If you’re looking to drill a hole, the most obvious tool you would reach for is a drill (a drill can both drill holes and drive screws).
But what if you’ve only got an impact driver to hand? Or could an impact driver actually do a good or better job of drilling a hole than a drill? A lot of tradesmen will instantly dismiss the idea of using an impact driver to drill holes but how many have actually tried it?
An impact driver is most commonly used to drive screws and not drill holes but it’s certainly possible to do both.
The impact driver mechanism
The first thing worth considering when trying to determine whether an impact driver can drill a hole is the mechanism. Impact drivers are designed to deliver exceptionally strong rotational force that allows for effortless driving.
Drills don’t have the forward force, they’re purely rotational.
So why would something that delivers strong rotational and forward force not be suitable for drilling? Surely it would make drilling easier?
Impact driver attachments
The way a drill bit attaches to a drill is very different than to how impact drivers accept bits. The chuck on a drill screws and tightens around the drill bit, securing it in place. This reflecting the rotational nature of the drill itself.
The impact driver accepts drill bits by opening (pulling the chuck/collet out) and then closing around the uniquely shaped drill bit. Again, the design of this reflects the nature (and power) of the impact driver and allows for increased delivery of force without jamming.
The bottom line is we can’t simply load a drill bit (to drill a hole) into an impact driver.
And actually, that should be the end of the post. If we can’t safely load the drill bit into the impact driver, we can’t drill a hole.
However!
Believe it or not you can buy drill bits that would allow us to drill a hole with the hex shank to allow us to safely load it into the impact driver.
If they’re making drill bits to fit impact drivers then it’s certainly possible to drill a hole with an impact driver.
But it’s not quite as straight forward as that.
Impact drivers are erratic and often have just the one speed setting, which means you sacrifice any sort of control. For example, if you need to create a pilot hole the impact driver won’t be the best tool for the job. Could an impact driver create a pilot hole? Absolutely. But making the hole in the right spot at the right angle will be a challenge because it’s so difficult to control the driver.
The other thing worth noting is that even the best impact driver doesn’t hold the bit solidly. If you load up a drill bit into an impact driver, the bit will have a little movement in it which will cause the bit to run of course, leading to inaccuracy. It’s extremely hard to use an impact driver with precision accuracy, a drill would be much better for the job.
On a good quality drill, the drill bit will have very, very little runout, if any at all. This leads to a much more accurate job.
I’ve had a few messages back from trades who regularly use the impact driver to make holes. It seems especially useful when drilling a number of holes in old, hard timber such as decades old joists when running wires or pipes.
Using hand drills to drill through deep, tough wood can also be taxing on the wrists. Or the drill bit could easily get stuck which would be awkward.
Also a number of people messaging to say they had to choose between a drill and an impact driver due to cost, so have no choice but to drill holes with the impact driver. So some people are actually forced into it and probably don’t look back once they’re used to it.