My foreman told me to stop using impact drivers for everything and I thought he was nuts

Been running impacts on every screw for 5 years. He told me last month I was stripping too many threads on the metal studs at that 12-story job in Portland. Switched to a regular drill with a clutch for the last 30 units and I'll be damned if I haven't ruined way fewer screws. Still grab the impact for big lags though. Anyone else find a clutch drill better for light framing?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbarah191mo ago

Takes a minute to unlearn bad habits, don't it?

alexk601mo ago

Yeah I hear you @barbarah19 but is it always that deep? Like if I bite my nails for a week and then stop, does that really take some major "unlearning" or am I just being lazy about it? Some things feel more like excuses than actual habits. I think people overcomplicate stuff. If you really wanted to stop, you'd just stop.

drew551mo ago

The clutch on a regular drill is a game changer for metal studs, no doubt about it. Impacts just hammer too hard for light gauge steel and you end up spinning the head right off. I been using a Dewalt drill set on the lower clutch settings for door jambs and it saves a TON of stripped screws. But for anything structural like lags or ledger locks, I still grab the impact every time. Sounds like your foreman was looking out for your material costs more than anything.