Well, I've been relegated to manual wrenching.
I went to use my 900 year-old Craftsman corded electric impact wrench to zip the pulley nut off one of the Cub Cadet rider mower spindles and I let the smoke out. These nuts are not torqued on that tight but I think it was just its time. It started to ugga-ugga, then it was over. It stopped with a puff of smoke. It was done.
I just assume the wrench just finally gave up the ghost after years of service, getting kicked, dropped, etc., over the years. It's the old-school Craftsman, the ones that actually last. Until it didn't. This thing used to be able to spin the nuts off a gorilla. And it has seen a couple of rear-end pinion seal jobs as well. Didn't even break a sweat.
This morning I've been perusing a bunch of them, and the price points are all over the map. I don't use an impact THAT often, but I do want to get one at least 300 lbs.-ft. capable and it doesn't have to be fast. I just want one that I can plug in, use it, then poke it back in its storage hole. No fiddling with an air impact.
It appears that the Milwaukee looks to be an overall great choice, but they're kind of spendy. If I made a living doing this stuff, I wouldn't care, but before I do something like that, I wanted to get some input if there's less expensive options out there that can still do a reliable job. I'm not necessarily looking for the best, I'm looking for a decent one, though.
Opinions?
I went to use my 900 year-old Craftsman corded electric impact wrench to zip the pulley nut off one of the Cub Cadet rider mower spindles and I let the smoke out. These nuts are not torqued on that tight but I think it was just its time. It started to ugga-ugga, then it was over. It stopped with a puff of smoke. It was done.
I just assume the wrench just finally gave up the ghost after years of service, getting kicked, dropped, etc., over the years. It's the old-school Craftsman, the ones that actually last. Until it didn't. This thing used to be able to spin the nuts off a gorilla. And it has seen a couple of rear-end pinion seal jobs as well. Didn't even break a sweat.
This morning I've been perusing a bunch of them, and the price points are all over the map. I don't use an impact THAT often, but I do want to get one at least 300 lbs.-ft. capable and it doesn't have to be fast. I just want one that I can plug in, use it, then poke it back in its storage hole. No fiddling with an air impact.
It appears that the Milwaukee looks to be an overall great choice, but they're kind of spendy. If I made a living doing this stuff, I wouldn't care, but before I do something like that, I wanted to get some input if there's less expensive options out there that can still do a reliable job. I'm not necessarily looking for the best, I'm looking for a decent one, though.
Opinions?