Craig Howard
03-08-2003, 11:40 PM
<b>OK...Who's the torque engineer?</b>
Picture it...... It's 10pm. The setting: Acme Tool Co.'s corporate office. Twelve people seated around a cherry/curly maple inlaid conference table. "Sir, Mr. Johnson has just broken through the warp torque barrier."
I love my cordless drills. They're one of the most used tools I own- woodworking or otherwise. But....<i>c'mon already!</i>...what's with the torque thing? I think I've actually used this feature once. My first cordless had 6 torque settings. My newest one(Makita 14.4/2.6ah-wicked nice) has sixteen. I can hear the brass screws giggling. <i>If</i> I actually wanted to go to the trouble of going through all the different settings to determine which one would seat that screw <i>just</i> right, you know the next one would encounter a grain reversal and the head would snap off quicker than Norm can fire brads. Yeah, there's other aplications for this hyped-up feature, but could the research dollars be better spent elswhere?.....
For instance.....
How 'bout incorporating some of that random orbit technology into a drill? If you've ever tried to back out a 3" bent deck screw, you know what I mean.
Audio chips are cheap these days. I can see it now: You're squeezing every last drop of energy out of your drill. You've been there- admit it. The drill bogs down, you let off the trigger, turn the whole thing by hand, hit the trigger again to get another 1/32 of a turn, turn the whole thing by hand again,etc, etc. A voice pops up: "Dude! I came with two batteries for a reason ya' know!"
Another idea.... as long as we can achieve variable speed, let's have the following settings: 72rpms and 33 rpms. Might not do much for driving screws but you'll be able to dig out those old Jethro Tull albums.
Has anyone ever thought to enhance the electric brake feature? Pack a little parachute into the chuck that deploys whenever the trigger is released.
I could go on, but it would only reinforce your opinion of my departure from reality. ;-)
Just something to think about.........
Craig
Picture it...... It's 10pm. The setting: Acme Tool Co.'s corporate office. Twelve people seated around a cherry/curly maple inlaid conference table. "Sir, Mr. Johnson has just broken through the warp torque barrier."
I love my cordless drills. They're one of the most used tools I own- woodworking or otherwise. But....<i>c'mon already!</i>...what's with the torque thing? I think I've actually used this feature once. My first cordless had 6 torque settings. My newest one(Makita 14.4/2.6ah-wicked nice) has sixteen. I can hear the brass screws giggling. <i>If</i> I actually wanted to go to the trouble of going through all the different settings to determine which one would seat that screw <i>just</i> right, you know the next one would encounter a grain reversal and the head would snap off quicker than Norm can fire brads. Yeah, there's other aplications for this hyped-up feature, but could the research dollars be better spent elswhere?.....
For instance.....
How 'bout incorporating some of that random orbit technology into a drill? If you've ever tried to back out a 3" bent deck screw, you know what I mean.
Audio chips are cheap these days. I can see it now: You're squeezing every last drop of energy out of your drill. You've been there- admit it. The drill bogs down, you let off the trigger, turn the whole thing by hand, hit the trigger again to get another 1/32 of a turn, turn the whole thing by hand again,etc, etc. A voice pops up: "Dude! I came with two batteries for a reason ya' know!"
Another idea.... as long as we can achieve variable speed, let's have the following settings: 72rpms and 33 rpms. Might not do much for driving screws but you'll be able to dig out those old Jethro Tull albums.
Has anyone ever thought to enhance the electric brake feature? Pack a little parachute into the chuck that deploys whenever the trigger is released.
I could go on, but it would only reinforce your opinion of my departure from reality. ;-)
Just something to think about.........
Craig