An impact driver is a cylindrical tool that is made up of two parts, the outer shell and the inner core. They interface with each other with a tension spring and splines. You set the tools tension by placing it on the fastener, then push it forward and twist it opposite of the desired direction you want it to twist. In other words you remove a frozen bolt by twisting the unit clockwise in a tightening direction. Then when you strike the Butt of the tool with a hammer, it slides the shell down which exerts and transfers an increased amount of rotational torque to the inner core of the tool, which will turn about 90 degrees in the direction opposite the preloading direction. (In this case counterclockwise or loosening.) Wham! The bolt or screw should now be loose. Put the other tools away. Since you can preload the tool in either direction the tool can be used to loosen or tighten, by adding additional torque.

The nose of this tool is equipped with a ½ square socket drive to allow the use of impact sockets of varying sizes. It also has a hex adapter allowing insertion of Phillips and slotted screwdriver bits. By being creative with different socket size adapters, sockets, extensions and drive bits, you can use this tool to reach just about any shaped fastener in any location. (I’ve even adapted to a Torx bit before.)

This tool comes with 3 different Phillips head screw bits as well as 3 different slotted screwdriver bits. It also has the adapter that converts from the driver bits to the ½ inch square socket drive. All of this in its own Blow molded plastic case. The guy that invented this was a genius

The tool also has an oversized cushioned comfort grip for easy handling. The grip has a butt ended flange to help protect your delicate hands from a glancing blow off the butt cap. (Yo Nick, I know your hands aren’t delicate but, you’ll think they are if you strike them with a sledge hammer.)