impact driver versus drill what's the
real difference between these two and
when should you use one over the other
if you want to buy a drill or a driver
you're pretty much always going to find
it in a combination set why is that and
what's the point of having both so let's
first talk about the differences between
the two the biggest difference is that
the chuck on the drill spins in One
Direction and doesn't have any special
features inside of that it does have
features on the drill itself which we'll
get to in just a moment but the impact
drive has a totally different driving
mechanism than the drill itself on the
drill you've only got two things that
control the speed of this one is the
trigger itself and most are variable
speeds so they can go pretty slow like
this or full bore and then the second
one is up here your gears you usually
have one or two gears on here sometimes
you'll have three or four and that
impacts how fast it goes and how much
torque is being applied the impact
driver on the other hand typically just
comes with the trigger it's variable
speed again but are no other functions
with that while this Makita only uses
the trigger to control the speed there
are other brands out there like the
Milwaukee for example here that has one
two and three speed and impact settings
as well as a self-tapping screw
setting right there and it just stopped
automatically works like a charm same
thing with the rigid here you've got
three different speeds plus self-tapping
driving or automatic to switch between
the two another huge difference here is
that with a drill because of its three
jaw Chuck I have the option to put in
a/2 in drill bit like this or even a 116
in drill bit like this and anything in
between with the impact driver however
it does require that you use a/ qu inch
hex bit and that's the same sort of
format that works on all of them and
they really should have this little
indentation right here and they also
should have this thinner torsion Zone
that has a little bit of flexibility to
handle the impact from the impact driver
the drill has a clutch built into it
which when you're in the Fastener mode
like this allows you to go from minimal
resistance on a number one here and this
range will vary based on brand and model
all the way up to 21 which is almost
full resistance or you can just switch
it over to drill mode and it will go
full power all the time that means when
you're working on something more
delicate like this cup hinge here where
you do not want to give full power onto
this and strip out these holes
you see that it stops because I have it
set to one and it's not going to
overdrive these screws for delicate work
like this having a clutch comes in well
clutch nobody all right on an impact
driver it doesn't really know when to
say when it's just going to keep
going and it'll keep driving until it
strips it out like that now that hole
inside there is stripped and does me no
good not every drill has this feature
but many drills come with what's called
Hammer Time Hammer
Time wait that's not right Hammer mode
Hammer mode this is for masonry if
you're going to be drilling into
something hard like concrete or cement
or even rock or stone then while you're
drilling with a masonry bit it almost
acts like there's a hammer or a mallet
pounding against the back of it going
down in the same direction that you're
pushing an impact driver like one of
these guys unfortunately cannot do the
same thing or can it
no not really and now I probably ruined
a perfectly good bit another difference
is that the drill has gears these gears
like I mentioned before usually one
through four but most of them have one
and two the slower gears number one will
be able to drive slower but with more
torque and then if you switch to your
number two these ones are really
stubborn then it will drive faster and
with less torque so depending on the
material that you're driving into that
could make a big difference this is
great for drilling it's somewhat useful
for for driving but it's especially good
if you're going to use anything that's
going into a super hard material like
metal you can put it in the first gear
drive it a little slower and have all
the torque you need once again the
impact driver can't do that and even the
ones that do have variable speeds like
the one two and three we saw before
those basically are just limiters on how
fast it will go and how many impacts per
minute it will deliver not really on the
torque adjustments another obvious
difference between the two is size if we
put the back ends of these together like
this you can see that the drill is
significantly longer and takes up a lot
more space than the driver this can make
a huge difference when you're working in
confined spaces that's part of the
reason that compact sets are becoming so
popular if I take this Dewalt compact
set and line it up here you can see it's
a little bit shorter than this one but
then if you look at the impact driver
wow this thing is the shortest yet very
compact not much to it and because this
is closer to the camera let me just show
you this if we line it up like this you
can see it's significantly shorter than
even the Makita here you may be familiar
with the term Kickback now kickback is
the term used for when the bit that's in
your driver or your drill binds in
whatever material you're trying to drill
into when that happens the drill is the
thing that starts rotating rather than
the bit and this can cause injuries to
your wrist to your arms or to your
shoulders and it is no fun now a lot of
Manufacturers for drills are coming out
with What's called the anti-k K back
feature not very popular yet amongst
drills but I'm hoping that's something
we see more and more but the main reason
that's important here is because the way
the impact mechanism works on the driver
means that you won't experience Kickback
now all of that leads us up to this
ships wheel my grandpa built this ships
wheel many years ago actually and he
used to build the ships and boats that
he and my grandma would live on which is
super cool but what does that have to do
with impact drivers well this will help
me illustrate exactly what it does and
that's why I brought out this beautiful
little machine here this is the the
Walmart heart brand and I've cut a
little window into here so you can see
exactly what's happening when you're
using an impact driver now for starters
an impact driver seems at first very
similar to a drill as far as how it
works when you squeeze the trigger it's
just going to go just like normal
everything's just rotating 360 and
that's that forward reverse same type of
mechanism the difference is when there's
resistance applied to the bit when an
impact driver encounters some resistance
think of it like having a ships wheel
locked on to the end of it and so what's
happening is you're getting rotational
impact happening to help drive that bit
so it's basically going to act like a
ship's wheel that as you're driving it
in the forward Direction it's slamming
slamming slamming against that driver
mechanism and making it so that that bit
can do exactly what it's meant to do
which is drive that Fastener home this
also works for loosening really stubborn
Fasteners let's say you've got a bolt
that's kind of rusted on those impacts
what they're going to do is help you to
Slam against that bolt and help it get
released so that you can keep working
this all works because we have three
parts first there's the hammer on top in
between the hammer and the next part is
a spring and that keeps the hammer away
from the bottom part which is the Anvil
as long as there's not too much
resistance on the spring the whole Chuck
will spin as it needs to when that
spring is compressed due to resistance
on the bit it's going to push that
hammer into the Anvil causing it to hit
over and over in the same direction that
the bit is turning this is called
rotational impact and it's what makes
these things so powerful the difference
and torque between these two because of
that impact mechanism is absolutely
massive on this drill for example the
peak torque on this one is 530 INB
whereas on this one it's 1,500 INB
nearly three times as much in this
little body compared to this one as you
can imagine that means the ultimate
strength that this one has is in
Fasteners it's putting in those big lag
bolts it's those long deck screws it's
different things like that that
something like a drill can handle
usually but in some cases it's just too
much for it or it just doesn't have the
proper speed and durability to do it
because of this impact mechanism this
battery we've got the same one a 4 amp
hour battery in here and here this one
is going to last a whole lot longer
because of the efficiency of that
mechanism than if you're trying to do
the same thing with a drill we've gone
through a lot of pros and cons as far as
the differences between these two one
thing to keep in mind is if you're going
to use an impact driver I can almost
guarantee you you've heard that sound if
you haven't used one before this is what
it sounds
like it is loud it's obnoxious and it's
pretty annoying fortunately there are
some better options out there to try to
reduce that sound but they will never be
quite as quiet as a non-impact driver
this tiny little tool has been my go-to
ever since I got it I use this thing all
the time and it's the first one I grab
it's only a 12volt battery here this is
the Milwaukee fuel so that means it's a
brushless tool and unlike the Makita
here for example you can see it can come
with a pretty compact battery it's very
small in size but it does a great job
but the big difference is while this is
an impact driver this is the surge
option The Surge basically means that it
uses what's called a Pneumatic impact
driver so it doesn't use the same type
of mechanism and as a result it's
significantly quieter than a traditional
impact
driver that said as you can tell it's
still louder than a regular drill just
as a reminder purchased every single one
of these tools myself there are no tool
companies that are giving me money but
if you'd like to I wouldn't mind anyway
everything here is just something I've
bought because I want to test it out I
don't care if you buy one or the other
or buy nothing but I wanted you to have
my personal experience with it while
there are a lot of differences between
these two there's a lot of similarities
obviously they can both use bits to
drill holes or to fasten they both use
the same batteries interchangeably
pretty much every time they both have a
forward and a reverse and what some
people don't know about is a lock
mechanism right now I'm in forward here
I'm switching it that way to put it in
reverse and if you put it in the middle
it's just going to lock up so you can't
use the trigger at all that's a pretty
Universal feature on pretty much every
brand that I've seen today maybe most
importantly though they
both smell like
power most people have a hard time
remembering all of the different
features and remembering when to use
which So to that end I created a drill
feature guide I keep mine right over
here by the battery charger and it's a
quick way to easily know exactly what
features you need to use and when to use
them I'll put links to that in the
description below or you can check out
that little shopping bag in the corner
and you can get directly to it from
there now that we've covered the
similarities and differences between
these two that should help you to
determine when to use which but
generally speaking it's pretty much in
the name if you want to drill a hole in
something use a drill if you want to
drive something in use a driver there
are definite exceptions to this however
let's cover a few of those anytime I'm
drilling a hole that's not huge and it's
not in a very hard material I'm going to
go for this set right here I can even
get a fair size bit like this Chuck it
in and drill my holes the reason I do
that is because my impact driver is
typically faster to Chuck things in and
it's a lighter tool it also fits in
smaller spaces so if you just need to
use an impact driver and want to take
one tool on the job a lot of times this
will do the job if you've got the right
bits to go with it bear in mind these
are impact rated drill bits these aren't
just anything that fits but they're
specifically meant to be used with
impact drivers another application where
I always reach for my impact driver to
drill holes is with electrical work
that's because if I want to drill a hole
through studs I'll grab These Guys these
are the Diablo bits and they have this
little self feeding tip here and these
in combination with this drill do a
pretty fantastic job I can get through
any 2x4s or even double stacked 2x4s
without a problem and this thing is so
light and convenient to have on my hip
as opposed to a fulls size or even a
compact drill aside from those two
applications that I'll typically use the
impact driver for to drill holes all the
other holes I'm going to be drilling are
with the drill itself now I use those
two applications a lot so that's why the
impact driver comes up a lot for me when
I'm drilling a hole but for anything
that you see here forcer bits hole saws
metal drilling Spade bits typically I'm
going to use my regular drill for that
because it's going to do a better job
it's going to give you more consistent
rotation and it's going to give you more
control Makita and other brands also
make this converter here this is a
traditional three jaw Chuck that you can
fit inside your impact driver this can
get you out of a bind if you don't have
the right driver the right bits
something like that or you've only got
certain things that you can work with
this makes it so that you can do pretty
much everything that you can do with a
drill in here but you're going to lose a
lot of the functionality and you're
going to have some limitations because
it's an impact driver not a drill in all
reality using both is the way to go if
if you had to choose one or the other
then I think honestly the drill is going
to be a little bit more compatible for
all things but if you're doing any sort
of driving having a driver so much more
convenient with all that torque that it
provides now that said you can use both
for most jobs a lot of times I'll drill
a hole with something using the drill
and then I'll use the impact driver to
fasten whatever needs to be fastened
into it so they are a great team and
they work really well together I'm Nils
with learn to DIY thanks for watching