Have had a Clarke CEW-1000 240v corded impact gun on loan for a while, just got around to getting my own. Figured it might be worth reviewing since these are pretty cheap and might fall through the cracks as useless tat (most similar efforts in this price band are tat).
A bit of google fu will get you one of these delivered for around the £55 mark (they used to be under £50, a steal at that price).
www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/clarke-cew1000-electric-impact-wrench/path/impact-wrenches-and-drivers
I don't know if there's some scam in the torque ratings of electric wrenches, but 500nm rating on a battery wrench never seems to give the same unfastening ability as a 500nm rated air wrench, unless you go high enough price wise, in which case you could afford to buy a decent compressor and a half decent airgun, and a short holiday with the money saved.
Anyway, this one seems to live up to its quoted figures unlike the cheaper battery wrenches.
It's pretty well made, plastics feel robust rather than cheap. It's user serviceable with a handy catalogue of replacement parts included in the blow mould carry case, along with 4 impact sockets in the popular wheel bolt / nut sizes.
The 2 down sides to this tool are that you need to plug it in and the other downside is the size, it's quite long and bulky.
There's variable speed control on the simple 2 way trigger mechanism, a feature missing from most battery wrenches.
All in, a very capable tool which speeds up your abilities as a DIY mechanic - rotating ball joints, seized pinch bolts in the suspension, they can be annoying without a tool like this.
Anyway, just a note to point these out for anyone in the market for one. £55 is cheaper than a £300 compressor + £80 airgun.
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Good to hear Skoda. My mate's got a compressor and a 450 lb ft windy gun, which made short work of extracting the notoriously difficult crank pulley bolt on my HDi when we did the cambelt. I can't justify a comp, but £55 for one of these sounds like a steal!
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I've only used a workshop airgun, but assuming these leccy ones are similar, they are a top tool.
Makes short work of all those nasty dirty undoing jobs, suspension and exhausts.
Some of the mechanics used them on head bolts, although I often didn't bother.
Nearly always used the gun to take off wheels on the wheelfree ramp.
Sounds daft, but when you were busy, letting the gun undo those 16 nuts gave you the chance to take a breather.
There's some feel in a good impact gun, but those with no mechanical nous can twist off fastenings by applying too much torque, either undoing or doing up.
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quote-------Impact sockets should always be used with this impact wrench ------unquote
do NOT underestimate a chrome socket to explode if you ignore this warning
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Ingersol Rand air gun with compressor for me.
Although they would come in handy when camping winding down the threaded tent pegs
Seen many a chrome socket split even snap-on use impact sockets..
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...even snap-on use impact sockets...
That's what we had, black, six-point, walls as thick as a castle.
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...Ingersol Rand air gun...
Bigtee,
Snap-on v Ingersoll Rand cordless showdown here:
www.motherofallcordlessimpactwrenches.com/
Click 'see it in action' and 'CT4850 showdown'.
Smoked!
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Ooooh, I want one of those!!!
But see previous thread
"A new toy, I mean tool - totally unnecessary! "
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=4879&m=106907
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Tool Review - Electric Impact Gun - RichardW
