Went looking for a butterfly impact... what gives most not avail.. HF removed it from their offerings

woodchucker

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I was looking to make my clausing 8520 mill easier to change tools. Many times it's a pain to break the MT2 free.
go to HF.. they no longer carry a butterfly.
go to northern, they carry a jet, but it's Item #108069 is no longer available.
many others no longer carry a butterfly wrench, which is a nice wrench to use since you don't have to switch it to change directions.
are so few people using them? I saw a CP on ebay, not tested it says, but when you look at the threads for the connector, it's filled with gunk, so I would not trust something so heavily packed. here it is.
butterfly.jpg
 
Those butterfly impact wrenches are so useful. Mine is still working fine... got it from Harbor Freight some 15 years ago... there, pretty sure now it will stop working...
 
Despite being handy to use, they are not good for your hands. The hazard is segmental hand-arm vibration, and it can lead to nerve and vascular damage in the hands and arms. If your knuckles turn white when you make a soft fist after running a vibrating tool, then you've got Reynaud's Syndrome, and your nerves are next.

There are no laws to protect people in the United States from a lifetime of numb, sleepy hands, but there are in Europe and Japan. The manufacturers in those markets over the last two decades have been producing better and better powered hand and air tools with lower transmitted vibration to the operator. Because of that, we are getting better tools and seeing the disappearance of problematic ones.

Even if you have a recent tool, pick up the Bosch equivalent sometime and compare. Bosch was at the forefront of HAV control at the start of the new EU.

So that's a long answer, but is a good explanation for the disappearance of butterfly impacts, palm nailers, and old-school air tools. It's exactly why we don't have asbestos brake pads anymore. They were never banned in the US, but manufacturers knew they couldn't sell asbestos pads in EU, Japan, and Austrailia. The only good business decision was to eliminate the hazardous product and sell the new, safer version to the global market. The US market gets tarred with the same brush because it makes economic sense for the manufacturer. Call it trickle-down health and safety.
 
Why are they worthless? When I used to help out a friend at his garage, I liked using one. I found when working on the top with lots of room they worked well for what I needed. I like it better than my air ratchet.
I spent nearly 20 yrs. in Ford garages, only ever saw 1, and it was used very rarely.
 
I spent nearly 20 yrs. in Ford garages, only ever saw 1, and it was used very rarely.
wow, that's a big jump.. worthless because you only saw one.
I find my use to be a good use of one.
 
Despite being handy to use, they are not good for your hands. The hazard is segmental hand-arm vibration, and it can lead to nerve and vascular damage in the hands and arms. If your knuckles turn white when you make a soft fist after running a vibrating tool, then you've got Reynaud's Syndrome, and your nerves are next.

There are no laws to protect people in the United States from a lifetime of numb, sleepy hands, but there are in Europe and Japan. The manufacturers in those markets over the last two decades have been producing better and better powered hand and air tools with lower transmitted vibration to the operator. Because of that, we are getting better tools and seeing the disappearance of problematic ones.

Even if you have a recent tool, pick up the Bosch equivalent sometime and compare. Bosch was at the forefront of HAV control at the start of the new EU.

So that's a long answer, but is a good explanation for the disappearance of butterfly impacts, palm nailers, and old-school air tools. It's exactly why we don't have asbestos brake pads anymore. They were never banned in the US, but manufacturers knew they couldn't sell asbestos pads in EU, Japan, and Austrailia. The only good business decision was to eliminate the hazardous product and sell the new, safer version to the global market. The US market gets tarred with the same brush because it makes economic sense for the manufacturer. Call it trickle-down health and safety.
As recently as the late 1990’s asbestos was required for aircraft brakes as it is the most reliable, fade resistant material available, better than Kevlar or carbon fiber. Asbestos was also preferred over other materials for oil well drilling rigs as it required less cooling than fiberglass and where most oil wells are located water is at a premium.

Is Asbestos hazardous? Yes, but so is water if you misuse it. Alcohol and nicotine are poisonous, but neither is outlawed. Anyone in the construction industry can tell you that one if the contributing factors to increased costs are the relatively new precautions that need to be taken when working with or around concrete dust.
 
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