

currently without air or cordless impacts...

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

You can use air tools around raw fuel without the heebie-jeebie factor.

Air tools don't overheat or go through brushes.

Air tools typically do it faster, with more torque, or both.



"The Black & Decker gets too hot to hold after half an hour or so, so I alternate between it and the air grinder. This is a fine way to get simultaneous heat blisters and frostbite. You don't want to get carried away because this sort of stuff seriously confuses the people in the emergency room. "

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

I hate the electric impacts I've bought at Harbor Freight, both kinds, the cordless and the lighter plug-in kind that winds itself up and throws short bursts.

Last year I gave up and bought a badass SnapOn cordless. No problems so far and it gets used frequently.

Cordless impacts are great in the rally car, a $9.99 leather drill holster from Sears ziptied to the cage keeps it firmly in place. Mike and I got to use it just before our DNF at Prescott. Total tire change time was less than a minute. I have a lug nut welded to the scissor jack so one tool works for everything.

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Cheers
M.Samli
Phoenix AZ
Gaylant VR4
EVO III GSR (Stolen)


Rallies are no place for traitors