How to drill with a cordless impact driver?

29th February 2020


How to drill with a cordless impact driver


	Shop for Cordless Impact Drivers


		Although cordless impact drivers are primarily designed for inserting and removing screws, you can also use them to drill holes, providing you use the correct drill bit. When selecting a drill bit to use in your cordless impact driver, you should consider the following:

		The advantages and disadvantages

			ADVANTAGES			DISADVANTAGES
				There’s no need to swap to using a cordless drill when you want to drill holes Impact drivers usually have more compact designs compared with standard drills, which makes them better suited to tighter spaces Impact drivers are typically lighter than cordless drills, which can be extremely beneficial when using the tool for long periods of time or holding it above head height			You will need to purchase drill bits with hexagonal shanks or use an adaptor The range of impact drill bits is still fairly limited


			Drill bit shank
			Cordless impact drivers have ¼ inch hexagonal quick-release chucks. This means that if you want to drill holes, you need to use a drill bit with a hexagonal shank of the same diameter.

			Nowadays, you can purchase drill bits with hex shanks, but they are not as common as drill bits with round (straight) shanks. Traditionally, screwdriver bits were the only bits to have hexagonal shanks, while drill bits all had straight shanks.

			The diameter of a hex shank is measured across the flats.

			Impact bits
			When using a cordless impact driver, it is recommended that you use ‘impact bits’ – which are screwdriver and drill bits that are specially-designed to withstand the constant hammering of the impact driver’s mechanism.

			Although impact drivers can produce a higher level of torque than most drill drivers, the range of impact drill bits available is fairly limited. If there isn’t an impact drill bit available to suit your drilling application, then you can use a regular drill bit, providing it has a 1/4 inch hex shank. However, you should bear in mind that regular drill bits may not be strong enough to cope with the impact and could wear down or shatter easily.