Have any of you just given up on air tools and gone only battery?

Today as I was working I was thinking about this exact subject. I use Milwaukee electric tools for pretty much every scenario of fastener installation and removal. I'm way out of the rust belt so pretty much never does corrosion add any difficulty to the task.

My task was building some new brake lines from scratch. I used compressed air to blow out the lines after cutting, reaming and flaring the ends. Then after I install the lines I douse them liberally with brake cleaner and blow them dry so I can monitor for leaks or seepage. I can't imagine not having ready access to compressed air regardless of how well electric tools perform. 

Had to slug a pinion nut off last week.

Air impact was definitely needed.

ShawnG said:

Had to slug a pinion nut off last week.

Air impact was definitely needed.

Seems like a differen't strokes for differen't folks sort of thing.

The nut I had in question on my pitman arm puller while the gearbox was on a bench.  So not a lot of stuff holding it.  M18 crushed it, IR2135Ti didnt touch it.

Feels like the IR, and air impact in general, are lots of little hits, while the M18 stuff is fewer bigger hits.  In this instance I can see why fewer bigger hits would work better as the part being tightened isnt rigid like a crankshaft nut or something would be.

I am still gonna go for my IR first every single time.  The M18 stuff is just too damn big.  

I never use my air tools any more (not that they were anything amazing). I have all Dewalt XR stuff, and find that it can easily handle anything the air tools could. The big DW impact has taken off stuff the air wouldn't do (nor would a 2' breaker bar).  These days the cordless electric stuff is more or less powerful enough for any automotive task (at least any I've run into).

I do use compressed air for various other garage tasks, aside from the usual tire-filling. 

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

I never use my air tools any more (not that they were anything amazing). I have all Dewalt XR stuff, and find that it can easily handle anything the air tools could. The big DW impact has taken off stuff the air wouldn't do (nor would a 2' breaker bar).  These days the cordless electric stuff is more or less powerful enough for any automotive task (at least any I've run into).

I do use compressed air for various other garage tasks, aside from the usual tire-filling. 

I also went with the whole Dewalt XR environment.  What I found too is that they make adapters to fit the 20V Dewalt batteries to other brands that are approximately 20V.  So I didn't throw away my old Craftsman 19.2 volt tools.  I just threw away their batteries.  Wife prefers the Craftsman impact driver and she'll run deck screws all day with it on the Dewalt battery - it's quite convenient.

The only thing I fire up my air compressor for these days is my brake bleeder.

I'm all in on 20V DeWalt whenever I can find what I need. I have a 3/8" and 1/2" impact, drill/driver, work light, leaf blower, hedge trimmer and hand vacuum.

Otherwise I have a Hitachi cordless screwdriver,and a 12V HF Hercules 1/4" extended reach ratchet that both have their own batteries. I would have bought the HF worklight, but it was 20V only and I didn't want to buy a battery specifically for a light.

I have a 12v Viair portable compressor I use for filling tires. 

I rarely fire up my shop compressor at all anymore.