[synackrst]

To make things more complicated, I have a brushless drill where the clutch dial does actually adjust the torque of the motor -- torque limiting is done entirely in software, and the ring electrically sets the limit. Once you hit the torque limit, the drill gives a small amount of "force feedback" and cuts power to the motor until the trigger is pulled again.

As a nice additional feature, the drill slow starts and limits the top speed in lower torque settings.

I end up using the drill for small screws (generally on electronics) a lot more than one normally would, as the soft torque limit works fast enough to not strip screws or heads.

[sonofhans]

Ooh, that slow start sounds nice — what drill is it? My Festool saw also slow starts, and I love it, but I don’t have their drill.

[synackrst]

It's an old DeWalt from 2013 (!) - DCD995. I'd expect most of the high end brushless drills from the major tool manufactures to have this feature now, though. Check the manual for something like "electronic clutch" if you're looking at a model and not sure.

[petsfed]

And that's all presupposing that your use of the drill is in the regime where motor torque matters. If you're consistently driving decking screws into pressure treated lumber, then you don't touch that dial EVER. There's probably a subset of professional power drill users, who have used such a drill every day for years, who don't really touch that setting.

This feels like a "we need to better telegraph the 'sport' mode button next to the gear shift leers, so more 16 year olds know that there's a shortcut to squealing tires and losing traction". Put another way, one of the first things I was taught about using power tools is that if you don't know how to use something, don't touch it. Improving the "interface" on power tools to improve discoverability sort of misses the point here.