I do the same thing, I actually use my impact for rebuilding valves, I know it’s a no no, but after lots of trial and error I have it down. *never rebuild a Rainbird DVF with an impact and if you do at least hand tighten the last few threads, I had a couple of them break before I figured out when it works and doesn’t.

You know what else works great for me, I have a little cordless dewalt vaccum that I have 12” of 1/2” polyline ductaped to the end of the regular attachment that I use for removing debris from inside valves and sometimes I actually remove sand and dirt from around the valves before I crack them open. That little vacuum is great, make sure to remove both filters from inside of it, and plan on it failing in a year but it works so much better without the filters.