What a wrench!
My first impact wrench was bought for eleventy billion pounds from the Snap-on man in the early 1990s together with a battery drill/driver.
The drill driver was a great new toy but, in real daily use, was under-powered for most workshop tasks and the nickel cadmium batteries of the day did not pack much of a punch and had a disappointing lifespan, with replacements costing the GDP of a small country. The impact wrench was more impressive, but very heavy and again not producing the sort of torque the cost might suggest it should have.
When some bottom-feeder stole it I didn't replace it. In those days air impact wrenches ruled the roost, but they were heavy, ungainly and used more air than an affordable DIY compressor could supply.
For motorcycle work the first really practical impact wrench I got was probably 10 years ago or
more and was purchased from the ubiquitous Snap-on man for a reassuringly heavy chunk of change. I still have it today and I did manage to buy a handful of new lithium ion batteries for a relatively modest sum when they had a very special offer on after the original battery died. It is a 3/8-inch drive and produces a modest amount of torque in a very controllable manner, making it perfect for disassembling motorcycles. With experience it can be used to reassemble fasteners, but one cannot lose concentration and I would advise against a novice using it for doing stuff up.
I contacted Sealey to ask what they had to offer and they do a nice 3/8-inch drive impact wrench, which they sent me to try together with a batterypowered screwdriver. I had a problem with the impact wrench where is has a sprung wire ring to hold the socket on which jammed the first socket on and then when using a reasonable level of determination I managed to retrieve my socket, but the ring came away and made the tool effectively useless. Sealey sent me another and I have got on very well with it. It is on a par with the more expensive Bluepoint tool, but is much lighter and more compact and as such I have been using it in preference to the vastly more expensive American tool. I'm not suggesting that it would survive as long in a busy professional workshop, but it is fine for my use.
The screwdriver set has also found favour with me. It is very light and fits nicely in my hand. I had to do a lot of carburettor work on a recalcitrant 1979 ZLOOOST with the float bowls going on and off too many times for comfort. Because the screwdriver has a variable torque limiter, one can set that and whizz the screws in an out with no fear of over-tightening them. I have also been working on my R6 and using the limited torque settings made whizzing the myriad fairing screws in and out much easier and quicker. It isn't very powerful, but that is actually in its favour. The lithium-ion battery lasts a fair while. If Sealey want it back they will be disappointed as I really like it. We'll be getting a stock of both these tools for Biker's Toolbox unlike the next tool I am going to cover, which is really only for the serious tool addict or professional.
My first air impact wrench was a pauper's version from Machine Mart. It was cheap and did what it said on the tin. It provided what I deemed a lot of torque, when I bought it - 310 newton/metres. It certainly helped remove fractious fasteners. There are certain jobs where an air impact wrench is perfect - one is removing damper bolts on fork legs and the other is undoing front sprocket nuts, both of which benefit from the most amount of torque possible in the shortest possible time. A few years ago, one of our tool wholesalers offered us a new product - the Air Cat Killer Torque ½-inch drive air impact wrench, which chucks out 1764 newton/ metres of torque. Wow! They are far from cheap, but I had to have one at any cost! You do need a man-size compressor to drive one, but boy are they good - I just love the power. One does have to be very careful with that sort of power as it can cause a lot of damage if misused.