I bought a brand new 3453 and did this conversion almost a year ago. I’m a bmw tech and I use this gun everyday for my work. Haven’t had a single issue with it. Absolutely love it. Thanks for the conversion video.
Thank you very much for the video 😊 just bought a M12 open box on ebay for around $50 bucks, spent another $30 for the anvil, the anvil did come with manufacturer grease on it, so it save me some money to purchase extra grease for it. 😊 I love my little 1/4" impact wrench now 😁
@@Alani.W Well, my replied just kept on getting deleted. I guess I can't mention the website name or the link. You need to Google it yourself, I bought my from great lakes power tools. When you go in there, just type in the search box for 2552 anvil, and it's will pop up. They still have about 8 of them left, I just checked. And it's came with pre-grease, so you don't have to buy a full bottle or whole jar of "J " grease. Should fit exactly with Gen 2 2553-20 and Gen 3 3453-20. I'd tried both, and both fit, don't have to do any extra mod. Good luck 👍.
I just did this last night after reading a few comments. I also had the problem of the new anvil being just slightly too big; it would not fit at all. I checked with my very cheap calipers, and it said it was 0.04 mm too big. Instead of just giving up, I decided, "What the heck? Let's make it smaller!" So I took the anvil, put it in my M12 drill, grabbed some 60-grit sandpaper, cut it to the width of the smooth part of the anvil, and went to it. It took a few tries, but eventually, I got it to go in. Then I went through the grits to polish it back to its original state, and it now works as intended. Now, this may not be the case if you get the anvil from where he got his, but I got mine on Amazon. However, if you have a drill and some sandpaper, you can make it work.
Hopefully you see this I’m a little late lol. Something I’ve noticed across all tool brands especially Milwaukee is that there is always a massive price difference between a hex and anvil (driver and wrench). So I have a couple questions, 1: how has the performance been with the modified 2nd gen (I don’t think there is a 3rd gen impact wrench yet)? Have you been able to compare it to the hex impact in terms of performance? And how does it hold up to buying the purpose built impact wrench? Not sure if that’s possible for you or not. 2: is there a hammer/internal difference between the wrench and driver? Usually there’s some small machining differences etc, but I’ve noticed that these are just plug and play swaps. I’m just morbidly curious if they are just the same exact M12 tool, hammer and everything, just with different anvils and charging more for the wrench which I still dont understand. I might be a little more understanding if the hammer assemblies were different to compliment the hardware like on some tools I’ve disassembled but from what I’ve seen I don’t see any visual differences. Maybe the weight of the hammer? I got to know haha. Sorry for long post, thanks for any feedback and sweet vid!!! I’ll probably be doing this with a gen three here soon.
Wanted to add this too, main reason I’m asking about internal differences is to see if there is an actual performance difference between the two to justify the cost of the impact wrench. But as I said, everything looks identical so who knows
You don’t know how many times i passed on that bf deal since I didn’t want another battery charger or bag(limited on space or else the bags are actually good to put stuff in) wonder how much they go for now because you Sir just gave me a reason to pick one up and have to have it lol
I did this conversion on mine last week. The main thing I don't like is that the friction ring is a bit tight since it's new. Which makes it hard to install and remove short/small sockets.
Sweeeeeet. I bought the M12 hammer drill & impact charger, 2.0 +4.0 battery with free 5 amp for $219. returned 5amp for final $141! Bought the right angle 3/8” impact w/2amp $179 for Christmas and two extra 6amp for $120 back then. Really well made. My dewalt brushless drill driver (1yr old) seems to be losing it beans. 😢
WARNING!!! Save some money by buying your anvil from a reputable dealer online, not from eBay or Amazon. I tried to save money by buying a "Genuine" Milwaukee anvil from eBay, but it didn't fit. I had to attach the anvil to a drill and use sandpaper to remove a thin amount of material to make it work. It worked for one use, but the tip of the knock-off anvil broke clean off while removing a steering column bolt. I ended up buying one from Great Lakes Power Tools, and it slipped right in with no modifications needed. The fit and finish of the anvil were noticeable. I've been using it ever since with no problems, and it's pretty powerful. I mostly use it under the hood on small fasteners; it's much better than using my Stubby. For now, this is the cheapest way to make yourself a Cool Tri-light 1/4 impact wrench, especially since you can pick up a 3453 for cheap.👍🏻
Hey buddy , i have a question can you do this same convestiong with a m18 n put the 1/4 anvil ? Im actually gonne convert both my gen 3 n gen 4 like you ddi in your video mainly cause i just want the 1/4 with tri light , but i would to now if the m18 can be convert to the 1/4 anvil?
I also tried to do this but I felt like the there was more resistance in the anvil than there should be like trying to turn it by hand is almost impossible did you not run into anything like that? just curious.
@@LucidAutowerks I don't know what anvil you used but I also took 2 new tools an did it. But I used the 2552-20 impact wrench for the quarter inch anvil. And I know vice versa that gun will not work with the quarter inch hex driver assembly out of the 3453-20 It won't hold the bit all the way assembled. But if you take both of those anvils and set them down flat The quarter inch square drive one is taller but it's taller because the piece sitting flat on the table is thicker than the hex bit anvil. I'm not a tech self-taught.
Not sure. I looked up one Bosch “Freak” model and the gearcase was only listed as a complete assembly so I couldn’t tell what the anvil looked like. I still need to do some more digging around.
Great video very informative thank you! I’m thinking of doing this to my stubby and I’m wondering what exactly Milwaukee’s grease is or where I can find it? If you could point me in the right direction I’d appreciate it!
Thanks! It calls for "Type J" grease. I looked around and it's available in a 1 pound can for around $60 which is too rich for my blood. Specs of where to grease are at the bottom of the parts list here - documents.milwaukeetool.com/54-26-3400.pdf
I have milwuakee M12 stubby Wrench 3/8 inch, with friction ring. The friction I hate because I want to convert the anvil with a m12 impact bit ; just like what you have done. How would I be able to do this please ?
You get a little more powerful and a little faster tool than what Milwaukee offers from the factory. The 1/4" impact they sell (2552) has 1200 in/lb of torque and 3200 rpm on speed three while this converted Gen 3 impact (3453) has 1500 in/lb of torque and 3600 rpm on speed three. You also get much better lighting with the new tri-LED that isn't offered on a 1/4" impact yet. Also there's the price. The 1/4" impact (2552-20) is almost always $179 for the bare tool but the 1/4" hex impacts regularly go on sale. My whole Gen 3 hex impact kit was $99 with the battery and charger. I actually sold the charger for $10 locally so really I paid $89 for the impact and battery minus any tax. The anvil that I swapped in was around $36 shipped from Milwaukee.
Not easily on the Gen 3 since the gearcase is attached to the tool so any modifications on a lathe are pretty much out of the question without cutting and soldering the wires. I'm not sure if the bronze bushing in the snout has enough meat to be drilled out big enough to fit the 1/2" anvil. I have a 3/8" anvil coming to play around with and see what I can do, though.
I found an Anvil with a 2 in one it has the fitting for the sockets aswell as for hex, but it’s circumference is 0.7 instead of 0.49 would it still work?
I just checked out an exploded view of the parts and it looks like no. The impacting assembly is a sealed unit and I’m not sure if it’s possible to take it apart.
Ordered that exact anvil and tried this. My anvil is too big and will now need a machinist help. Seems this is hit or miss on working. Now I will be in it for more money and time vs just buying the one with the anvil already.
Same here I did this last year and everything fits right a week ago I got new anvil and it's too big to fit therefore can you please list a link for the anvil so I can go ahead and buy it.
@@Alani.W do you know where you ordered from? I bought mine from Biedlers but I believe they ship them directly from Milwaukee www.biedlers.com/product/42-06-2552
It really wasn't that bad at all. I just looked at the footage and all together it was around 40 minutes from start to finish and that was having never opened up the tool before. It's pretty much an impact configuration that you can't get from Milwaukee.
I ended up breaking the little selector knob on the trigger when reassembling is there an option to purchase a replacement trigger that anyone knows of?
I have a 3/8” anvil coming to try on the Gen 2. I ordered one last week and it was way too big so I ordered a different anvil that looks closer to the right size. We’ll see. I’ll have a video soon if it works out 👍🏼
I just finished it up on a Gen 2 using part number 42-06-1010 but it wasn’t a direct swap. The bronze bushing pressed into the snout needs to bored or drilled to make the 3/8” anvil fit. Also the center pin on the impacting assembly was smaller than the opening in the back of the anvil so I had to make a sleeve to take up the gap. I should have the video up by this Sunday hopefully 👍🏼
More compact, adapters slide back and forth because that’s what bits do in a hex impact lol, and you get all the power the tool can deliver because its anvil straight to the socket. Not anvil, then to hex collet, then to adapter, then to socket.
Thanks! They’re handy little tools to have for more than car stuff. I use the 3/8” to drive lag screws into wood and the 1/4” for little stuff like gutter screws and other self tappers. Sure, I can use a hex to socket adapter but then if I have to use a phillips on a driver I’m switching bits back and forth. Who wants to do that! 😂
