It's out now! amzn.to/4111iii Our lifetime of TOOL RANKINGS : torquetestchan... Today we open up the mystery yellow tool DCF961 to find inside it looks A LOT like the yellow tools you might own at home. Hmm, curious.
*IT TURNS OUT THE DUAL GEAR DESIGN IS JUST A COMPOUND PLANETARY* the sun gear drives the larger diameter and the smaller ones mesh with the ring gear for further gear reduction. Which makes sense as the larger diameter gears are helical. Seems thin for a gear spinining 3lbs of weight, but never seen it before on an impact so we have no idea. *Can you swap in a 3/4" anvil?* Unfortunately not. This one's anvil is very long from the nose cover thickness and gusseting. An existing 3/4" wouldn't even poke out. We think the 1/2" anvil on this example (mixed with how clunky & jumpy this brand's impacts are) holds this tool back more than you might expect. It's like a fire truck stepping down to garden hose diameter. Both this and the curious VTEC like behavior of it makes it, believe it or not seeing these numbers, not well tuned for our tallying. Looking forward to seeing more on this as we see it pop up in places.
Maybe I'm being dense but do you have access to any extended anvil 3/4"-ers? Like that IR 1" lithium you had. IR make 3/4 extended air impacts as well but idk if they're common
@@TorqueTestChannel ah yes there's the density, makes sense. Nothing a quick trip to a hacksaw can't fix, who needs carefully engineered harmonics when you've got BEENZ
The one-inch anvil tools come with dual-handle designs. Would the torque figures change if you pressed this tight onto the bolt [test equipment] using both hands?
Plot Twist: Dewalt themselves leaked this so that TTC would test it, tear it apart, give feedback and then they'll release the improved version later this year.
Theoretically possible, but if that was the case, it would come out next year, not this year. Manufacturing is slow, especially if you're as big as Dewalt or Milwaukee or Makita.
Theyre sloppy with prototypes. Everything from cabinet jacks to blades to tools. If you know a sales rep or tool development team member it's pretty ez to get.
"oh great I can finally get a decent unbiased tool review to see who I'll go with" *channel accidentally starts a nuclear arms race between tool manufactures*
Thinking about vibrations, you can get gloves with accelerometers to monitor vibration exposure for H&S reasons. They would be a good way to quantify exactly how violent each tool is to hold
one thing is shaking, and another is kickback like makita does. and also another is just the pure torque. i think sensing it by hand is the most precise, because it is like the user will feel and not how sensors feel
That’s funny…. Wait.. You’re being serious?!? That’s a silly thing to think. It’s human nature to keep pushing the limits, since the beginning of time. Why would impact drivers be any different?
@@savage6394 Economics and the law of diminishing returns comes into play here. We are not talking about climbing a mountain just because it exists. It's the same concept as concept cars. The boundaries being pushed are not always meaningful economically.
Agree. Think just 5yrs ago. Dcf899 was tops (in yellow at least) down about ½ power to this lol. Wild stuff. Competition breeds innovation. DeWalt got lazy, M18 handed them their butts, and now Yellow is reawoken. We all win.
@@Dustin2112 spoken like somebody who doesn’t understand the more power motto. Just because it doesn’t make sense to you doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be made.
@@luisprieto4589 oh definitely I have the 900 and it's a handful but it does get the job done faster so I don't mind too much. Would not recommend using all day on any high torque especially if you have to use on a ladder like I was. Really hope they offer it in 3/4 and maybe in the future a one inch 60volt version.
They are stepping up their game and I have recently jnvested in them buying batteries and 891 and new flexvolt 416 grinder, however, their brand is a big chaotic mess. Milwaukee is a better brand over all, higher quality and more consistent with everything, though every single motherf*r and their dogs sisters brothers cousins nephews wife's kids uncle literally have Milwaukee, and I'm sick of looking at, I thought I'd get the few DeWalt tools to suit my needs for my job which happen to be better than their Milwaukee counterpart. And go from there.
@@a1racer441 TTC said it best "This is not a replacement for an impact wrench. It's the 'store in the bottom drawer, only take it out when things get apocalyptic' sort of tool." IMO that description fits this tool the most. I just bought a DCF-900 because they're on sale for $299.99 at lowes and I couldn't pass up that offer. Especially because the 961 is $370.
@@a1racer441 I haven't had the chance to use mine yet, but considering that my first big impact wrench is made by Kobalt, I'm excited to get the chance to use the DCF-900.
That's a compound planetary gearset. The sun gear on the motor engages the large diameter of the planets, while the smaller diameter engages the ring gear. It gives additional gear reduction.
I just wanted to say that your channel is one of my favorites. If I'm looking to decompress and turn my brain off from all the stresses of daily life, it's great being able to tune into a pure review channel that isn't bogged down with countless gimmicks or thinly veiled sponsorships. No current events to stress over. No host trying to present some nonsense personality quirk attempting to differentiate themselves from the sea of other "quirky" hosts. No fluff, clickbait, or trying too hard with terrible jokes. Just a cool breakdown of how power tools perform with amazingly detailed explanation, no frills but also well done videography, and technical information coming from someone who obviously has a wealth of experience. I don't know why it provides such a great mental escape for me, and if you explained it to someone it would probably sound very boring, but it's not. I don't even use impacts very much. I guess it's like listening to wave or rain sounds. Anyway, this entire comment probably sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it's definitely not. I just wanted to say keep up the great work and I appreciate the work you guys do!
This reminds of the "stereo wars" in the 70's. Pioneer and Marantz going back and forth, producing MONSTER stereo receivers. Then Technics came out of nowhere, with a 330wpc monstrosity to settle everything! 🥴
In regards to your constant video releases, I think no matter what content you decide to go with it will be a good watch. With TTC its not about what youre doing, it's the delivery in which you do it. From your wrench videos, to your lights and cut off tools, you offer a ton of very useful hard facts about the products you use. This I feel is the draw to channels such as yours and Project Farm, a huge spread of realistic information that can be either useful or non useful, but due to this caters to a large variety of viewers. If you stick to your deliveries I feel youll continue to make excellent content that helps many people.
Dang, just bought a DCF900 after I saw your review. Now I need to wait for the DCF961. Pretty excited. I'm lucky, my shop buddy carries the "red brand". We use both pretty often. This has been a fun ride, none the less. Thanks for sharing this data!
Hey dewalt corporate: don’t hunt down the person that leaked this product. Give him a promotion and a raise. This right here is building anticipation for this product to release. I’d expect them to fly off the shelves and be hard to keep in stock.
For an accelerometer, go with Kistler Instruments. Piezoelectric (so you need a charge amp) but they offer brilliant pre-sales support (I used to be a UK sales engineer with them) Not cheap, but you will be analysing everything once you get one!!
Can't wait to see more on this oddity of a tool. I have found that with my other Yellow impacts that when putting a good amount of pressure on the back of the tool it will remove stuck bolts that were unable to be removed in any duration of time while not putting pressure on the tool. I would love to see how much of a actual applied TQ difference there is when the tools is able to be wrangled in a little more.
I really hope they make this in 3/4 drive. I was about to replace my dcf899 with the 900 but this would be even better at work. I have the 891 and I love it. More than enough for the lighter duty stuff.
I watched this video when you first posted it and you always deliver awesome content of course. I just got a email from harbour freight about their new Bauer high torque impact with a 3amp battery. Just hoping you shed some light on the real torque specs! Always watching. Much appreciated!Thank you!
@@doorlessmoon2886 the slide packs have not really affected anything... And the compact style batteries in the Milwaukees are useless really, you need to run the bigger packs which negates it being compact
Great analysis and testing. That said, I wouldn't use a 1/2" impact at these power levels as it's going to beat up and destroy my sockets. Definitely hope this is 3/4" when it comes out. If that's the case I'll hope it lands at closer to 1100 ft lbs in final form. As a retired auto tech though it's rare I need anything beyond a standard high torque 1/2" on a vehicle. As a side note: that was pretty amazing you had two different impacts land exactly at 1000 ft lbs. I mean the odds for that to occur have to be pretty wild.
For the accelerometer stuff, measuring that in a real, meaningful way is going to be a really big pain or expensive. It has to be attached very rigidly, otherwise you won't really be detecting the true acceleration of the battery. For a small accelermeter, like what's in a phone, it wouldn't be too hard, but that kind of accelerometer (capacitive MEMS) isn't going to give good data since they generally top out at around 400Hz. Obviously for what an accelerometer in a phone is used for this isn't a big deal, but this use case is very different. This is fits into what industrial accelerometers are used for, but are also way larger since instead of using some microscopic MEMS magic, they generally use piezoelectric crystals instead. This gives them a way higher max frequency (10kHz+), but reading most off-the-shelf industrial accelerometers is a pain without the proper equipment. Most of them are also large enough that I think the extra mass of the accelerometer along with the mounting for it would probably end up changing the vibrations noticeably, especially on smaller batteries. We've actually been looking for small accelerometers we could mount in different parts of paper machines to monitor bearings for my job, and the smallest we've come across that doesn't require a bunch of extra analog electronics to deal with the signal and has all 3 axes is the TE Connectivity 830M1 series. They're about 0.6" x 0.6" x 0.17" and just output a voltage proportion to the g-force for each axis. You might be able to superglue it upside down onto the battery and then solder wires on to the pads on the bottom to run them into an oscilloscope for testing. Let me know if you want help with that stuff, part of my job is designing industrial electronics.
If you're going to measure acceleration on the battery you'll need to also build a linear accelerator to slam the batteries to a stop so you can establish how many G's it takes to damage the packs or the batteries in them. So an air cannon with a sled down a pipe. I can't wait.
@@charlieward7606 All of the recently released stuff is great. Also, the 3-mode switch on the new Impact Wrenches is so awesome, you'll never want to use anything else. Check this site's reviews of anything you consider buying to make sure you don't get duped into buying any impact wrenches from their previous generation.
@@SvdSinner thanks man, yeah im a mechanic, the dewalt impact is one of the reasons i went dewalt ahaha makes some weird noise but looks good for crank pulleys and i aint got snapon money xD
I love the quote that “we don’t reply to any emails from them” inferring that they may have sent an email to take your vid’s down on this unreleased tool that you guys blatantly ignored
If you are looking a cheap starter accelerometers plenty of people have hacked wii remotes to give output values. While it wouldn't look pretty it could give you an indication if this is an area worth testing and what sort of results to expect. This could also inform what grade of meter you need. I have just purchased a DCF880n and would love to see it on the dyno if you get a chance.
These batteries are actually much more capable than most power supplies. You’d need an insanely large power supply to match. Power supplies are also not usually great at sudden changes in load. A custom battery pack with 4x the cells would probably be best.
ADXLs 345 would work fine, probably wouldn't be too difficult to setup with an Arduino (I've only run them off pis). But they're fairly precise accelerometers and definitely small enough to bolt onto most batteries.
its pretty clear Dewalt is willing to trade operator comfort for shear torque numbers, which ONLY makes sense for prosumer type users, You run one of these all day and you will require Makita smoothness. An integrating accelerometer mounted on the handle would allow you to score the amount of discomfort they design in and maybe dissuade them from this tradeoff.
We need to see the makita 3/4 xgt (well all the xgt's) with the higher ah batteries. I've tried the 5ah & 8ah. The 8ah makes a massive difference, use it mostly on m20 bolts for changing Shredder blade's and if the 2.5ah doesn't move it the 8ah does, even though the bolt is destroyed in the process
Very cool. Vibrations would make it too much to use often, but it does look like a great tool to have at the back of your drawer for those days where nothing else works.
This needs to come out so you guys can do whatever crazy thing to one in order to double the input speed and start shearing anvils like toothpicks (coming from a member of the red camp)
Just spitballin here could be cool if you had 1-2 batteries with leads coming off the terminals to display voltage during the run for each brand. Extremely cool and informative keep up the great work!
The one-inch anvil tools come with dual-handle designs. Would the torque figures change if you pressed this tight onto the bolt [test equipment] using both hands?
Hey TTC, love the content you’re putting out. I really liked the Amazon brand 1/2” impact wrench videos and would love to see more videos comparing more Amazon branded tools, particularly 3/8” cordless ratchets and impact drivers, to see how they stack up with name brands
I Hope they do release it in 3/4, I'd like to have one for those rare very tight bolt instances, I'd rather step down to 1/2 than step up to 3/4, since when stepping down the lost torque wouldn't be so bad.
@@TorqueTestChannel I'd keep an eye out for one of the larger anvil sizes to be Flexvolt because this gun feels like it's the start of a new generation for DeWilt. If I had to guess they're probably going to go the 1" anvil route with the same hammer and they'll prefer that FlexVolt battery since more voltage means more motor speed, and more motor speed means, possibly literal, wrist breaking torque with that three pound hammer
Regarding the planetary - there are two stages in the newer versions gearbox - motor drives the three big gears in the planetary carrier (first gear reduction) and then the second stage is comprised of the smaller gears going around the ring gear, which causes the planetary carrier to rotate.
Hey! Know you guys get a million suggestions but I think modifying an impact wrench to alternate directions between each impact would be up your alley, I've heard the tip of moving a seized bolt back and forth with a ratchet to help break it loose and I was wondering if it would translate well to impact use
Thanks for this video, really informative. Now I can scoop up a DCF900 for a reasonable price, they are down to £158 in the UK. Just a note: no 6Ah or 8Ah XR batteries available in the UK only the 6Ah 9Ah 12Ah FlexVolt batteries (and the 15Amp beast).
Yes, I’m glad this come out when it did as there are a few heavy hitters releasing HT’s within a few months of each other and like dewalt, metabo hpt is also trying to make it as hard as possible to distinguish the new from old model 🤷🏻🤦🏻♂️ unfortunately tho the mhpt didn’t bring the beans quite to the extent dewalt did 😢 with their high torque models I I was quite excited to see the mhpt as I figured it’d be similar to the xgt 3/4 but no dice there on to the show
I choose to believe that dewalt and milwaukee were golfing one day, talking about market shares. Somone from milwaukee made an offhand comment about how someone has to be second at the same time as teeing ahead of a dewalt engineer whose name was before his on the paper. The engineer laughed it off. It was late in the day and everyone else called it early and went home but not the engineer. He went to the workshop.
Hi TTC, I recently have acquired some of the dewalt 12V line of impact wrenches and ratchets. The DCF903b is the 3/8 impact I’m working with. I have yet to see a video that has your level of comparisons with this tool against its closest competitors and 20v version as well as the variability of the 12V battery options. Was really hoping to see it in action on your channel before I go buying different batteries or investing any more in the 12v line. Thanks in advance! *Edit: if you’d like to borrow it for testing I’m more than happy to share!*
This is a good question and i'm surprised we didn't address it. Unfortunately not. The nose cover size and thickness from gusseting makes the anvil itself super long on this, a 3/4" anvil from another DeWALT wont even poke out past the nose cover.
I wonder what the power curve would look like if they had a 'launch mode' where VTEC was kicked in from 0 ft/pounds, I'm guessing it would be right up there with the Makita.
I think the 3/4 could be a flex volt tool next with a 54volt motor powering that bigger ring gear maybe. It's would explain a lot of the design issues in this test model.
I run my 2864 with 6.0s all day at the Mack/Volvo Dealership I'm at. Compared to the air IR 1"s we have in each bay ; I can still remove all 10 tires faster than any other tech with the air..I love my M18 3/4 more than any other tool in my SO 54" box. I DO however have "more favorites" lol but not in that rollbox
