On Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:39:49 -0500, Jim Yanik
wrote:

"friends and customers"; who else would they come from??? ;-)
[dry humor attempt]

Referrals and responders to advertising, which are not friends and not
yet customers. If I had to rely solely on friends and customers, I
would be otto business long ago.

I used to use my Makita drill-driver to unscrew cases when I worked at
Tektronix.it has too much torque for driving them back in.

Yep. That's why I won't use them. Back when I was younger and
dumber, I would use various electric screwdrivers for both removing
and replacing screws. After stripping out a few cases, I decided that
they were basically a bad idea. While using an ordinary screwdriver
is slower, it gives me time to inspect the device and look for
anomalies.

I also have a B&D VersaPack 3.6V screwdriver,but the battery packs have
gone dead. (I found that they can be dismantled by cutting the back end off
with a Dremel cutoff disc,and the plastic retainer will hold the new cells
in,but haven't bought new cells to try yet.)

In the past, I would just borrow one from the neighboring office if I
needed one. I recently bought a cheapo screwdriver at Sears. The
inspiration was provided by failing to hop the curb on my bicycle. My
left wrist took the shock about 3 weeks ago. It still hurts. I'll
probably hide the electric screwdriver after the wrist recovers.

At 3.6V, you might see what happens when you try to run the screw
driver with a Li-Ion cell phone battery. An 18650 or 123A cell might
also fit. For charging, just stuff it into a cell phone, or buy a
universal Li-Ion charger. Oh, it's already been done:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Black-amp-Decker-Versapak-upgrade-to-Li-ion/



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558