DeWalt DW272 VSR Drywall Screwdriver ► Check Amazon
Hey, everyone. In today’s video we’re going to be reviewing the DeWalt DW272 VSR drywall screwdriver…stay tuned.
About DeWalt
I think we’re all fairly familiar with DeWalt tools, as they’re one of the most popular brands in the construction industry and the DIY segment. One interesting fact about Dewalt is that they fall under the multibillion-dollar Stanley Black & Decker conglomerate, which of course includes Stanley Hand Tools and Black & Decker.
There there are lots of other popular brands under that same umbrella…and those include Porter Cable, Craftsman, Bostitch, Mac Tools, Proto, Blackhawk, and a long list of other brands. The point of all this is that DeWalt is able to take advantage of a lot of the cross-pollination, so to speak, of all these other tool brands and develop really innovative and high-quality tools.
Why a Drywall Screwdriver?
The most popular methods for installing screws is to use drill/drivers and impact drivers. The problem with those tools is that they don’t drive the screws to a consistent depth. If a drywall screw is driven too deeply, it can cause damage to the drywall or cause the drywall to separate from the framing over time. The “set-it-and-forget-it” consistency of a drywall screwdriver, aka drywall screw gun, makes it the most appropriate tool for a drywall screw installation.
Features and Specifications
So, let’s go over the features and specifications of this tool.
– Size: 10.2” x 12.2 x 3.2”
– Weight: 3.1 lbs.
– Chuck: ¼”
– Motor speed: 0-4000 non-load RPM
– 6.3 Amp motor
– Max fastener size: #8
Made in the USA using global materials.
Warranties:
– 3-yr limited warranty: Covers faulty workmanship or materials
– 1 yr of free service: Covers failure from normal use
– 90-day money back guarantee
Closer Look
Let’s take a closer look at the DW272…we’re going to start with the front and work our way down to the handle. So, starting with the front, we have a nose piece that’s made out of aluminum and plastic. The plastic portion is actually a dial…so you turn the dial to the right for a deeper screw setting and then you turn the dial to the left for a more shallow screw setting.
If you ever have to replace the nose piece or the bit, you’re going to need to pull this nose piece off. In order to do that, you just grasp here and pull…now it takes a lot of force, so one other alternative to doing that is just to spin this dial to the right all the way and eventually it’ll pop off on its own. The one problem with doing it that way, of course, is that you lose your setting.
To remove the bit, you have to use some pliers to get it out, which is actually a good thing, which tells you there’s not a lot of slop in the installation of this bit…so that won’t influence your depth setting. To put this back on, there are a couple of alignment pieces inside there…slide this back on, line those up, and then pop it back on.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the tool. We have some aluminum here in the front…the rest of the housing is made out of plastic. There’s some venting on the side, on the top, and on the opposite side here…and I would recommend that you clean that venting out periodically with some compressed air so that it doesn’t get clogged and cause your motor to fail.
We have a belt clip here on the top…I honestly don’t use a belt clip at all, but it’s there if you need it. As a side note, if you ever need to replace the belt clip, all you do is remove these three screws…there’s one here and then two down here where the cord exits and then the rear part of this housing comes off and that exposes the clip.
On this side, there’s a Dewalt logo…on the opposite side there’s a label with some specification and warning information.
Next, we’ll come down to the trigger, which is variable speed…meaning that the more you depress it the faster the motor will spin. So, that’s where VSR comes in…this is variable speed reversible. So, you can see right there’s an arrow for forward…there’s a switch there on the opposite side…there’s an arrow for reverse…just turn the switch the opposite direction.
If you ever have a situation where you need the motor to spin continuously, that’s what this switch is for down here. So, you just press down on the trigger, slide the switch up and that keeps the motor spinning. In order to take the lock off, you just press the trigger one time and that goes back to its normal setting. Running this tool in the continuous mode is great for if you have a lot of drywall to install. The only thing with that though is it takes a lot more practice and a little more touch to run it in that mode.
There’s some rubber at the back of the handle here and that’s where the heel of your hand goes…gives you a little bit more comfort there…and notice there’s also some rubber up in this area here. There are a couple ways you can hold this tool: You can hold it just like a gun like that, and the most effective way, especially if you’re installing drywall on the ceiling, is to hold it like this with your thumb and your forefinger…you see that right there…wrapped around the top part of the tool…your middle finger on the side of the tool to provide some stability, and then your pinky and your ring finger control the trigger.
Lastly, we’ll come down to the cord, you notice there’s a sleeve on here…and that’s to protect the cord from getting pinched. The cord itself has 18-gauge wires inside of it. The length of this cord is 8 feet…so,
that’s a pretty decent length. If you ever have to use extension cords with this tool, make sure you read the user instructions because you don’t want to use the improper extension cord and cause your tool to overwork itself and overheat.
Let’s Quit Screwing Around!
Alright, so I’m going to go ahead and put the screw gun to the test here now. One of the complaints I see quite a bit out there is that these screw guns don’t work very well, and that comes down more to technique than anything. These screw guns take a lot of practice to get used to because it’s a lot different from using an impact driver or a cordless drill/driver.
So, as an example here, I have my impact driver with the drywall screw. I’m going to drive the screw through this drywall and into this 2x material here…and you can see I’ve actually been practicing a lot myself because I haven’t used this tool in awhile, so I wanted to get the feel back for using it. So, you can see as I was driving the screw, the impact driver kicked in and started doing a lot of hammering action to get the screw to sink…so that’s the difference between this kind of tool and a screw gun is that the hammering action comes into effect and aids in driving the screw.
Alright, so I’m ready to install some screws using the screw gun. The first thing we’re gonna do is adjust our depth setting now…I’ve already sort of adjusted it but what I want to do is check to make sure it’s right. So, how I like to do this is kind of push down on the screw like that, and you’ll notice that the screw head is just slightly below this nose piece here. So, I think that’s going to work for us. We may have to adjust the settings here as we go along.
So, I’m going to slow down the action…and how I normally like to do this is I like to push through the paper first because if we don’t push through the paper what can happen is the screw can wander on us…so I like to push through the paper and then I’ll start the screw and apply a little bit of force to embed it into the drywall here…and that appears to be just about perfect there…it’s just slightly below the paper.
So, I’m going to do four more screws. I’ve got a line right here. I’m going to see if we can stay consistent with our depth here now that I’ve got this all adjusted to the proper depth…and there you have it. It looks like all the screws were driven to the same depth here, so that’s perfect.
Alright, so I’m going to remove one of these 1 million screws here…and so that’s what this switches for on the side…let’s flip it that way to reverse it…and this setting is also used for left-threaded screws…that’s this main purpose actually. So, what I’m gonna do here is I’m gonna actually turn the dial so that it’s a couple clicks more recessed there and that’ll help to grab on to the screw with this bit here…then I’ll just turn it back to where I had it.
Final Thoughts
On the DIY apprentice wrench rating scale I’m gonna give this tool a 4.5/5:
– As you saw in the demonstration, the depth is always consistent when you’re driving screws.
– It drives screws very quickly and efficiently
– It’s fairly easy to use with a little practice
– Genuine Dewalt replacement parts are also readily available for this tool
– There’s a lot of Dewalt support for this tool at service centers and online
– One negative about this tool is that it gets a little bit on the hot side, especially when you’re running it in the continuous mode. Otherwise, it’s been a very reliable and very durable tool for the price.
DeWalt DW272 VSR Drywall Screwdriver ► Check Amazon
DeWalt DW272 Nose Piece ► Check Amazon
DeWalt DW272 Carbon Brushes ► Check Amazon
