Safety and maintenance for impact wrenches

Wear Proper PPE

As with most power tools you’ll want to wear proper protective gear when you’re working with impact tools.

Do wear:

• Safety glasses for protection from loose debris
• Hearing protection for all impact tools; air impact wrenches and drivers are particularly loud and can create noise of up to 103dB
• Wear closed toed shoes

Don’t wear:

• Ties, loose clothing, and jewellery like watches
• If you have long hair, tie it back or wear a hat to secure it

Use the Right Tool & Bits for the Job

Make sure you’re using an impact wrench for its intended purpose. While you can get socket adaptors that can turn your impact wrench into a driver, it’s still not going to be the perfect substitute for the real thing, and cheap modifications to power tools can lead to damaged anvils, surfaces, or even endanger the user.

By the same token, while starting up a boat engine with an impact driver might seem like a fun way to spend an afternoon, it’s probably not the best way to use your tool, so make sure you’re using your tools for their intended purpose — at the very least it’ll make sure you get the most out of your warranty.

Don’t Bend Your Wrist To Use Your Tool

Rather than bending your wrist around corners or to fit your impact wrench into tight spaces, use a right-angle impact wrench or other angled tool to get into that hard-to-reach spot and save your wrist from damage in the long run.

You should also avoid any extreme positions for your joints while working and excessive gripping when using your tools and always try to use two or three-finger triggered power tools to avoid ‘trigger finger’ caused by repetitive use of thumb triggers.

Be Aware of Excessive Vibration

While all impact tools will have some amount of vibration, pneumatic variants tend to suffer from it the most, while electric and cordless have slightly reduced vibration during use. There are also tools that are constructed with ‘anti-vibration’ materials that can help to mitigate some of the vibration you’ll experience using the tool.

Air Impact Wrench Safety

Air tools come with their own specific set of safety issues and maintenance needs, so be sure to read your owner’s manual and keep these tips in mind when using them:

• Always use impact sockets that are made for your tool, as standard power tool sockets cannot handle the force from an impact tool and can shatter during use
• Make sure to disconnect your impact wrench from the air supply before performing maintenance or changing sockets/attachments
• Use the recommended air pressure for your impact wrench (usually around 90 psi) and make sure that your compressor has enough CFM to power the tool consistently
• Avoid over-torquing nuts and bolts with the impact wrench, always use a torque wrench to apply correct torque
• Air impact wrenches vibrate a lot during use. If you start to feel tingling, numbing, or pain while using your tool, stop using it and seek medical attention if the sensations continue
• Don’t carry your air tools by their hose, use the handle provided

Maintenance & Lubrication

Impact wrenches, like all air tools, require consistent lubrication to reduce the wear of the internal components. This can be achieved by either adding a few drops of oil into the air inlet manually or via an inline lubricator.

For larger industrial air compressors, a filter regulator lubricator (FRL) should be installed to help keep the air that goes into your tools clean, lubricated, and set to the correct PSI.

Safety for Electric & Cordless Impact Wrenches

For the most part, working with an electric impact wrench or driver will require you to take similar precautions as you would with a pneumatic tool, but there are some other considerations when dealing with electric power tools:

• Avoid having your body in contact with any grounded surfaces during use
• Don’t use electric power tools in rain or wet conditions
• Use a Residual Current Device (RCD) if you must work in wet conditions
• For corded tools, be careful with the cord and don’t use it to carry or pull your tools around
• For cordless tools, only use the battery supplied with the tool and only recharge the battery with the charger provided by the manufacturer

Maintenance for Electric Impact Wrenches

Cordless and electric impact wrenches generally require less maintenance than air tools because they don’t have air from a compressor being pumped through them constantly. Having said that, your old Milwaukee impact wrench is still going to perform better when maintained routinely or at least when it starts to reduce in power or make terrible noises.

Here are a few things to remember when performing maintenance on your electric tools:

• Be careful of electrical components during disassembly
• Grease the tool liberally like you would with an air impact wrench
• Don’t try to service damaged batteries yourself, send it off to the manufacturer instead

Impact Mechanism Maintenance

Check your owner’s manual to find out the amount of time needed for full maintenance of your impact mechanism. This will be different not only between pneumatic, electric, and cordless impact wrenches, but also between manufacturers.

Some manufacturers will recommend maintenance after a set amount of tool run-time (often around 48 hours), while others may specify a time period —i.e., every 6 months.

Maintenance for the mechanism can be performed through a flush-mount grease fitting that certain impacts have, otherwise you’ll need to open up your impact wrench and manually grease the hammer, anvil, ball bearings, and other parts.

If you do manually disassemble your impact gun, here are a few things to remember:

• Make sure to note the orientation of parts as you remove them
• Check for cracks or chips in the hammer and other parts as the mechanism is constantly under heavy strain during use and can be dangerous to use if damaged
• Wipe parts with a rag first and then apply grease liberally to components
• Reassemble the impact wrench carefully and try to avoid putting the tool back together using power tools as they can strip the threads on the plastic casing

If you’re unsure about how to disassemble and reassemble your gun, you’re probably better off sending it to the manufacturer to be serviced, as these tools contain a lot of moving parts that can fail in dangerous ways if the tool is put back together incorrectly.

Pick Up an Impact Gun at Repco

Now that you’re acquainted with proper safety and maintenance of impact wrenches, check out the wide range of power tools available at Repco, from pneumatic Mechpro Blue Die Grinders to Milwaukee M18 Compact 1/2inch Impact Wrenches and everything in between.

Whether you’re on the job and need hardcore tools to get work done on a deadline or you’re a home DIYer just looking to tinker in your garage, we’ve got you covered.