OT update on HF cordless impact

[Ross]

I purchased the 19.2 v cordless impact from Harbor Freight for $70 and tried it yesterday.
It refused to budge 4 of 5 lug nuts on my Jeep. Manually removing the remaining ones required a torque wrench to be set at 130 lb/ft to avoid it's click first. HF claims 220 lb/ft, certainly not with this one. It sounds bad on a "free rev",sort of a high pitched whine, so perhaps this one is NG.
I actually bought two,one for a friend who builds weight training machines who thinks it will suffice for his purposes, so I'm thinking of opening the other to see if same.
Maybe I will cut the motor brushes to match the profile of the commutator in hopes this thing will produce more torque.
The good part is it comes with a nice case, four sockets and TWO sets of extra brushes.
The jury is still out on this one.
Sometimes you get lucky on this cheapo stuff but usually not. The trouble is even if a good product comes around it's usually a one time occurance as these importers will change vendors for a half cent price improvement.

[Tiger]

Was the battery fully charged?

[Dave M]

Ross, thanks for the update. I'll be watching to see if this puppy is worth it.

Dave M

[mikell]

Me too.

[Ross]

According to the indicator on the charger , yes.

[632 Regal]

yep mine just finished charging but I cant test it now, will try tomorrow and tell you what my experiences are.

[Tiger]

I am going to try DeWalt as I have a bunch of 18V Dewalt tools....

[Ross]

DeWalt has one rated at 300 lb/ft, about $300 w/2 batteries.

[Tiger]

Yeah I know... I don't need batteries as I have those already. I can just buy the impact gun for about half that price delivered.

[632 Regal]

well guys, this thing is total crap! it rattles and stuff but wont loosen any of my properly torqued lug nuts. junk junk junk. Bill R got lucky, dont see anything decent like his much under 300 bux.