Nut busting
 

The memes on that group have gotten pretty tiring, and mostly bad now.

But this one made me laugh.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f9c9ea9455.jpg

The memes on that group have gotten pretty tiring, and mostly bad now.

But this one made me laugh.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f9c9ea9455.jpg

The answer is always Milwaukee.

That the baby Milwaukee 1/2". The mid-torque model I bought last year has 450 ft-lbs fastening torque.

It is fucking awesome and I highly recommend buying one (when it's on sale).

I bought this Makita one 6 years ago and it's pretty good, but not as torquey as I would like.

I'm too invested into Makita's 18V system. But I have Milwaukee's 12V system.

That's insane (in a good way). Have you broken any wrists yet?

It's an impact tool so it's unlikely to cause injuries.

OTOH, use a powerful drill with a right-angle adapter and watch out. :eek:

I use the full torque Dewalt, which is 700ft-lbs. sustained, 1,200ft-lbs. breakaway. It’s also pretty great for large scale things. I use a low power 3/8” dewalt impact for most small stuff. (It’s compact and light, but is just on the edge of powerful enough for wheels - 99% of the time, it’ll break wheel lugs that have been torqued properly.)

I do, however, use the 12v Makita ratcheting wrench. It’s life changing. Do NOT buy the “upgraded” fuel version. The massive weight and size and marginal increase in torque are 1,000% not worth it.

Edit: While we are talking about useful tools, these Sunex u-joints are also life changing: https://www.amazon.com/Sunex-2300-Un.../dp/B000LQEV9Y

Electric ratchets are the best. THE BEST.

I have the big bertha Milwaukee M18 and it's fantastic. But it's kind of heavy for light stuff.

I also bought this impact driver and it's GREAT. Light, super fast, and surprisingly powerful. Way more fun for everything that doesn't require big breaking torque. It's strong enough to do wheel bolts, even though I tend not to use it for that.
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Produc...rivers/2853-20

I still have the 1/4" driver that came with my initial Makita set - that apparently I bought 11.5 years ago!

I've used it A LOT all these years and it's still great.

The big repeated use for me is wheel changes and the 140 ft-lbs spec for the Camaro required something more powerful than the really, really, really old Goodyear thing I'd been using for 10+ years that, with a full charge, could usually bust 3 of 5 nuts off the first wheel.

The Milwaukee mid-torque has 3 power settings. The lowest almost feels broken. I use the middle to spin lug nuts on, but it's sometimes not quite enough to bust them off, so full power for that (600 ft-lbs, I think).

Ratchets are on my list. Just haven't run across a sale that quite gets them to the price point I want yet.

I have this one
https://milwaukeetool.com/Products/P...enches/2668-20

And it's a huge disappointment. The torque is terrible. It's also one of the few milwaukee tools that gets a lot of bad reviews.

The impact driver I linked above is my goto instead. It's fantastic. Fast and powerful. The only down side is it doesn't fit into tight spaces as well as a wrench. But it's still way, way smaller than a big impact gun.

damn, an electric ratchet would have come in handy putting together that tool cart

You’re using the electric ratchets wrong. You DON’T WANT a lot of power. I would pay more money for one that was even smaller and less powerful. The whole point is to get it into tight spaces and spin. Breaking torque is not important.

Edit: I bet that M18 one gets lots of bad reviews because it’s too much of a compromise. Too big and heavy to use, but to compromised to have any power. You need the little M12 one that does 35 ft-lbs.

This is the one that I use. It’s fucking fantastic and it does things that no impact would ever do for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-245.../dp/B006GKFWSS

I don’t like using these for socket work because they end up much longer than a proper impact gun with the adapter installer.

This is my go to general purpose impact:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I usually use it with the 1.5A batteries, because they are plenty powerful and make it very handy.

What Nick said. The Milwaukee M12 ratchet is awesome for my purposes. I can put it on a fastener, break it loose by using the tool as a ratchet / breaker bar, and then spin it off using the motor. It's just great.

The smaller one gets good reviews because because it has the option to lock it out so you can break it free manually and then use the power to spin it.

The one I linked doesn't. You need to use a wrench to break it, then switch the socket to the electric wrench.

Thanks, those look great.

I have a monster DeWalt for lugnuts, but it's not much use for anything else.

That's totally useless.

Yeah, that’s a dumb tool. :) And big and heavy.

My LR4 also has very high torque settings and my Makita impact (325ft-lb) struggles to brake those loose.

time for a bigger impact

My ancient, second-hand Matco 18V has no problem with the Ram's lug nuts at 140ft-lbs. It also managed both RX-8 axle nuts which are at 220ft-lbs, and they're also staked.

It's got one dying cell in the battery that I occasionally have to jumpstart back to life. I really need to replace it.

Was probably before most here were born, but I still remember the first time I used an air ratchet wrench in 1974. Back then, they were THE BEST

Yeah. It’s like that, but quiet and no hose. And you can take it anywhere.

Dude, you don't know what you missed in your life development not having daily driven a 5.0 Fox body Mustang.

I have an air ratchet. I've had it for almost twenty years.

I used it once.

Yup. I need one of these.

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-XWT08Z...4373653&sr=8-4

BL Motor delivers 740 feet pounds of Max Torque and 1,180 feet pounds of breakaway torque

After seeing all these torque specs I looked up mine. :speechle:

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Produc...enches/2767-22

Thread split?

This one is pretty new.

Sure, but I already have 7 Makita batteries and 0 M18 batteries.

Yep... once you buy one you're locked in. The last thing I need in my life is another battery charger on my work bench. :ack:

The tools often seem like the loss leader for the batteries...$$$

My Milwaukee impact uses the M18 Fuel batteries (and I don't even know what the difference is between Fuel and not-Fuel that Nick referenced earlier) was my first Milwaukee system product and it came with an M18 Fuel battery and charger.

More recently, I bought a Milwaukee M12 air compressor (which, by the way, is also quite awesome) and it came with two M12 (dunno if they're Fuel) batteries and a charger.

Two different batteries and two different chargers, right? No! Wrong!

The charger that came with the impact does both M18s and M12s. So, that's cool.

Right. Given the love for power ratchets, and my ability to reuse the charger, I might give the baby M12 power ratchet a try.

Man I wish I could get my money back for that big POS one though.

Josh should correct his statement above: "The answer is almost always Milwaukee"

Milwaukee makes an M12 electric ratchet and an M12 FUEL electric ratchet. The FUEL one is slightly more powerful, REALLY heavy in the hand, and a lot bigger. Basically, it’s stupid and self defeating.

Someone on eBay might give you a few bucks for it.

Think I'm putting electric ratchets on my xmaskah list.