Patent 7647985 was granted and assigned to Makita on January, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improvement in ease of operation of a driving mode switching mechanism in a hammer drill. According to the invention, a representative hammer drill includes a driving mode switching mechanism which has an operating part, a first switching member and a second switching member. The operating part can be turned to at least three rotating positions in its circumferential direction, while the operating part can be turned 360° on the rotation axis in the both directions. Thus, the user can select the desired driving mode in the shortest turning distance without passing though an unnecessary driving mode position. Therefore, ease of operation in mode change can be enhanced.