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PRODUCT REVIEW


Flex engineers have done a good job in making the handle grippy and ergonomic, with enough black rubber moulding to provide comfort and effi ciency.


reputation didn’t depend on it.


It helps to have a good quality driver Since my fi rst eff orts at butchering plasterboard I have used several collated screwdrivers of varying quality and cost, and it is true to say that there is a correlation between cost, quality and ease of use. Usually, the more expensive, the better they are to use.


What I have against some of the less effi cient drivers is that they usually have a fi ddly quality to making adjustments for screws and driver. It is so much easier if these are tool-free, easy to locate and easy to adjust, because setting up a driver properly can involve a bit of trial and error depending on the hardness of the material you are driving into and the depth to which you need the screw heads to be countersunk. If I were in the market for a collated screw driver, I would reject outright any driver that was complicated to set up and required tools! So there!


What does the Flex DW45 have?


None of my no-no’s feature in the arrangements on the DW45. It follows a very well-established shape for collated drivers that is a bit more pistol-like – more like old-fashioned corded drills. The reason for this is that the forward eff ort to drive the screws is needed directly behind the line of the screws so that they can be driven straight and the driver point will not cam-out of the screw heads. The hand arrangement then is that the thumb and forefi nger fi t into the grooves above the main handle, while the last three fi ngers can operate the elongated trigger.


Slick and skilled users will bypass pressing the trigger for each screw – they will simply push in the trigger and lock the drill in ‘on’ position by pushing in the lock button that is located high on the handle. In this way, they can keep up a continuous run of screws – something I have done a few times but not nearly as often as I would wish. Perhaps if I was regularly fi xing whole sheets of plasterboard on jobs instead of mainly doing fi ll-in repairs?


Forward, lock and reverse settings are done via a small lever switch rather than a push-through switch found on drill drivers and such. This is because the second fi nger doesn’t have an opposing thumb on the other side to push the switch back when needed.


Flex engineers have done a good job in making the handle grippy and


ergonomic, with enough black rubber moulding to provide comfort and effi ciency. There is a ‘bumper’ around the base of the handle where it connects with the battery slider, but otherwise overmould is kept to a minimum. A decent-sized belt hook and bit holder can be screwed to either the left- or right-hand side of the handle base, with provision for a wrist strap too (strap not supplied).


Basic mode


In basic mode, without the screw magazine fi tted, a simple cone-shaped stop sleeve fi ts over the hex clutch drive into which a driver is fi tted. The depth of drive can be adjusted by screwing the cone to clockwise or anti-clockwise. It is easy to do and clearly marked so I was actually ready to work in a minute or so and I had a 99.9% success rate in driving the screws, singly, to the depth I wanted.


There was ample power, the driver feels progressive and since it is easy to control drive speed through the trigger, results into hard or sift materials are easy to control. To be


honest, in this mode I


could achieve good results


on any small job with confi dence. Fitting the screw magazine


For screwing industrial quantities of


screws, the magazine needs to be in place. This simply clicks into place on the nose of the driver – without the cone of course.


Screw depth adjustment is made via a big ridged dial near the back of the magazine. It will require a bit of trial and error to get the results you need.


The sliding steel nose arrangement is adjusted back and forward for the size of the screws needed. On the right-hand


25


side is metric, while the left has imperial measures. A simple press of the red knob on top releases the lock on the nose so users can choose the size of screw needed.


Feeding a strip of collated screws is easy – just follow the arrows. I always use the best quality of screws that I can as cheap ones will cause jams and hiccups. I must credit the DW45 with making me a far more profi cient user of collated screw guns. For one thing, it is light and compact, so it feels light enough (at 1.4kgs with a 2.5 Ah battery) to handle easily so that I could get the all-important lining up of the screw and driver head that makes for trouble-free screwdriving. I started slowly and increased speed as my confi dence grew. Even though I was using a practice piece of timber to drive into, so it was harder and more diffi cult to start into than a piece of plasterboard, I soon had a rhythm going and even felt capable of setting the motor to continuous mode after I had had more practice.


There is a nice LED light – it comes on when the trigger is pulled. A motor brake helps keep control of driving too – I need such refi nements.


Onc e again, the basic kit comes in a custom fi tted L-Boxx with charger, batteries and bits, and there is room for the magazine inside the box too.


The DW45 is new, interesting and capable and defi nitely worth a look and a demo.


www.fl ex-tools.com


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