Just when I think I’ve seen every strange thing there is to see on the web, something like this pops up on YouTube. All I know about this video is that it involves a cordless impact driver, a fluoroscope, and I’m willing to bet — some guys in their early 20s...
They shot it with a fluoroscope, a sort of video camera version of an X-ray machine. Doctors use them in the emergency room and in surgery (until the late 1950s stores used them to check the fit of shoes). Hopefully, the guy who held the impact driver in the video below was protected from radiation by one of those lead vests they make you wear at the dentist’s office.
And as it turns out, 20-something guys are not the only people who use fluoroscopes on power tools. The video at the bottom of this page was produced by Festool to promote the Ti15, a multi-function tool that is both an impact driver and drill/driver. Skip ahead to the 0:25 mark and you’ll see a great slow-motion shot of the inner workings of an impact driver.
Want to know what all those parts are? Check out the first two minutes of this video on the FHB website. They didn’t have a fluoroscope so they sawed out a section of the tool housing. I wish I’d thought of that myself; I love tearing apart tools to see how they work.