bits sticking in impact driver chuck

[riwiseuse]

Just trying to track whether bits jamming in impact driver chucks is a widespread phenomenon. It happens to me occasionally, usually after a lot of high torque screw setting. And the bit appears to essentially jammed between the male and female hex shapes, similar to a nut being stuck in a socket wrench.

Sometimes you can free it by unscrewings a screw although that never seems to apply that same amount of torque as screwing them in so it doesn't always loosen. Then it is time to grab the thing with a vice grips and offer some resistance while bursting the trigger in reverse and, between working the torque out and ability to use vice grips to pull the bit out voila.

I see it maybe once or twice a week in heavy usage. And I haven't really tracked whether I associate it with one kind of driver or driver model more than another.

I'm running Dewalt, Ridigid and Ryobi 18Vs.

Trying to think this through for some specialty bit ideas and maintain the ability to grab them to overcome this problem, but wondering if others have experienced this, or have noticed the problem ocassionally and then had it go away with purchase of a new impact driver from the same or different manufacturer.

thanks for any observations you might have from your experience.

brian

[Millhouse1]

Only times that I have had any problems was due to the bits having some rust on them. It doesn't take much to cause a problem. New bits or a wirebrush usually solve the problem.

[tomthetoolman40]

Brian,
I have the Makita 18v impact and experience the same problem after driving long screws using a lot of torque. Usually a quick rap with a hammer frees it up. It is annoying though.

[tjbnwi]

I've had the same issue. A quick reversal of the impact in a screw seems to do trick. It seems as if the more used have more issues than fresh ones. Maybe the corners get soft from them getting hammered.

I haven't tried the newer impact bits to see if they would solve the problem.

Tom

[rogerg]

It happens quite often in my 18v Makita. I need a pair of pliers to yank it out. I find the end (in the driver) gets slightly peend (?)over slightly. With your finger nail you can feel it. I either grind or file more of a taper at the end of the bit.
It's a first class pain in the butt.

roger

[dlhunter]

I have been using the Milwaukee impact bits and extension and they have worked well for me. The first couple uses can require players to pull the bit out but after a few uses they loosen up. If I do get a stubborn bit I put the drill in reverse and tap the bit a few times on a hard surface as its spinning. That usually does the trick.
I get more frustrated by the bits that slip out of the extension and stay in the screw head after I'm done driving a screw and don't realize it until I go to run the next screw in and see the bit hanging out in the head of the last screw I drove in.

[newman]

it's happened to me a few times too. good quality, properly sized bits like apex and wiha seem to lessen the issue.

[HDietrich]

Yes like Newman said a quality bit will solve the problem. I've ran thousands of screws with the GRK torxs bits and never had them jamb or even wear/strip out for that matter. The impactors destroy cheep bits, it's not even worth using them. Try the Milwaukee "shockwave" bits for none torx bits.

[tjbnwi1]

Try the Wiha;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY_Nh1b2YB0

Tom

[joseph]

Happens on all my impacts as long as i remember .It is a non issue easily taken care .faster then taking the time to do a reverse on another screw . Just wack the bit on something hard , driver is in your hand ,it does not leave your hand . swing it over so side of bit smacks something hard .You got a ton of torque in these drivers it is bound to bind up a some .

[Hickorywind1]

+1 on Wiha, and Wera has very good bits also. Wera makes the best #2 Pozidriv screwdriver for adjusting cabinet doors (euro hinges).

[Zak S.]

It happens to me as the bits and the bit holders (extensions) wear out. I go through GRK and spax bits at a pretty regular interval, and the extensions seem to last 8-12 months. I'm happy about that though, I prefer the extensions and bits to be a softer steel that wears out faster than the impact driver bit holder does: so far, my Makita impact driver doesn't seem to have worn.

[joseph]

after doing arbors with big lag screws or just 4" screws it is just a fact ,they stick

[riwiseuse]

thanks for all the replies. sorry its been all blizzard all the time since I posted the question about bit sticking.

I didn't want to pollute the thread with my own notions ahead of time but I think I see a little bit (sorry) of the pros and cons of metallurgy selection and field tactics that virtually everyone has posted.

There is not question that lousy - excessively soft metal - is right out. That usually shows up for me in bits that wear at the tip before they get around to sticking in the chuck. Never buy those again.

After that there may be some advantage to extreme metallurgy and certainly if I had a run of bits that were hard enough to keep their tips but on the margin in terms of deforming and sticking in the chuck I'd ditch them, but I have not experienced this phenomenon.

It may indeed be minor deformation of the bit that causes the problems but I haven't associated it with one brand over another in terms of run of the mill adequate bits. (I use almost exclusively 2" power groove, not magnetic adapters.)Rather, it tends to be repetitive extreme tasks, lags, and 3 to 5" screws into really hard PT and the like.

Now I suspect that the new wave of high tech engineered bits has its own ways of lessening this problem, not necessarily by higher deformation resistance but by designed deformation in the form of torque within the bit itself.

I haven't run a lot of this bits (got a package of shockwaves after christmas for more or less the price of standard bits so thought I'd give some a try.

That said, except devoted to a single project where a lot of high torque driving is anticipated serially i can't justify these high end bits because like your average ADD guy who can't find a pencil when he's got one behind each ear, I can't keep track of bits. I'm constantly changing them. End up with multiple operations that are more than I have bit storage for on the gun, and or they fall out of the bit storage. The constant changing between philips, roberts, torx and #1 and #2 (#15 and #25) conventions makes it more practical for me to buy 100 bit lots of each and treat them as evaporative consumables. Generally I can get decent quality 2" bits for around 50 cents a pop that way.

So, having conceded that compromise for the time being (with the possible exception of using more expensive bits for repetitive high torque driving in the hundred[s] of fasterner range) it is back to methods for getting the stuck bit out. Yeah, I sharply tap them. Run them in reverse and tap them. Put them in a well seated fastener and make some quick short bursts in reverse. Grab them with vice grips. or all of the above.

With the mix of what I do, I might run into this problem once or twice a week and I haven't ever wrapped up much more than a minute in restoration, with the exception of time spent looking for the vice grips if I wasn't preloaded with them.

But I have to balance that against the time I would spend looking for my special bits to prevent the problem, etc.

I'm meditating on what to do in the cases of special bits that aren't as easy to grab with vice grips, although, for the most part, the driving with these is not as high torque I'm just trying to head off problems at the pass.

thanks again for all these observations, and any more that come to mind.

brian

[Hickorywind1]

Outside of metallurgy, you have to consider how accurately sized the bits and the various 1/4" chucks are. I have bought Irwin 1/4" drive fly (spade) bits that would not fit in the Wiha 1/4" quick changer that I use in drills. Poorly manufactured tools without exacting standards can contribute to these irritations.