I have some old cordless drills (and tools) that are a pain in the ass to get
batteries for, the batteries won't hold a charge, etc. What I did is to attach
a pair of (homemade, small) jumper cables from a voltage source to my cordless
drill. So, with like a 6 volt or 9 volt cordless drill, I jump power to it
directly from a battery charger (set on 12 volts). It spins that drill like a
top, plenty of power and plenty of torque.

If you got an old cordless drill your going to pitch in the trash, expose the
electrodes on it and slap a power source to it --if nothing else take a 6 volt
lantern battery and jump some power to the drill. Cut up an extension cord and
put alligator clips on both ends of the cords. Jump the voltage from the
battery to the drill. If it dont go, then reverse the wires. If that works, now
get your battery charger and apply the voltage from that to the drill. Of
course, when you are done (playing for each session), unplug the charger from
the wall. Have fun and get more mileage out of old cordless tools.

MilkyWhy wrote:

I have some old cordless drills (and tools) that are a pain in the ass to get
batteries for, the batteries won't hold a charge, etc. What I did is to attach
a pair of (homemade, small) jumper cables from a voltage source to my cordless
drill. So, with like a 6 volt or 9 volt cordless drill, I jump power to it
directly from a battery charger (set on 12 volts). It spins that drill like a
top, plenty of power and plenty of torque.

If you got an old cordless drill your going to pitch in the trash, expose the
electrodes on it and slap a power source to it --if nothing else take a 6 volt
lantern battery and jump some power to the drill. Cut up an extension cord and
put alligator clips on both ends of the cords. Jump the voltage from the
battery to the drill. If it dont go, then reverse the wires. If that works, now
get your battery charger and apply the voltage from that to the drill. Of
course, when you are done (playing for each session), unplug the charger from
the wall. Have fun and get more mileage out of old cordless tools.

Good idea. Of course, that's one of the reaosns I don't buy cordless
tools.... ;0

--
Regards,

Bentley Wolfe
Senior Support Engineer, Macromedia
Flash Senior Escalation Engineer

Owner, BIKETRIAL MIDWEST
Webmaster: http://www.wisconsintrials.org
http://www.madisonmotorcycleclub.org http://www.megamousa.com

"MilkyWhy" wrote in message
...
I have some old cordless drills (and tools) that are a pain in the ass to
get
batteries for, the batteries won't hold a charge, etc.

That sounds like a LOT of trouble. You might as well just buy some cheap
(e.g.: Harbor Freight) AC powered tools.

Many battery packs can be "fixed" by specialty shops which open up the
plastic case, take out the old NiCads and put in new ones. It's seems like
every maker has his own battery pack but the actual internal rechargeable
cells are fairly standard.

If you got an old cordless drill your going to pitch in the trash, expose
the
electrodes on it and slap a power source to it --if nothing else take a 6
volt
lantern battery and jump some power to the drill. Cut up an extension cord
and
put alligator clips on both ends of the cords. Jump the voltage from the
battery to the drill. If it dont go, then reverse the wires. If that
works, now
get your battery charger and apply the voltage from that to the drill. Of
course, when you are done (playing for each session), unplug the charger
from
the wall. Have fun and get more mileage out of old cordless tools.

You can take apart the battery case and buy new 'raw' NiCd cells from most
electonics distributors and rebuild the battery systems yourself. I did this
with a cordless phone recently and am considering it for some power tools.


--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION • FILM SCANNING • DVD MASTERING • AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

"MilkyWhy" wrote in message
...
I have some old cordless drills (and tools) that are a pain in the ass to get
batteries for, the batteries won't hold a charge, etc. What I did is to attach
a pair of (homemade, small) jumper cables from a voltage source to my cordless
drill. So, with like a 6 volt or 9 volt cordless drill, I jump power to it
directly from a battery charger (set on 12 volts). It spins that drill like a
top, plenty of power and plenty of torque.

If you got an old cordless drill your going to pitch in the trash, expose the
electrodes on it and slap a power source to it --if nothing else take a 6 volt
lantern battery and jump some power to the drill. Cut up an extension cord and
put alligator clips on both ends of the cords. Jump the voltage from the
battery to the drill. If it dont go, then reverse the wires. If that works,
now
get your battery charger and apply the voltage from that to the drill. Of
course, when you are done (playing for each session), unplug the charger from
the wall. Have fun and get more mileage out of old cordless tools.

This is Turtle.

Your thoughts are very good at extending the life of the Cordless tools but then
you make a mobile cordless tool into a corded tool and if you did not mine the
cord being on it in the first place. Just buy Corded tools which last atleast 2
or 3 time longer.

TURTLE

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 10:19:24 -0500, bentley wolfe
wrote:



Good idea. Of course, that's one of the reaosns I don't buy cordless
tools.... ;0

To each his own, I guess, but I think the convenience of having a
cordless drill far outweighs the downside. I have a few dozen
screwdrivers, but I scarcely use them anymore. Once you remove the
need for outlets and extension cords, driving screws by hand really
seems tedious.

I bought my first cordless drill 6 years ago for about $100. The
batteries just died this year. I found a set of two new batteries for
about $50. I'd have hated to throw out the drill, but even buying an
entirely new one would have been worth the 5+ years of convenience I
bought for $100.

I don't often see pro contractors using cordless stuff (although they
do ask to borrow mine "for a few minutes"), which makes sense, as they
tend to work continuously for many hours at a time in the same area. A
corded screwgun is probably better suited to that kind of work. But
for the homeowner/weekend handyman like me, it's a big slice of heaven
to be able to grab a cordless and go right to work.

I now have two cordless drills. When I have a bigger task that
involves drilling as well as driving screws, I take them both out: A
truly lovely experience.

Greg Guarino