Recently I did what’s called the ‘big 3’ upgrade on my car’s wiring. You replace the oem wiring from your alternator, etc. with 1/0 gauge cable, thus allowing substantially more power through. This is for speakers. I made my own cables and was in the process of upsizing one of the battery lugs by drilling the hole bigger on a drill press. I was just holding the wire steady with my left hand while pulling the drill handle down with my right. The drill bit caught and spun the cable around, including somehow my hand in it, winding my hand up in the cable very tight against the still spinning drill. It’s a small drill press and didn’t have enough torque to keep spinning, but had the drill been stronger I’d have at least broken my hand if not worse. As it was my hand was swollen and scratched pretty good. When you make your living typing this really makes you think.

Having had this happen a few times, I'm pretty obsessive about workholding now. It's a shame that a good drill-press vise can cost almost as much as the drill press itself, because it's really important for safety.

You should image-search the term "radial drill" sometime. ;)

Where are you finding these $30 drill presses?

$21: https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Tools-Drill-Press-226340/dp/B00...

$25: https://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-jaw-capacity-drill-pres...

You don't need a high-dollar Kurt milling vise for a drill press, and you only need to constrain the part in one degree of freedom (rotation about Z axis). Just put a single fastener in your table and drop the slots in that vise over it. Gravity and quill pressure hold it in Z, the table holds it flat against rotation about X and Y, and you want it to have the ability to slide a bit in X and Y to let the drill find the center of your punch/pilot hole. If the drill catches, the torque will push against the stud and it can't move.

An impact driver (rattle gun) is much better for speeding up disassembly than a drill. They also don't apply anything like the same feeling of torque to the operator's wrist.

A lower power (e.g. 300Nm max) battery driver is great for when you have to undo lots of lower sized bolts, while it would be a little bit underpowered for wheel nuts or motorcycle fork retaining bolts.

Dear Lord please do not put 300Nm on your wheel nuts.

They're supposed to tentioned correctly with a torque wrench, usually between about 110 and 120Nm.

Edit to add a reference, just random from a search: https://www.barum-tyres.com/car/expert-advice/safety-driving...

I think parent was referring to taking wheels off, not torquing the nuts.

And for that purpose, it does seem appropriate.

On second reading I see you may be right.

However my point still stands, somewhat: if 300Nm is insufficient to undo your wheelnuts, they're way too tight.

You should be introduced to Italian single-sided-swingarm nuts. For example, my MV Agusta Brutale required 220 to 240Nm tightening. It would come loose with my battery-powered 300NM rattle gun, but only after a while. (Fantastic bike but I no longer own it. I'd rent another though.)

Ducati single-sided swingarm nuts can be similar, but I have not yet owned a Ducati.

Let me forward this advice to Mercedes AMG Petronas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUyUA91ILsE

To be absolutely clear I'm talking about disassembly. I'd never use a rattle gun to tighten anything.

This is true. I didn't have a hammer drill at the time that would accept a socket adapter so we made do with the drill.

Why would a drill be engineered to put out more torque than a human holding the handle could be expected to counterbalance?

They probably could have, had they been ready for it. Not everyone is the same weight and strength either so it could just be that it was out of their physical capabilities.

That is often the difference between home and tradesman tools. A tradesman can reasonably be expected to handle a bit more responsibility from their tools than the home handyman.

I imagine he was leaning over the engine bay, maybe holding the drill in one hand. So in that specific scenario, the tool was more powerful than he could control.

But that same drill might be asked to bore a large hole in a piece of wood, and the user would anticipate the amount of leverage they need to control it. Two hands, arms close to body, etc.

For drilling holes in soft materials like drywall and wood, or even softer metals like aluminum. I recently used that drill to drill into a motorcycle engine to remove a stuck rotor cover.

Relevant old article: http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html

Price, there are some fancy battery powered drills that detect the jerk via an accelerometer and reduce the power, but most drills don't have that. for example: https://www.boschtools.com/ca/en/more/news-and-extras/knowle...

For a continuous drilling operation the torque is totally fine, the problem is abrupt changes in torque because of something catching. On drills without this feature that's what the torque limiting clutch is for.

Dunno about Bosch's implementation, but the Milwaukee one sucks. The drill/impact driver would strip the screw head, jerk your wrist, and then cut the power. I'd much rather have a mechanical clutch than than that one.

We actually had an older drill with the mechanical clutch with a stripped high gear that we kept around for driving screws instead of tossing because the new one was so bad.

Powerful electric drills will often come with an extra handle on the side (or a mounting point for one) so that you can brace them with both hands. It's up to the user to set an appropriate torque limit if they're only using one hand.

Using the analogies above, a drill like that could put the trigger on the awkward handle, forcing the operator to use it

The second handle sometimes needs to be removed to fit into a narrow space. In that case, you set a torque limit and operate the drill with one hand.

That's fair; Maybe you need to hold two triggers, and the torque limit is reduced if you're only operating in "one hand mode"?

When I drill 30cm holes in fiberglass or wood, I place my leg next to the handle. That have saved my wrist many times as the tool bites to the material and send the drill in a circular motion.

An electrician I know broke his wrist with a high torque electric drill - be careful!

The amount of torque you can handle with the drill horizontal and close to the body is rather different than vertical and leaning over an engine bay.