Air Impact Wrench

Didn't know ir made a battery gun, how much? Voltage? Any good?

It was £550 when I bought it maybe five years ago, it's not bad but wasn't lithium battery whereas my new snap on is. I've still got it I use it at home now.
Just out of interest cooltide, what do you use them for?
Not often I see a topic about tools that gets me interested. It's quite a sad hobby of mine.

cooltide said:

Didn't know ir made a battery gun, how much? Voltage? Any good?

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Milwaukee has the best.

My job is crash barrier erection. There are times when we tighten up all day on the bigger jobs. In the winter the guns ice up hence we melted a 2131 on the compressor exhaust!

We mainly tighten with a 24mm bihex to 80Nm but use the half inch guns up to 300Nm on 36mm bolts

I have been thinking of a compressor in my garage at home or an electric gun. Like someone else posted, I don't want to wait ages for the compressor to pressure up so would be looking for something with good cfm flow. So am I better off getting an electric gun?

The snap on batteries are an arm and a leg so that's a worry.

Yeah they are for sure but if there's a prob out of warranty they always do you some good will.

CP & Ingersoll-Rand are usually very good guns!! but it depends on what your doing I have a snap on 18v lithium for the breakdown & its brill & eats any other battery gun, I also have a mini CP impact gun 1/2 drive and its a monster!!! main thing with air is keep them well oiled

cooltide said:

My job is crash barrier erection. There are times when we tighten up all day on the bigger jobs. In the winter the guns ice up hence we melted a 2131 on the compressor exhaust!

We mainly tighten with a 24mm bihex to 80Nm but use the half inch guns up to 300Nm on 36mm bolts

I have been thinking of a compressor in my garage at home or an electric gun. Like someone else posted, I don't want to wait ages for the compressor to pressure up so would be looking for something with good cfm flow. So am I better off getting an electric gun?

The snap on batteries are an arm and a leg so that's a worry.

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you got a water filter trap on the compressor, and drain it twice a day? and oil the gun couple times a day?

No don't bother, found them too restrictive. We open the taps to clear moisture in the compressor before starting work. A drop of engine oil in the far end of the hose sticks to the hose and feeds through for ages. The 231 puts up with this treatment. The only failures we have are one of the hammers breaking so sometimes you put the gun on and air just hisses through. It costs £50 to repair and is more a result of using 120psi (what our pile driver runs best at). Never had problems at 90psi

cooltide said:

No don't bother, found them too restrictive. We open the taps to clear moisture in the compressor before starting work. A drop of engine oil in the far end of the hose sticks to the hose and feeds through for ages. The 231 puts up with this treatment. The only failures we have are one of the hammers breaking so sometimes you put the gun on and air just hisses through. It costs £50 to repair and is more a result of using 120psi (what our pile driver runs best at). Never had problems at 90psi

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engine oil will turn to glue. use proper air oil in air tools they last longer and work better. I have automatic oiler on my air tools

Thor1950 said:

engine oil will turn to glue. use proper air oil in air tools they last longer and work better. I have automatic oiler on my air tools

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As well as restrictive oilers being a problem for us, it is also worthwhile using non restrictive couplings and 1/2" bore hose, not 3/8. See photo comparison

I have added photo of my 231 model a 25 years old and still going strong. Lasting long enough for me.

I'm not in a workshop playing with a few wheel nuts, there are 8000 24mm hex bolts in a mile of barrier, outdoors any weather

You have given me, and others, a lot of great info cooltide. As usual, Thor comes on and tries to pick holes in advice, and knowledge, others taken the time to give. I had him on ignore for a while, but my nose got the better of me as to what crap he was posting and i took him off it. Bad move...

Thanks for your posts mate.

I've got a few CP ones and they're flawless. They get thrown under the ramp. Dropped. Kicked and given pain by out huge compressor and have never missed a beat and never broken. I wouldn't have anything else. Just got to find a decent electric gun. Id love a snap on but theyre abit dear ...

We've got 2 snap on battery guns (non lithium type) and there brilliant but still need air guns when the battery ones can't manage something, theres always the option of winding up the air pressure, and one of the biggest improvements was getting bigger bore air lines, we went from 1/4 to 3/8 and the difference in gun performance was huge.
Air guns are CP never had a problem with them and are powerful, but as already said they don't get constant abuse in a garage environment unlike what cooltide does with them.
Battery tools really need to be used regularly to keep the batteries working properly.

The company I sub to at the mo have cp but cheap ones. They dont tighten as quick as the ir231. We have got them buying ir now. I had a go on a cp redipower a few years back and was a good gun. We swapped our 231 for it for a day and the other guy was equally impressed. Don't know cost of them but if they are same price bracket I would give one a go.

I guess its like the chainsaw debate
Husqvarna vs stihl

cooltide said:

The company I sub to at the mo have cp but cheap ones. They dont tighten as quick as the ir231. We have got them buying ir now. I had a go on a cp redipower a few years back and was a good gun. We swapped our 231 for it for a day and the other guy was equally impressed. Don't know cost of them but if they are same price bracket I would give one a go.

I guess its like the chainsaw debate
Husqvarna vs stihl

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depends which model of CP some are very cheap/weak, and some you need a bank loan,

Aircat are some of the best 1300ftlbs in 1/2" drive