Golly, do I ever feel DUMB right now!

[NC Rick]

My recent acquisition of a brand new in the box Freight Harbor heavy duty 1/2" air impact wrench was an eye opener - and in more ways than one!

The magical tool:
View attachment 337274

and on the back there is a 3-position valve for varying the amount of air supplied to the 'business end' of the tool.

View attachment 337273

Very cool, gave a rough indication of how much 'oomph' the beastie was going to apply to a fastener.

And I thought to myself "Why didn't anyone do that sooner? I've been around similar air tools since I was in knee pants and never paid a lot of attention when someone was using one. Either 'on' or 'off' was my impression. Maybe 60+ years ago that was the way it was. Well, here is where the 'dumb' part is. I looked at all my 3 other impact wrenches variously acquired at garage sales and thrift shopping and right there next to the air inlet was a black knurled knob. Very black - I figured it was an air filter or something else not to be messed with - and in my defense, as I said the knobs were painted solid black.

Taking a wire brush to the black paint on the 'air filter' revealed some markings on the knob - lo and behold, they were throttling valves for the tool.

View attachment 337272 View attachment 337271


I'm sure everyone else on this forum knew about this magical control and I should just keep my mouth shut - but if you had a similar upbringing to me then my 'dumb moment' may be instructive. (And you don't have to admit not knowing it because I already did).

Even at that, with the old tools I didn't get as much torque as the new HF wrench put out so it's a win-win!

<blushing>

Stu

Those are useless since they don't go up to 11... counting "cuthunk, cuthunk, cuthunks" is how you gotta do it right?

 

[Flyinfool]

Pretty much the only time I use my impact is on lug nuts. For removal I need the max setting and a lot of time to break them loose. For install I just run them down to the first hammer to just snug them and then use a torque wrench to tighten to 150 lb/ft. I still like the idea of using torque sticks to, but my set does not go up to 150 lb ft.