Milwaukee 2953-20 18V Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless 1/4'' Hex Impact Driver (Bare Tool), Red

Product Information

Side by side, the older Gen 3 and the new Gen 4 M18 FUEL impact drivers don’t look much different. A flat nose on the newer contains the new Tri-LED, but everything else is very similar. Even on paper, both include identical stats. You still get a Brushless motor powered by the M18 REDLITHIUM battery. There are 4 drive modes and a variable speed trigger to further control the power. Modes one through three are incremental steps, but the fourth offers a screw drive control. This drive control helps when driving self-drilling screws into thin metal. While the marketing claims on the Milwaukee 2953 is 2,000 in-lbs of torque, we wanted to push harder. Divide the 2,000 in-lbs by 12 and you get 167.7 ft-lbs of torque. This is probably referring to the tightening torque, which is great for construction. However, we’re more interested in how much breakaway torque can the Gen 4 Impact Driver deliver. Even without snapping the 1/4″ hex to 1/2″ square impact adapter, we pushed the new Milwaukee to 550 ft-lbs. This is 50 ft-lbs beyond what we tested on the older Gen 3 model. You still shouldn’t use this impact driver for removing lug nuts, but this thing is an all-out power monster.

Bit insertion can be a pain since it’s typically a two-hand operation. Milwaukee’s M18 Fuel Impact Driver collet design makes life a bit easier by using a one-hand insertion. With the collet empty, just slide your bit into place. There’s no need to pull the collet out to accept it. Milwaukee One-Key Models We put the new Milwaukee 2953 Gen 4 Impact Driver right to work on our test rig. It broke free a nut that was torqued to 550 ft-lbs! That is staggering power coming from a 1/4″ hex impact driver. Milwaukee finally added the Tri-LED lights to the front of the 2953. The 3 LED lights provide better light coverage to the fastener area than the typical LED shining from below the collet.As expected, you also have a Milwaukee One-Key option for this impact driver. It currently comes as a bare tool option only, though you can get a fourth-generation two-tool kit with One-Key versions of both the M18 Fuel hammer drill and impact driver. Additional Highlights Kenny’s life around power tools started early. His grandfather was an airplane mechanic in WW2 and took up woodworking as a hobby after retiring from the power industry. Building everything from bookshelves to lazy Susans, he became extremely accomplished while his young grandson observed, fascinated at the way raw wood could turn into something both beautiful and functional. In fact, Kenny still uses several pieces that his grandfather made more than 30 years ago.