Own two drillmaster 18 volt drills with three batteries and two chargers.
Anyway, two of the batteries will no longer take a charge or even light up
the pilot light on the charger. I know these are cheap units, but, at $9
per battery ($29 for my Makita 9 volt) they deliver great value and much
better torque.

Anyway, to my surprise, the batteries can actually be dis-assembled as
opposed to cut apart with a hacksaw!! Great going HF!!! I have re-celled
well over a hundred battery packs (surveying equipment, mainly) and this is
the first time I didn't have to hacksaw one apart and re-assemble with
tape!!

Opened up the batteries (4 Phillips screws) and observed all the corrosion.
My wife reminded me of all the times I had left them in the rain.
(Northwest, surprise rains all the time). Replaced the rusted out broken
link, and good to go. I suppose I should have made a couple of drain holes
in the battery case to obviate future corrosion should they ever be left
out.

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote in message
news:l8esk.684$lf2.502@trnddc07...
Own two drillmaster 18 volt drills with three batteries and two chargers.
Anyway, two of the batteries will no longer take a charge or even light up
the pilot light on the charger.

My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.
I have also seen a few cordless drills with cords attached so you clip them
to your Jeep's battery on the trail.
Its not trash until you can't figure out how to use it anymore.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

"Stupendous Man" wrote in message
...


Its not trash until you can't figure out how to use it anymore.

You are so right. Wife wanted me to go buy a new DeWalt drill. There is
such a great satisfaction knowing that you tweaked a little more life out of
something broken. Or used a piece of scrap instead of buying new materials.

Ivan Vegvary

Ivan Vegvary wrote:
Own two drillmaster 18 volt drills with three batteries and two chargers.
Anyway, two of the batteries will no longer take a charge or even light up
the pilot light on the charger. ...

Hey - you want a brand new 18v Drillmaster battery? I got a HF 18v
cordless drill, just for the drill motor. I never used the battery &
you can have it for shipping. 2lbs from 01741. The charger also, if
you want it - another pound.

Bob

On Aug 24, 9:43 am, "Stupendous Man" wrote:
My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

I use a DC mig welder, set at around 25 volts, to zap my 12V
cordless batts for about three seconds. Works OK.

Dan

Hey an,

Explain a bit more please. Be specific for a dummy like me. Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:42:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Aug 24, 9:43 am, "Stupendous Man" wrote:
My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

I use a DC mig welder, set at around 25 volts, to zap my 12V
cordless batts for about three seconds. Works OK.

Dan

"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...
Hey an,

Explain a bit more please. Be specific for a dummy like me. Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:42:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Aug 24, 9:43 am, "Stupendous Man" wrote:
My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with
something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

I use a DC mig welder, set at around 25 volts, to zap my 12V
cordless batts for about three seconds. Works OK.

Dan
I would think that some care should be excersized here. While working for
the Navy on a project involved with surface waves created by depositing
aluminum on a small quartz chip we had a matrix that looked like two hair
combs facing each other with the comb teeth intermeshing but not touching.
We would often get shorts in the aluminum between the teeth. Not wanting
to just throw the little quartz chip away, I got a microscope and a power
supply and put the leads on each side of the shorted teeth. I carefully
turned up the voltage, watching the shorts thru the microscope and Voila!! I
watched the shorts disappear. Proud of myself I called my boss to show him
the cost saving technique that I had discovered. This time, with my boss
looking thru the microscope, confident that I had found a cool trick, I
turned up the voltage a bit faster and BANG. The quartz exploded and buried
pieces in the ceiling. My boss wasn't too impressed although he missed the
pieces by having his face in the microscope. The technique worked but more
care was needed in the process.

In article ,
"Stupendous Man" wrote:

My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

I used to do that when my 14.4v NiCads were bad, but they are junk now
so I use 24 vdc (2 car batteries in series) at high current for about 20
seconds. It zaps them enough they will charge normally and hold a
charge for 24 hrs. Within a few days they are back to less than a volt,
but apparently I can re-zap them and recharge when I need to, it does
take a couple of hours to recharge so I have to plan ahead.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

On Aug 24, 1:50*pm, Brian Lawson wrote:
Hey an,

Explain a bit more please. *Be specific for a dummy like me. *Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:42:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:



On Aug 24, 9:43 am, "Stupendous Man" wrote:
My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

* * * * I use a DC mig welder, set at around 25 volts, to zap my 12V
cordless batts for about three seconds. Works OK.

* * * Dan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Old nicads grow whiskers inside that short out the various layers.
The cell is then shorted and won't take a charge. By burning out the
whiskers, you can then get some extra life out of the cell. I've done
this, success rate was about 50%, second time around sucess rate was
nil. Note that you don't do this on the WHOLE pack, just the one
shorted cell. There've have been various circuits to do this over the
years, usually a capacitor is charged up to 25-100 volts, then
discharged through the cell. Charge the pack and check the voltage
across the cell. Repeat until fixed or until you are bored. This
does NOTHING for good cells and will damage them. Also, if the cell
has been shorted any length of time, there are probably one or more
reverse charged cells in the pack, which tends to overheat them and
they then vent electrolyte, the souce of the white grunge you see
inside a dead pack. Some cell designs have a valve which closes after
the pressure vents, some have a puncture diaphragm, once it goes, the
cell dries out. No way of knowing ahead of time which type you've
got. Best bet is to re-cell the whole pack.

Stan

On Aug 24, 1:50 pm, Brian Lawson wrote:
Hey an,

Explain a bit more please. Be specific for a dummy like me. Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

It's to burn the shorts out. It won't charge them much. I
use a pair of wires about twelve feet long, and set the thing outside
around the corner while I connect it to the welder inside and zap it
so that if it blows it won't kill me. Then I leave it alone out there
for awhile in case it gets ideas after I disconnect the welder. It'll
get warm doing this and might explode after a bit.
I've zapped cordless phone battery packs (3.6v) using a 24-volt
battery charger. Open circuit is around 30 volts. I stick the battery
pack under a bucket and stand on that, again to prevent damage from
expoding batteries.

Dan

Brian,

How could he possibly explain ???

Bob Swinney
"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...
Hey an,

Explain a bit more please. Be specific for a dummy like me. Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:42:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Aug 24, 9:43 am, "Stupendous Man" wrote:
My in-law knows a lot more than most about electical things. He buys old
devices with bad ni-cads, then charges up a huge capacitor with something
about twice the battery's voltage and zaps it. he says half of them come
back as it toasts the sulfate short-circuits.

I use a DC mig welder, set at around 25 volts, to zap my 12V
cordless batts for about three seconds. Works OK.

Dan

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Aug 25, 7:18 am, "Robert Swinney" wrote:


Explain a bit more please. Be specific for a dummy like me. Is that
just to charge them, or "shock" the ones that don't want to re-charge,
or what????

Nicads that are old or used a lot can get a fairly high resistance
internal short. Probably from metal not plating back exactly where it
should. So when you try to recharge them, they do not accept the
charge. But if you apply the right amount of voltage from a source
that can deliver a lot of current, you may be able to burn the short
off. After that you charge them as normal.

Dan

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

snipped bragging about buying stuff made in China

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary

So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.

On Sep 4, 8:31 pm, John Doe wrote:

So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.

Are you referring to fellow workers as those that live in your
neighborhood, live in your city, live in your state, live in your
country, or live in your world?

And while you are thinking, are you a Native American? Or are you an
import?

I see nothing wrong with buying things made on earth. But drawn the
line on things made on Venus.


Dan

John Doe wrote:
"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

snipped bragging about buying stuff made in China

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary

So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.

Do you shop at Wal-Mart?

John Doe wrote:

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

snipped bragging about buying stuff made in China

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary


So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.


Well, if the "fellow workers" would produce a product that was worth a
**** at a reasonable cost perhaps we wouldn't have to buy stuff made in
China. Ever think about THAT?

Jim

Jim Chandler wrote:
John Doe wrote:

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

snipped bragging about buying stuff made in China

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary


So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.

You need to start understanding that the Chinese are your fellow workers as
well and if they are willing to work for 50 cents an hour (which is typical
of what they get paid) it means they need the money a hell of a lot more
than the guy down the street from you is having trouble finding "good work"
at $25 per hour.

Well, if the "fellow workers" would produce a product that was worth a
**** at a reasonable cost perhaps we wouldn't have to buy stuff made in
China. Ever think about THAT?

It's easy for any healthy average intelligence American to make 10 times
what those guys in China are making. Be happy we live in a country where
true good paying work and such a high standard of living is so easy to come
by.

As things average out, China's standard of living will equalize with the
rest of the developed world and jobs will stop drifting over there. The
more Americans keep pretending we have some God given right to be lazy and
rich (by world standards) the more we will see these 9-11 type events where
the the rest of the world kicks our butts for being such ass holes.

I'm not against anyone who is willing to pay more to buy American goods to
help support fellow American workers. I do it at times. But I think we
actually do the world as a whole far more good, by buying from whoever is
willing to to work the hardest for the least money to produce the best
product. Supporting people for doing a good job, is never a bad thing, no
matter where they live.

Jim

--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
http://NewsReader.Com/

On 05 Sep 2008 18:52:52 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm,
(Curt Welch) quickly quoth:

Jim Chandler wrote:
John Doe wrote:

"Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

snipped bragging about buying stuff made in China

That was my Saturday morning,
Ivan Vegvary


So you guys don't see anything wrong with putting your fellow workers
out of a job, and then cheering about it.

You need to start understanding that the Chinese are your fellow workers as
well and if they are willing to work for 50 cents an hour (which is typical
of what they get paid) it means they need the money a hell of a lot more
than the guy down the street from you is having trouble finding "good work"
at $25 per hour.

That's not completely true, Curt. The wages in a country are usually
indicative of its environment. The guy down the street has a mortgage,
one or more cars, eleven types of insurances, 500 channels of TV,
radios, CDs, MP3 players, etc. The guy in China was given his home
(or he built it himself), has no insurance, no mortgage, no TV or
electronics needing to be fed, etc. Cost of living is near nothing
there, while it's high as hell here. 50 cents an hour could be top
wages in his xian (county.)


Well, if the "fellow workers" would produce a product that was worth a
**** at a reasonable cost perhaps we wouldn't have to buy stuff made in
China. Ever think about THAT?

It's easy for any healthy average intelligence American to make 10 times
what those guys in China are making. Be happy we live in a country where
true good paying work and such a high standard of living is so easy to come
by.

And we pay for all our amentities directly from the higher wages.


As things average out, China's standard of living will equalize with the
rest of the developed world and jobs will stop drifting over there. The
more Americans keep pretending we have some God given right to be lazy and
rich (by world standards) the more we will see these 9-11 type events where
the the rest of the world kicks our butts for being such ass holes.

Hmm, you seem to hate us a lot...are you a Democrat?


I'm not against anyone who is willing to pay more to buy American goods to
help support fellow American workers.

Let's hope not. That'd be unamerican! g


I do it at times. But I think we
actually do the world as a whole far more good, by buying from whoever is
willing to to work the hardest for the least money to produce the best
product. Supporting people for doing a good job, is never a bad thing, no
matter where they live.

True, and now that the global workforce/economy/market genies are out
of the bottle, there is no going back.


--
Who is wise? He that learns from every One.
Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions.
Who is rich? He that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.
-- Benjamin Franklin