About two months ago, I started ajob in a building with lots of heavy timber - timber I had to run pipe through. Remembering a product demo I had seen at a suppliers' open house, I took a chance. I bought a new kind of tool, and a new kind of bit.

The tool was a cordless "impact driver." Not to be confused with a hammer drill, in this tool, all the 'impact' is in the direction the bit is spinning. The power in even a small tool is impressive; my 9.6 impact easily outperformed my 14.4 drill. More importantly, there is absolutely NO twisting felt in your wrist. The tool will not yank itself out of your hand.

Later, I used it for driving screws; again, with excellent results.

Then, today I tried my 'unibit' in it, for opening a hole in sheet metal. Again, the improvement over any drill was amazing.

My four drills get used less and less theses days. If you have not picked up an impact driver .... get one for Christmas.