Rattle guns

[Felix]

I was working as a tyre monkey a bit earlier this year. We were supplied with Milwaukee battery powered 1/2 nut 'guns'.

Mate did my van wheels up with his Milwaukee what is well over 1000Nm. As i was going away for a W/E i had to get him round to loosen them so i could rattle them up with my Chinese Makita copy as i would have been well buggered if i got a puncture.

[Taipan]

It feels like I should have one of these, despite the lack of any sense of how much torque you are applying making me twitch.

Any recommendations? Clarke ones any good?

I have a 240v Clarke CEW1000 which was about £60 when I bought it. That with a irwin bolt grip got a rounded off crank nut and saved me a new engine cost. I've used it multiple times since and it got a very rusted up swivel nut off a tractor in a field when we hooked it up to a generator. Farm boys had been jumping up and down on a scaffold bar trying to undo it and were gobsmacked at my leccy rattle guy getting it undone! I think they are about £80 now but still a bargain compared to a battery one and when are you ever working on a vehicle without 240v nearby!

[Mussels]

I need to build some decking in a hurry this weekend so I used it as an excuse to pick up one of these in Lidl with a couple of batteries, time to find out how good they are.

[David]

I have the Lidl one...when you think it has done all it can, keep going.

[mangocrazy]

I've had the mains Clarke CEW1000 windy gun for about 5 or 6 years now and it's always come up trumps when needed. It got the crank pulley nut off my Beta 2 litre engine without breaking sweat where even highly rated air windy guns had failed. Not that long ago Aldi had a 240v windy gun on offer for about £40, so I grabbed one. It's even more powerful than the Clarke, lighter and better balanced. Can't fault it.

I'm very wary of battery electric windy guns. From what I've seen they don't have the grunt of a mains unit and with my infrequent usage the battery would probably die on me before I'd had much use out of it. 240v all the way for me.