Cordless drills

[Nickhlx]

Easy - I can sit them next to some ginger cake on a flannel.

 

 

That's not really what he was meaning by "looking after them"

 

Nick

 

 

 

[smileypete]

Easy - I can sit them next to some ginger cake on a flannel.

 

Edit - I guess I need to sort out the 240v as it is metal I am wanting to drill through, not wood.

Depends what sort of holes to drill in metal, and how many of them, 1 inch? 1/4 inch? 3 of them? 30?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[lexicon]

are they good for going through metal? It is about time I replaced my hand drill...

 

used a ryobi 18v cordless with decent metal bits and had no real trouble. decent bits and proper lubrication meant no real problem. and the batteries lasted a good amount of time in serious use when i drilled 100s of screw holes in the fixing of the woooden top build.

[David Schweizer]

Over the years I have aquired quite a few 12v drills with dead batteries, and none of them use anything like standard sized batteries in the power pack, so the OP's suggestion would not work in my case. Not liking to throw things away, I have made up a wooden lead and plug with brass contacts which fits into the drills, and connected into the boats'12v supply I can use them all day.

 

Having said all that I recently bought a discontinued model 14.4v DeWalt drill (with spare battery!) from Screwfix at a very silly price and the difference between it's performance and the cheapo 12v ones I have been using for years is amazing, it is as powerful as my 230v drill.

Edited July 5, 2012 by David Schweizer

[Grace and Favour]

Over the years I have aquired quite a few 12v drills with dead batteries, and none of them use anything like standard sized batteries in the power pack, so the OP's suggestion would not work in my case. Not liking to throw things away, I have made up a wooden lead and plug with brass contacts which fits into the drills, and connected into the boats'12v supply I can use them all day.

 

Having said all that I recently bought a discontinued model 14.4v DeWalt drill (with spare battery!) from Screwfix at a very silly price and the difference between it's performance and the cheapo 12v ones I have been using for years is amazing, it is as powerful as my 230v drill.

 

I like your success in making a wooden lead - - -may I suggest you take an enormous amount of care, and OCD detail, and take out a patent on it immediately

 

With the price of copper escalating, wooden leads are sure to be a great success

[David Schweizer]

I like your success in making a wooden lead - - -may I suggest you take an enormous amount of care, and OCD detail, and take out a patent on it immediately

 

With the price of copper escalating, wooden leads are sure to be a great success

I think you know what I meant, but admit it deoes read a little oddly, the plug is of wood an brass, the lead is conventional power cable.

[smileypete]

OK... passed some time yesterday replacing some cells in a drill battery pack

 

Here is the old pack, as can see it's pretty well used

 

:

 

A while ago I linked across one bad cell, but decided to replace a couple of others that are starting to get a little weak. In the above photo I've started cutting the link to the cells that need replacing, and desoldered the top cell which needs replacing, from the pack connector.

 

And here is the pack with 3 cells replaced with good ones :

 

 

Something worth a mention is that the links between batts are nickle plated steel, so I whizzed the plating off with a multi tool, brushed on a layer of plumbers flux, and they soldered nicely with a 25 watt iron and normal solder.

 

Also care needs to be taken when soldering across to the +ve terminal, not to damage the heat shrink sleeving underneath that insulates the -ve casing.

 

Bit fiddly, but beats buying a crappy drill which can't do much, this is quite a decent one would cost £50 or so to replace. Long term I'll get a lithium drill for £80-100 but don't really need one right now...

 

So if there's just a single cell gone in a decent drill, and it's easy to get to, I think it's a bit of a no-brainer with basic repair skills

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[bizzard]

I have lots of drill-less cords.