Most people already have a drill, and you can just chuck the bits in! Beats spinning them in by hand with an Allen key like some sort of neanderthal, aint nobody got the time for that. Also, lots of drills have torque limit settings on the snout so u can be sure u never strip out the threads and touch them up by hand for final torque.
As a person who gets paid to assemble furniture, I have to second this. If you don’t have that clutch set right you’re going to have a bad time. People ask me how much it’s going to cost for me to assemble something and I tell them that they should probably try it themselves first because they’re not going to like how much I charge. They get angry. Then I get a message a week later asking me to undo whatever they messed up and assemble it at whatever price I quoted.
Sometimes I’m lucky and they just read the instructions incorrectly (which is so easy to do) and I have to take it apart and put it back together the right way. But sometimes they didn’t have the clutch set right. And I have to repair the permanent damage they caused. They’re very happy to have it assembled correctly. They are not happy that I did the entire project in 30 minutes. But part of that time difference is that I have a drill and allen wrench sets and they were working with hand tools.
I believe that’s what he means. The clutch on drills can stop applying torque at various increments so u don’t over tighten screws! Behind the chuck as u rotate the collar the various numbers are the tq limits (roughly, don’t take the units literally as quality and age of drill will impact exact figures)
And not all drills are the same. For example, I have the Hercules 20 volt drills from Harbour Freight. Those things have all the power in the world. And at their lowest possible setting on the clutch they will strip out a cabinet screw in the blink of an eye. So I had to get the 12 volt Hercules for doing delicate work.
To expand on this, there is zero standardization on how much torque a clutch setting allows, even from drills from the same manufacturer released on the same battery platform in the same year. The only things that you can really count on are that 1 is the lowest setting and that each setting allows no less torque than any lower setting on that drill. One drill’s setting 5 out of 7 may allow more torque than another’s setting 24 out of 24.
This video covers a fair amount of what I’m talking about, but even it is fairly limited.
I have hope for the Spesyn ST3. It has a screen on the back that lets you control settings, plus an auto depth stop and some other stuff. It’s allegedly shipping to backers right now, but I’m backer #70 and haven’t gotten an email, so ¯\(ツ)/¯
Get a drill with Allen wrench bits
Ehhh maybe not for IKEA furniture.
Most people already have a drill, and you can just chuck the bits in! Beats spinning them in by hand with an Allen key like some sort of neanderthal, aint nobody got the time for that. Also, lots of drills have torque limit settings on the snout so u can be sure u never strip out the threads and touch them up by hand for final torque.
And make sure to use the clutch
As a person who gets paid to assemble furniture, I have to second this. If you don’t have that clutch set right you’re going to have a bad time. People ask me how much it’s going to cost for me to assemble something and I tell them that they should probably try it themselves first because they’re not going to like how much I charge. They get angry. Then I get a message a week later asking me to undo whatever they messed up and assemble it at whatever price I quoted.
Sometimes I’m lucky and they just read the instructions incorrectly (which is so easy to do) and I have to take it apart and put it back together the right way. But sometimes they didn’t have the clutch set right. And I have to repair the permanent damage they caused. They’re very happy to have it assembled correctly. They are not happy that I did the entire project in 30 minutes. But part of that time difference is that I have a drill and allen wrench sets and they were working with hand tools.
As someone who doesn’t know shit: when you say clutch, you mean set the power screwdriver to stop turning when it hits moderate resistance, right?
I ask because I think I understand, but I might not.
I believe that’s what he means. The clutch on drills can stop applying torque at various increments so u don’t over tighten screws! Behind the chuck as u rotate the collar the various numbers are the tq limits (roughly, don’t take the units literally as quality and age of drill will impact exact figures)
You got it.
And not all drills are the same. For example, I have the Hercules 20 volt drills from Harbour Freight. Those things have all the power in the world. And at their lowest possible setting on the clutch they will strip out a cabinet screw in the blink of an eye. So I had to get the 12 volt Hercules for doing delicate work.
To expand on this, there is zero standardization on how much torque a clutch setting allows, even from drills from the same manufacturer released on the same battery platform in the same year. The only things that you can really count on are that 1 is the lowest setting and that each setting allows no less torque than any lower setting on that drill. One drill’s setting 5 out of 7 may allow more torque than another’s setting 24 out of 24.
This video covers a fair amount of what I’m talking about, but even it is fairly limited.
Absolutely right. I’d love if manufacturers started giving the torque rating for each setting.
I have hope for the Spesyn ST3. It has a screen on the back that lets you control settings, plus an auto depth stop and some other stuff. It’s allegedly shipping to backers right now, but I’m backer #70 and haven’t gotten an email, so ¯\(ツ)/¯
Awesome! Thanks for the confirmation!
Get a flexible driver extension while youre at it