Mac Tools cordless 3/8-inch wrench Size, balance and weight prove handy for working in tight areas By Mike Mavrigian
T
he range of high-quality cordless electric power tools is quickly expanding. Torque and battery life is increasing, and the toughness and durability demanded by pro technicians is increasingly being met. To provide insight into a new offering, here we’ll review one of the latest Mac Tools cordless impact wrenches. The Mac Tools BWP038-S2 kit includes the BWP038 a 3/8-inch-drive cordless impact wrench, a pair of MB120 12V Max rechargeable lithium ion batteries, an MCB101 battery charger and an MTB001 tool bag. The wrench is extremely well-balanced and feels great in your hand. The handy forward/reverse button is easily operated with the fore-fnger or thumb without the need to re-position the wrench in your hand. The body is made of glassflled nylon for toughness and chemical The 3/8-inch-drive Mac Tools cordless wrench is relaresistance, and the grip’s coating is tively compact, at 7.1 inches tall by 6.7 inches long oh-so-comfy. and a mere 2.5 inches wide. Since this impact wrench is just handsdown-pretty with its ergonomic design and to six feet. The thick-skinned little bugger eye-catching red/black/silver color scheme, I just kept on tickin’ and never missed a beat. really had to force myself to abuse this little Naturally, if you whack any exposed battery tough guy. With a whopping 725 ft.-lbs. of pack around hard enough, you’re eventually available grunt and its nifty compact size, going to break it, but during my on and off it’s defnitely a workhorse and ideal when testing over a period of almost a week, she you don’t wish to (or can’t) drag an air hose never argued with me and just kept on slamaround. But it’s so darned curvy and cute, I min’ (even though on two of the drops, the felt that it would break my heart to intenbattery pack popped off, but after snapping tionally scratch it or get it dirty. In the end, it back on, she kept operating like new). For I sucked it up and put it through its paces, any cordless tool, that’s a good enough proof intentionally dropping it onto my shop’s con- of durability to suit me. NOTE: After testcrete foor several times from heights of two ing, I carefully wiped her clean and felt like
60 | January/February 2014
