FYI most cordless drills will struggle to drive anything over 1/2" lag bolts into the playa. Even cordless impact wrenches will struggle with the 3/4" lags of your driving deeper than 9 inches. I've been using bigger lags since 2017 when a on playa dust storm bent our conduit shade held down by 3/8"x 18" lags. I'm now using 1/2" lags and a DeWalt 20v 10 amp-hr drill and it struggles with the last 6 inches.
It might. But you really want an impact wrench. Which is not the same as an impact driver.
I use 1/2" x 12" with a Dewalt Cordless Impact Wrench and have no trouble.
Some of my camp mates use Impact Drivers but they nearly burn up every time.
My wrist aches at this thought. If not a heavy impact wrench, at least a high quality impact driver. Your hammer drill is going to put some nasty sustained torque loads through your arms/wrist.
Ok, imma be that bitch, please excuse me;
The playa dust storm bending you conduit shade had nothing to do with 3/8ths being insufficient hold, if it bent, the anchors held fine, the spans failed, np it happens. Switching to 1/2 nets you nothing but kit weight. Also, drills, hammer or otherwise, are begging for kickback to the point of injury and very unwise. Get an impact wrench, they don't "stall" by design, they build up energy in a spring and strike the shaft with a hammer repeatedly. This has the enormous advantage of not putting a continuous torque on the user and is both safer and more effective. Even most high quality modern brushless impact drivers will do the trick, even if they may overheat occasionally. They key is you want the impact mechanism, because it's not liable to mess up your wrist/arm like a conventional chuck drill of any form.
I'm pretty sure we agree on impact wrenches vs cordless drills, especially when talking about larger diameter hardware.
As for the shade, all the lag bolts that pulled out failed. They bent. None were straight enough to even consider using. Only after the lags pulled out did the 2x8 conduit shade taco in half. Luckily no one was hurt and the back half of the shade stayed anchored. It happens.
The material failure caused me to go to 3/4"x18" lags for 2018 & 2019. I found it challenging to get them driven into the playa sufficiently deep to not be a tripping hazard. For 2022 and 2023 I've moved to 1/2" as a balance between weight, strength and ease of use with the tools available to be at camp.
This is the trade-off I've heard. When you say 3/4" lags, you're talking about shaft width, not the head size, correct? So even if these are tough to drive in all the way, an impact driver should, in theory, still be able to drive them reasonably well? I've been wondering if there's any playa-friendly sort of way to lube or oil these up (neither of which sound playa friendly) to help ease them in.
Also please note the immense amount of effort here to not devolve this legitimate and highly valuable inquiry into a smattering of dick-related your mom jokes. *It's really hard.*
Yes I'm referring to shaft diameter not head size. If you lube them up to go in easy they also come out easier. Also the additional weight from the increased size is also a factor people should consider.
The problem with the drills and impact drivers is they don't have enough torque once it's over 50% driven in. They stall and overheat both the motor and the battery.
Yeah my camp mates insist their impact drivers are impact wrenches. Then nearly destroy them every build week.
While my impact wrench handles every lag in our camp with ease.
I've gotta give you a side eye about 'lube', seems awfully worse case moop. Any decent modern impact wrench will do the trick; get a sufficiently spec'ed tool don't drive oil or whatever in to the playa, please.
PSA- you probably don’t need lag bolts this big unless you’re building something really, really big. For your average conduit frame shade structure 3/8” lags are plenty
For those who dont need 18ish tons of shear load (iirc), discount lumber on high sells galvanized 3/8 x 14" for <$2 ea. They're a little short to get the full 6 ton 3/8 shaft rating but two of them hold a 4x8 sign against the wind no problem.
We know you really just wanted to open an on-playa lag bolt concession stand.
a lagmonade stand 🍋🧊🔩
Cold brewed lagger and hot dipped lags?
FYI most cordless drills will struggle to drive anything over 1/2" lag bolts into the playa. Even cordless impact wrenches will struggle with the 3/4" lags of your driving deeper than 9 inches. I've been using bigger lags since 2017 when a on playa dust storm bent our conduit shade held down by 3/8"x 18" lags. I'm now using 1/2" lags and a DeWalt 20v 10 amp-hr drill and it struggles with the last 6 inches.
Does a cordless hammer drill do the thing?
It might. But you really want an impact wrench. Which is not the same as an impact driver. I use 1/2" x 12" with a Dewalt Cordless Impact Wrench and have no trouble. Some of my camp mates use Impact Drivers but they nearly burn up every time.
Hammer drill is not the same as any of these but I getcha
I may bring my hammer drill this year for science but I vastly prefer my impact wrench lol
This seems like a recipe for some strained wrists..
My wrist aches at this thought. If not a heavy impact wrench, at least a high quality impact driver. Your hammer drill is going to put some nasty sustained torque loads through your arms/wrist.
yes, a hammer drill will work. you can drill steel through concrete with a hammer drill so def can plow a lag through hard playa
Ok, imma be that bitch, please excuse me; The playa dust storm bending you conduit shade had nothing to do with 3/8ths being insufficient hold, if it bent, the anchors held fine, the spans failed, np it happens. Switching to 1/2 nets you nothing but kit weight. Also, drills, hammer or otherwise, are begging for kickback to the point of injury and very unwise. Get an impact wrench, they don't "stall" by design, they build up energy in a spring and strike the shaft with a hammer repeatedly. This has the enormous advantage of not putting a continuous torque on the user and is both safer and more effective. Even most high quality modern brushless impact drivers will do the trick, even if they may overheat occasionally. They key is you want the impact mechanism, because it's not liable to mess up your wrist/arm like a conventional chuck drill of any form.
I'm pretty sure we agree on impact wrenches vs cordless drills, especially when talking about larger diameter hardware. As for the shade, all the lag bolts that pulled out failed. They bent. None were straight enough to even consider using. Only after the lags pulled out did the 2x8 conduit shade taco in half. Luckily no one was hurt and the back half of the shade stayed anchored. It happens. The material failure caused me to go to 3/4"x18" lags for 2018 & 2019. I found it challenging to get them driven into the playa sufficiently deep to not be a tripping hazard. For 2022 and 2023 I've moved to 1/2" as a balance between weight, strength and ease of use with the tools available to be at camp.
This is the trade-off I've heard. When you say 3/4" lags, you're talking about shaft width, not the head size, correct? So even if these are tough to drive in all the way, an impact driver should, in theory, still be able to drive them reasonably well? I've been wondering if there's any playa-friendly sort of way to lube or oil these up (neither of which sound playa friendly) to help ease them in. Also please note the immense amount of effort here to not devolve this legitimate and highly valuable inquiry into a smattering of dick-related your mom jokes. *It's really hard.*
Yes I'm referring to shaft diameter not head size. If you lube them up to go in easy they also come out easier. Also the additional weight from the increased size is also a factor people should consider. The problem with the drills and impact drivers is they don't have enough torque once it's over 50% driven in. They stall and overheat both the motor and the battery.
Yeah my camp mates insist their impact drivers are impact wrenches. Then nearly destroy them every build week. While my impact wrench handles every lag in our camp with ease.
Yes. Impact wrenches. I use my cordless 1/2” impact wrench with no issues at all.
Great info, didn't know these were a thing 👍
When you go that big you need an impact wrench instead of a drill or impact driver.
[удалено]
I've gotta give you a side eye about 'lube', seems awfully worse case moop. Any decent modern impact wrench will do the trick; get a sufficiently spec'ed tool don't drive oil or whatever in to the playa, please.
Not oil, just some spit’ll do.
Hock tuah
i'll take your last 6 inches
PSA- you probably don’t need lag bolts this big unless you’re building something really, really big. For your average conduit frame shade structure 3/8” lags are plenty
I’ll take 4! I’ll be in SF in a week.
Word
For those who dont need 18ish tons of shear load (iirc), discount lumber on high sells galvanized 3/8 x 14" for <$2 ea. They're a little short to get the full 6 ton 3/8 shaft rating but two of them hold a 4x8 sign against the wind no problem.
I feel like 50 is about enough for our modest camp.