[Duma]

You can get packs of 5 too which is what I did, but can't find the link atm as on phone, sorry!

[Duma]

Edit, think this is what I got:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00U1L7Z56/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1478091465&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=wera+impaktor+hex+plus+bits&dpPl=1&dpID=31grZLWqRNL&ref=plSrch

[haydn jones]

Yea cheers duma. litrally found it after making the post however. i still can't  find the 8mm ones

[Duma]

Think we've always just done the big ones by hand, hardly use any at TCA though.

[haydn jones]

Yea I've  not seen many places use the big bits. but would be anoyong to turn up and need it and not have it

[butters]

For reference the Erbauer is £79.99 / £109.99 with two 2.0ah batteries (standard / brushless).

Compare that to the price of putting together the equivalent by Makita:

Impact Driver - Bare: £69.95

Batteries x 2 (Genuine): £49.50

Charger: £22.90

So far £142.35 and no case to put it in....

[SamT]

But the makita will almost certainly be half as good again than the Erbauer as reflected in the price.

There is also a compatibility issue to consider.  One of the main reasons I bought an 18v SDS by makita is that I know there are loads of 18v makitas kicking about.  Everyone man and his dog has one in the peak caving scene, which means if I need more than two batteries, we can club together.  I guess I'm saying that if the wall your setting at has makitas, with a charger, there is a chance of borrowing their charger/spare batteries etc. 

Brushless ones have better electronic power control, so in practice that means you get finer trigger control at slower speeds (probably more important when drilling). It also protects the batteries (from power surges I assume, like when a drill 'grabs' and gets stuck) and thus makes them last longer between charges.

[Oldmanmatt]

I bought an Erbauer impact driver, four years ago and a Makita about a month later. Both were used daily setting and general maintenance. The Erb is heavier but more torque'ie, so it's used primarily with the Hex bit, and the Mak was used mainly as a screwdriver.
The Erb is still going strong. The Mak was replaced by a cheapy Slash and wreker over a year ago and that was was in turn replaced by a new, lighter, Erb 18V a couple of months ago.
Our heavy drill is a MacAlister SDS, which did ~12,000 holes (~1000 in the  solid Limestone walls for resin anchors) during the wall construction, 4 years ago and is still in constant use today.
Ok, those are impacts and a corded SDS, so not directly relatable; but I offer the examples in relation to product quality/durability.



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[butters]

But the makita will almost certainly be half as good again than the Erbauer as reflected in the price.

Which is why I own a Makita... 

My post was more to point out that with the Imp that Paul B listed it was all there whereas going down the body only route what looks like a good deal gets expensive quite quickly once you factor other things in so maybe consider the Erbauer as a potential short term solution.

[haydn jones]

Ive opted for the makita 18v impact. got 2 of the smaller batteries to reduce the weight i have to carry around. cheers for the feedback guys. hopfully rhis drill will do me good for years to come

[Percy B]

Just saw this thread - sorry if any help I have to offer is too late.... but here's my input for what its worth.
One thing I think is important for commercial setters to consider when choosing an impact driver is what it will do to their body - in terms of vibration and tool weight fucking up your elbow joints, and also the noise making you go deaf prematurely and upsetting everybody near you when you use the tool. For this reason I have recently converted from being a loyal Hilti supporter and now use Makita again. The reasons for this are a) that the new generation of Hilti impact drivers are great but go wrong all the time - I reckon both of mine were back to be fixed every 6 months as a matter of course. Don't be tempted by the little impact driver Hilti now make - it is a spineless creature for commercial setting and doesn't have enough grunt.

I had used Makita impact drivers for a long time, and they are good but noisy and produce a lot of vibration (which might cause you some arthritic bother if you use tools with lots of vibration for long enough - it did me!) Makita now make the second generation soft impact/impulse driver which is very quiet and produces around half the vibration of the standard versions. It is not cheap - £230 for the body only, but I'm converted. Had mine for a while now and its been great. A word of warning - Bobert 'Lucky' Napier got one after trying mine, and his broke almost straight away. He's had it fixed a number of times but it still won't work. He definitely bought the only duff one they seem to have made - the guy in the shop seen him coming I reckon. I think Ned has a Makita soft impact too, and his has been fine.

[Paul B]

I've just had a look at the HAVs on impact drivers; holy hell!

Look at this:
http://www.makitauk.com/products/cordless-tools/impact-drivers/all-cordless-impact-drivers/dtd152rmj-18v-lxt-impact-driver.html

1:48 hours.

vs. this:
http://www.makitauk.com/products/cordless-tools/impact-drivers/all-cordless-impact-drivers/dts141zj-brushless-oil-pulse-driver.html

4:04 hours.

Obviously this is time with the tool engaged but day-in-day-out Percy's beta seems like a very sensible suggestion! Neither of the values above seem to fit with the HSE HAVs calculator and Makita's published stats (can anyone more familiar comment?).

Edit: they're not including the k value.

TBH I remember seeing an InstaSocialFace post by Leah about eye protection when setting and it suddenly struck me that you don't see a lot of eye, or ear protection being used by setters.

[Oldmanmatt]

On that last point, I had a PZ2 shatter (whilst setting on a roof) that gave me quite a nick across my cheek.
Made me think about eye protection at the time, but (despite being quite hot on it for drilling/sawing/routering etc; I still forget when setting. We also bought some of those hard baseball caps, with the idea that when we were setting in tandem, we had head protection for dropped holds/bolts/impact drivers etc.

They're quite dusty.

Somewhere.

I think.


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