Impact Driver options

[Tubby2]

Hi all,
I'm half way thru building my deck on the front porch, I've dyna bolted all the battens to the concrete and started putting some of the decking down using the Macism Type 17 10g 45mm screws and my cordless drill is having a bot of a hard time screwing them in.
I've already stripped a couple of them and so as to not ruin anymore I have only put some of them in half way. I understand now why utemad uses square drive screws cause the phillips head are too easy to strip.
I went and lashed out on a good quality screwdriver bit (all of $8) cause the ones I was using came with a drill I bought. They bend and shear really easy.
Coming to the reason for the post....Short of spending a few hundred dollars on an impact driver what are my options? Can I screw the all in 3/4 of the way with the corldess and then do the rest by hand with a ratchet? or is there a better option?

Cheers

[NCArcher]

Is drilling a pilot hole an option?

[Barry_White]

Tubby

First of all what are the battens you are screwing into? Hardwood or treated pine.

Next what brand Cordless drill are you using. Some brands aren't really suitable for driving Type 17 screws especially into hardwood.

The Macsim screws would be the low end quality screw and a Buildex screw is up on the high end quality.

An electric screwdriver would have more grunt than a cordless drill and would be cheaper than an impact battery driver.

Another thing when driving Phillips head screws you need to keep plenty of pressure on the screw so that the bit doesn't jump out of the screw and damage the slot.

As NCArcher says it would probably better to predrill the decking boards at least with a clearance hole for the screw which would reduce the amount friction on the screw.

[TermiMonster]

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to hire an impact driver just for the job??

[Gaza]

macsim make crap screws. need to pre-drill. also ensure that they are timber screws not particle board screws.

impact driver of choice is makita 18v 4 in 1 lxt lion. $850.00

[thesupervisor]

i run 2 dealwt impact drivers they are great
mabe buy a ozito impact driver i saw at bunnings for around $100 cant go wrong with there warrenty
i would still pre drill will stop boards splitting

[Tubby2]

The cordless I'm using is a Ryobi 12v, The better quality screwdriver bit seems to help. surprise surprise!
I have pre drilled all Merbau decking and the battens are H3 treated pine. I've put in 3 bags of screws so far and had to redo about a dozen from stripping the head, so 12 out of 300 i spose aint too bad. This is my first attempt at decking, a 9m2 jobbie on my front porch, I will be doing a 35m2 out the back so I'd say if Bunnings sell impact drivers for $100 then its money well spent

[Tubby2]

Paid a quick visit to Bunning and picked myself up one of those Ozito 12v Impact drivers.
They dont sell extra batteries but with a 3 year replacement warranty I'll see how it goes.

[NCArcher]

Let us know how it goes Tubby.

[Tubby2]

Let us know how it goes Tubby.

Shall do...just waiting on some more screws as I ran out and Mitre 10 have to order some in for me.

[scooter]

GMC made a 710w electric screw gun with an adjustable nose, had them at Bunnings for $49 last I looked. Would be just the thing I'd reckon.

Aldi had the same model rebadged something else for around the same price.


Cheers......................Sean

[Tubby2]

Just thought I should give an update on the Ozito Impact Driver.

I used it for about 10 minutes and ended up going back to my cordless drill. It just doesnt have enough torque to drive the screws in all the way.
The battery also started to give up after 10 mins but I assume that this would get better after the first few charges. Even fully charged it just cant drive the screws in all the way.

From what I understand Bunnigs have a money back guarantee, so I'll be taking it back and see how I go.

[ComboSquare]

Hmm, well for all my drilling I use my Makita 18v cordless, it's great. Powerful and had no problems at all drilling through pine and hardwoods incl. merbau decking.A lot of torque power.

I bought mine last year for $450 from Bunnings, it had been only recently reduced from $600. I guess it depends on how much carpentry you plan on doing, and how far the budget stretches!

Cheers.