New to festool cordless impact drills

[pgrbff]

I don’t have it in my hand yet but I have ordered an 18V cordless impact drill. From what I understand it just has a 1/4” hex chuck? I have many SDS masonry bits, will I be able to use them?

 

[Birdhunter]

My TID18 accepts 1/4" hex shafts. It has a spring loaded sleeve that you retract (push away from the drill's body) to insert a bit.

The warning is to use only impact rated bits.

 

[Frank-Jan]

Depends on which model you bought.
The TID 18 Is a cordless impact driver, has a 1/4" hex chuck and takes regular bitholders

The BHC 18 is a cordless hammerdrill and takes sds plus masonry bits

The TPC 18 is a cordless percussion drill that comes with a centrotec chuck and a jacobs chuck, so you can use the proprietary centrotec bits or masonry bits with a round shaft.

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

If you have SDS bits, then you need a rotary hammer for drilling in concrete.

An impact driver is intended for driving fasteners with 1/4" hex shank driver bits.....

 

[pgrbff]

I have bought the TID plus and hoped to use it for the occasional brick/stone fixing. It's replacing a very old Elu which was percussion.
Festool sells masonry bits with a hex shank so I assume the TID should be capable of making the odd hole in masonry?

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

The TID (impact driver) is intended for driving fasteners and will be useless for drilling holes in concrete, you need a rotary hammer for drilling the holes in masonry.

 

[Lincoln]

Big difference between an impact driver and an impact drill. Sounds like you're expecting an impact drill. As Tom said, impact drivers are for driving screws, though they're ok for drilling small-ish holes in timber etc, but not masonry.

 

[Frank-Jan]

Maybe you can send it back and change it for a tpc 18, or it's predecessor a pdc 18.

That is a more universal drill and has a percussion mode for an occasional hole in brick. The masonry bits you mentioned earlier are not regular hex, but centrotec, they are not compatible with the TID, they will work with the tpc and the pdc.

The TID is very nice impactdriver, but it's not a versatile drill. The main strength of an impactdriver is that it can drive fairly large screws easily, without putting strain on your wrist.

 

[semenza]

Just to clarify so the OP doesn't go down the wrong path.

The OP said SDS bits. Those have to go in an SDS chuck. They are not compatible with Centrotec , 1/4" hex or jacobs. The only tool that Festool makes that takes SDS bits is the BHC18 (https://www.festoolusa.com/products...rdless-hammer-drills/576512---bhc-18-basic-us ). It is a Rotary Hammer and needs SDS bits. It is not an impact driver, or hammer drill.

Seth

 

[Cheese]

Rotary hammer is the operative word here. It rotates the drill bit while also hammering the drill bit forward into the material. You need to have both actions performed at the SAME time to drill brick/stone/concrete.

 

[pgrbff]

Looks like I didn't buy the most appropriate tool. Can it take wheel nuts off?
I don't often have to drive large screws very often, but I'll be putting in a sweet chestnut balcony soon. 50mm boards into more chestnut. Unfortunately sending it back for exchange is impractical as I'm in Italy and the drill is still in the UK at my sister in laws.
You live and learn.
Can I fit a centrotec chuck to it?

 

[pixelated]

I don't know the specs, but the impact driver probably does not have enough torque for wheel nuts.
It would need to produce somewhere around 108 NM or 80 foot-pounds minimum, and often wheel nuts are torqued quite a lot more than that. Small impact drivers are handy to spin lug nuts and similar fasteners off and on after you break them loose by hand though (or torque by hand, for going on).

 

[mino]

Looks like I didn't buy the most appropriate tool. Can it take wheel nuts off?
I don't often have to drive large screws very often, but I'll be putting in a sweet chestnut balcony soon. 50mm boards into more chestnut. Unfortunately sending it back for exchange is impractical as I'm in Italy and the drill is still in the UK at my sister in laws.
You live and learn.
Can I fit a centrotec chuck to it?

Best for you to return it or sell it on on the secondary market. An unused TiD with warranty papers will fetch for anywhere from 80-90% the original price.

But you really want to do this BEFORE 30days passed from the purchase. Within 30 days of original sale, the new owner can register the tool still for FULL Festool warranty - if you did not do so already. That adds a lot to the value.

If you wanted cordless impact *drill* not impact *driver* like the TiD, you should look for the Festool BHC 18. it is a pleasure to use tool and there is even a Centrotec adapter for it.

An impact driver is a pretty specific/rare-use tool. So if you are a hobby user, you are better of getting some cheaper one or just skip the tool type and drive those few big screws a year by a wrench.

 

[Coen]

I don't know the specs, but the impact driver probably does not have enough torque for wheel nuts.
It would need to produce somewhere around 108 NM or 80 foot-pounds minimum, and often wheel nuts are torqued quite a lot more than that. Small impact drivers are handy to spin lug nuts and similar fasteners off and on after you break them loose by hand though (or torque by hand, for going on).

The TiD 18 is rated at 180 Nm, most car wheel nuts are in the range of 100-120 Nm. Loosening torque is usually probably a bit more too.

But the TiD has 1/4" hex, and for wheel nuts you need 1/2" square. Any adapter in between will reduce available peak torque.
I have the Bosch GDX 200 which has both 1/2" square and 1/4" hex, so I don't have that problem. It loosens car wheel nuts just fine.  [wink]

If you garage tightened the nuts with the impact wrench... change garage. They should be tightened with a torque wrench.

 

[tomktest]

Looks like I didn't buy the most appropriate tool. Can it take wheel nuts off?
I don't often have to drive large screws very often, but I'll be putting in a sweet chestnut balcony soon. 50mm boards into more chestnut. Unfortunately sending it back for exchange is impractical as I'm in Italy and the drill is still in the UK at my sister in laws.
You live and learn.
Can I fit a centrotec chuck to it?

This is a good question. I used to take off lugs with my old gen 3 Milwaukee impact driver but it wasn't the most pleasant experience. I just tried removing a lug from one of my vehicles with the TID 18 and it worked. Lug was torqued to 100 ft.lbs about 5 months ago. I also tried on the truck and it did not work. Those lugs were torqued to 140 ft.lbs. about 2 months ago.

So, it can work for cars / small SUV lugs but YMMV. You will likely start to break the 1/4" to 1/2" socket adapters. These days even compact impact wrenches can loosen most lug nuts and they are fairly cheap. I am using the new DeWalt mid-torque DCF891 when I work on my vehicles - one tap on the trigger will loosen the lugs on the truck.