Tools & Fabrication - 1/2" Impact Wrench Question

I have a Craftsman Professional 1/2" impact wrench. The switch has four position settings: reverse, 1, 2, and 3. I was wondering if you change from setting 1 to setting 2 to setting 3 if the amount of ft/lbs of torque increases at each setting? The instructions say that the wrench goes up to about 350-400 lb/ft of torque, but does that apply to all three settings, or just setting 3? So far I've only used the wrench to remove stubborn nuts and bolts, so I haven't really experimented with the three forward settings.

Thanks.

yes it does adjust the power of the gun. I usually leave mine on the lowest setting which is usually around 60-80 ftlbs and then torque whatever it is im working with down again with a torque wrench. some IR guns will lay down almost a 1000ftlbs. that will snap a stud of real quick!

Thanks 4u, so you can't really use your impact wrench for torquing since you don't have any way of knowing how much torque you're applying.

Any idea what the other setting are torquing to? Setting 1 is about 60-80, setting 2 is ?, and setting 3 is about 350?

for torque on impact wrenches that torque at max say 350 is not when the bolt or nut stops spinning you must hammer on it to reach that torque amount. that gun you got is good but remember if you can get a 3/8 so where you are unsure about your 1/2 you can use that, all that knob does is limit the air coming in. I work as a prof suspension mechanic and i have 2 1" guns 1 1-1/2" gun three 1/2" guns 2 3/8" guns and so on. I have a snap on im 6500hp that has been torque tested to 800 ft lbs and i have a IR 2141 composite 3/4 that has been torqued to 1475 ft lbs.

Mike

Thanks Mike, that bears out my experience. On the 3rd setting, there is no way I was getting 350. The reverse setting seems to apply more torque than the forward settings: I was able to remove a bolt that was torqued to about 240, but I couldn't apply that much force installing a new bolt.