In article ,
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
My trusty Makita finally died.

BJ's had a Coleman battery-powered 21.6v with two batteries for
fifty bucks.

Seemed reasonable, so I grabbed it.

Got it home to find out that the charger isn't much of
anything... just a generic brick that puts out 24v.

Instruction manual cautions that leaving it on charge more than
"3-5 hours" will fry the battery. The light on the charger
doesn't even go out when the battery is charged.

Soooo... sounds like I either find a smarter charger, resign
myself to cooking the batteries eventually... or find an "egg
timer" type switch that I can crank to 3 hours and forget.

Anybody had any luck finding a generic charger for an electric
drill?

The form factor looks pretty conventional:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48262653@N00/2113870826/

I tend to modify these crude chargers to a 1/10th constant current type -
only needs a transistor and a couple of components. There's usually plenty
room inside the base. It then requires a 14 hour (overnight) charge, but
makes the best of these poor quality batteries. If you do the modification
carefully it could be put back to original without anyone knowing in event
of a warranty claim.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.