VIDEO: DEWALT Product Guide–Cordless Drill Speed, Torque, And Clutch Settings

Hi, I'm Todd with DEWALT.  Today I'm going to walk you through how to properly adjust the speed, torque, and clutch settings on your cordless drill. Please always refer to the instruction manual for any additional operating instructions and the proper PPE required for operating this tool. Please also follow any job site specific or company specific  policies that may be in place.  

When picking up the tool, the first thing I'm going to do is remove the battery to walk you through the different operations of the tool. Today we're going to be using the DCD996 cordless premium hammer drill/drill driver to show you these different features of a cordless drill. The first thing we're going to do is walk you through the different speeds that you'll see through the speed selector switch on the top of the drill. This tool happens to have a three-speed transmission. So for high speed applications that are low torque, I can keep it in the third speed, which is the highest speed.  For other applications that either require more control and more torque, we would drop it down into the second speed by addressing the transmission here on the top of the tool. Then for any applications where I then need added control or more torque,  let's say two and nine sixteenths inch self-feed bit into wood,  I can drop the tool down into the first speed, which is going to give me the most control because it's at the lowest speed, but also the highest torque to do those high demanding applications.  

The next thing that I can do is adjust the clutch collar on the front of the tool.  And what the clutch collar is gonna allow me to do is have different settings.  This tool has anywhere from the lowest setting, which is one, all the way up to the highest setting, which is 11.  And what that does is allows the tool to determine how much resistance it's going to take to stop the tool. So let's say I'm trying to install a small screw on let's say a hinge, and I want to make sure I don't over strip that screw,  I can draw the clutch collar down to one of the lower settings, let's say a one or two or three, and that way it needs very little resistance to stop the tool from spinning and it won't overdrive that fastener.  If I have a more demanding application, let's say a larger fastener, or I want to drill a larger hole,  I can set this clutch collar up much higher so it takes a lot more resistance to stop the tool.  

There's also a drill mode, which you can see is represented by a  little drill bit icon on the tool that will disable the clutch and will allow the tool to keep driving.  Remember, I always want to operate this tool utilizing the side handle on the tool, which we'll show you how to install in a moment.  Another setting that's on this tool is hammer drill. So I can adjust the clutch collar one more time so that this arrow aligns with the little hammer icon on the tool.  And that will allow the tool to actually beat while it also spins for drilling the different masonry applications.  Again, on the hammer drill mode, it disables that clutch. So you're going to make sure that you have to have a lot of control by using the side handle and the variable speed trigger in case the tool's going to bind  up cause it will not stop in either the drilling mode or the hammer drill mode.  So if I want to install the side handle on the tool so I can use it, I'll slide it over the collar, on this one I will twist the handle to tighten it down. Once I have that nice and tight, I can install the battery back onto the tool. Then I can operate the tool with two hands.  So that's how we adjust the speed via the transmission.  Again, if I want to do higher speeds at lower torque, or I can do lower speeds at a higher torque. I can also use the clutch collar to adjust the different clutch settings or resistance settings that the tool may have. Put it into drill mode or hammer drill mode. Thanks for watching and have a great day.