After many years sterling service the battery in my Bosch cordless drill finally gave up the ghost. I couldn't bring myself to chuck the otherwise perfectly-working drill away, but nor could I bring myself to spending £50-odd on a replacement battery given I've got other drills available...

However, it was still a handy drill to have around so based on previous discussions here I thought I'd try recelling it. Looking around I found a Chinese seller on eBay that could do 20 x 4/5 Sub C cells (it's a 24v battery) for £20 all-in so I decided to give it a go.

Whilst it was a little tricky arranging the cells to fit the desired geometric shape whilst accommodating the pre-attached positioning of the solder tags - those 3D puzzles played with as a child paid off! - it wasn't actually as hard as I thought!

Here's the end result:

http://www.newtonnet.co.uk/permanent/drillbattery.jpg

I must confess; there was a feeling of relief, and indeed surprise, when I connected it up and measured the voltage across it and found it worked! Even more so when it worked in the drill! ;-)

Anyway, I thought I'd post this as a 'success story' in case others are considering doing likewise.

Mathew

P.S. I also got to try out my soldering iron since fitting a silicone mains cable to it - the extra flexibility (and length which I took the opportunity of extending whilst I was at it) was such a boon. It was the next best thing to is being cordless!