Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

Make sure they have leads welded on to them. Don't attempt to solder,
directly to them.

Lean towrds NiMh if you can get them. The charger requirements are about the
same. If you have to use Ni-Cad through the old tools out and start again
with LioN tools.



"RP" wrote in message
...
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

On Nov 8, 5:51*pm, "Josepi" wrote:
Make sure they have leads welded on to them. Don't attempt to solder,
directly to them.

Lean towrds NiMh if you can get them. The charger requirements are about the
same. If you have to use Ni-Cad through the old tools out and start again
with LioN tools.

"RP" wrote in message

...
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

I did order the Sub c batteries w/tabs. I have upgraded to L-ion for
my road tools(makita 18v L-ion) and some small shop drills/impacts(12V
hitachi) but I have a 3 12V B&D firestorm drills and 6 batteries that
I want to bring around. They are short and handy and powerful enough
for my needs. They have the pop off chuck that works fine too. I keep
different bits in them so I can just keep on drillin' and screwin' at
will. I have to believe there's lots of guys in my area that want
NiCad rebuilds. I'm going to put a sign out and give it a shot. If I
don't get any bites, I won't order any more batteries.
I thought we were supposed to bottom post.

RP

On Nov 8, 2:39*pm, RP wrote:
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?

There are lots of people on the web that do this as a service. Also
several good tutorials with step-by-step and pictures if you just
google a bit.

Can you get LioN batteries with tabs on them? Where?

I understand they (LioN) require very specialized charging circuits with
temp sensors and things that Ni-Cad don't have so I doubt they would be
usable as an upgrade.

I post the best method for clarity of reading. People that can't stay on
topic get killfiltered.


"RP" wrote in message news:ee39ab9f-cd1b-429a-8fa2-
I did order the Sub c batteries w/tabs. I have upgraded to L-ion for
my road tools(makita 18v L-ion) and some small shop drills/impacts(12V
hitachi) but I have a 3 12V B&D firestorm drills and 6 batteries that
I want to bring around. They are short and handy and powerful enough
for my needs. They have the pop off chuck that works fine too. I keep
different bits in them so I can just keep on drillin' and screwin' at
will. I have to believe there's lots of guys in my area that want
NiCad rebuilds. I'm going to put a sign out and give it a shot. If I
don't get any bites, I won't order any more batteries.
I thought we were supposed to bottom post.

RP


...
On Nov 8, 5:51 pm, "Josepi" wrote:
Make sure they have leads welded on to them. Don't attempt to solder,
directly to them.

Lean towrds NiMh if you can get them. The charger requirements are about
the
same. If you have to use Ni-Cad through the old tools out and start again
with LioN tools.

"RP" wrote in message

...
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

In message
, RP
writes
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.
Try looking on sites associated with electric powered model aircraft. We
have been making batteries out of nicads and Nimhs for years.

In fact we have been known to buy power tool batteries and cannibalise
them to provide our RC plane batteries!

Try Red's Battery clinic.

http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html

Also

There is a section there relating to soldering cells.

I have built quite a lot of packs in my time and all have been OK.

One thing I have found useful is to use the desoldering wick that is a
rope of copperstrands. If you manage to leave a little bit of the wick
where it hasn't fluxed up the solder it allows a little flexibility
which can help with vibration.

Use a big soldering iron, 100 watts or so and get it hot at the start.
Do not use the sort that heats up for each individual joint it puts too
much heat into the cell case while it heats up.

Make sure you clean the cells carefully and tin them quickly using the
large iron. Then attach the wires with just a quick dab of the iron.

Have some electric freezer spray to squirt on the tinning and on to the
joint after soldering to clear the residual heat.

I echo the point about the new lithium cells. They need special chargers
otherwise they can be dangerous.

I have not tried making lithium cell packs as yet. However I do believe
they sell them with tags on and you can solder the cell tags OK.

One thing you need to do is to hold the cells together and a good way to
do that is to push them together and use a blob of hot melt glue to
stick them.

HTH
--
Max George

On Nov 9, 3:06*pm, Max George
wrote:
In message
, RP
writesAny you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

Try looking on sites associated with electric powered model aircraft. We
have been making batteries out of nicads and Nimhs for years.

In fact we have been known to buy power tool batteries and cannibalise
them to provide our RC plane batteries!

Try Red's Battery clinic.

http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html

Also

There is a section there relating to soldering cells.

I have built quite a lot of packs in my time and all have been OK.

One thing I have found useful is to use the desoldering wick that is a
rope of copperstrands. If you manage to leave a little bit of the wick
where it hasn't fluxed up the solder it allows a little flexibility
which can help with vibration.

Use a big soldering iron, 100 watts or so and get it hot at the start.
Do not use the sort that heats up for each individual joint it puts too
much heat into the cell case while it heats up.

Make sure you clean the cells carefully and tin them quickly using the
large iron. Then attach the wires with just a quick dab of the iron.

Have some electric freezer spray to squirt on the tinning and on to the
joint after soldering to clear the residual heat.

I echo the point about the new lithium cells. They need special chargers
otherwise they can be dangerous.

I have not tried making lithium cell packs as yet. However I do believe
they sell them with tags on and you can solder the cell tags OK.

One thing you need to do is to hold the cells together and a good way to
do that is to push them together and use a blob of hot melt glue to
stick them.

HTH
--
Max George

Hey, thanks for the tips George. I misspoke on the L-ion thing. I want
to rebuild some nicads w/solder tabs. I upgraded my newest kit to the
18v makita l-ion gig and i'm real happy with that. They say you cannot
upgrade to nimh and charge with a nicad charger because it won't reach
full charge ever. I'll check out Red's battery clinic. Muchos
Grassyass

RP

In article b119b2c1-5d06-49c1-b9eb-c8058f285713
@a9g2000pro.googlegroups.com, says...

On Nov 8, 2:39*pm, RP wrote:
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?

There are lots of people on the web that do this as a service. Also
several good tutorials with step-by-step and pictures if you just
google a bit.

The trouble is that they aren't really much cheaper than new deWalts,
and doing it right you need a welder, which costs about the same to
cobble up as a couple of new deWalts.

If you've got the welder and can identify the bad cell then fixing them
is definitely worthwhile.

Both Ni-Cad and NiMh use a constant current technique to charge and most of
these constant current chargers have a high saturation voltage to accomplish
this. The cell voltages are identical for all practicable purposes so the
added capacity of the NiMh should only take longer to charge.



"RP" wrote in message
...
Hey, thanks for the tips George. I misspoke on the L-ion thing. I want
to rebuild some nicads w/solder tabs. I upgraded my newest kit to the
18v makita l-ion gig and i'm real happy with that. They say you cannot
upgrade to nimh and charge with a nicad charger because it won't reach
full charge ever. I'll check out Red's battery clinic. Muchos
Grassyass

RP


On Nov 9, 3:06 pm, Max George
wrote:
In message
, RP
writesAny you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh
power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

Try looking on sites associated with electric powered model aircraft. We
have been making batteries out of nicads and Nimhs for years.

In fact we have been known to buy power tool batteries and cannibalise
them to provide our RC plane batteries!

Try Red's Battery clinic.

http://www.hangtimes.com/redsbatteryclinic.html

Also

There is a section there relating to soldering cells.

I have built quite a lot of packs in my time and all have been OK.

One thing I have found useful is to use the desoldering wick that is a
rope of copperstrands. If you manage to leave a little bit of the wick
where it hasn't fluxed up the solder it allows a little flexibility
which can help with vibration.

Use a big soldering iron, 100 watts or so and get it hot at the start.
Do not use the sort that heats up for each individual joint it puts too
much heat into the cell case while it heats up.

Make sure you clean the cells carefully and tin them quickly using the
large iron. Then attach the wires with just a quick dab of the iron.

Have some electric freezer spray to squirt on the tinning and on to the
joint after soldering to clear the residual heat.

I echo the point about the new lithium cells. They need special chargers
otherwise they can be dangerous.

I have not tried making lithium cell packs as yet. However I do believe
they sell them with tags on and you can solder the cell tags OK.

One thing you need to do is to hold the cells together and a good way to
do that is to push them together and use a blob of hot melt glue to
stick them.

HTH
--
Max George

This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad cells
when they went shorted internally. Most capacitors would not have the
capacity to actually weld metal.
Most people do not know capacitors have a max. ampere capacity rating.
Mostly it is not required to know.

"Stuart" wrote in message
...
Saw an article in an electronics mag where they charged up some biggish
capacitors and used them to arc-weld battery packs.


In article ocal,
J. Clarke wrote:

The trouble is that they aren't really much cheaper than new deWalts,
and doing it right you need a welder, which costs about the same to
cobble up as a couple of new deWalts.

Stuart wrote:
In article ,
Stuart wrote:

In article ,
Josepi wrote:

This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad
cells when they went shorted internally.


Possibly but usually you give them a very short burst from a car battery.


Most capacitors would not have the capacity to actually weld metal.


Remember you're only trying to spot weld very thin metal. I'll try to
find the original article if I can.


Elektor magazine Nov 2006.

Guy used eight 10,000 microfarad capacitors in parallel.


Does the article say what the voltage rating on the capacitors were? A
single 10,000 uF electrolytic capacitor rated for 160 volts is about $50.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

In article om,
says...

Stuart wrote:
In article ,
Stuart wrote:

In article ,
Josepi wrote:

This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad
cells when they went shorted internally.


Possibly but usually you give them a very short burst from a car battery.


Most capacitors would not have the capacity to actually weld metal.


Remember you're only trying to spot weld very thin metal. I'll try to
find the original article if I can.


Elektor magazine Nov 2006.

Guy used eight 10,000 microfarad capacitors in parallel.


Does the article say what the voltage rating on the capacitors were? A
single 10,000 uF electrolytic capacitor rated for 160 volts is about $50.

Capacitors of several farads are readily available for not insanely high
prices. Battery tab welders have been made from the 2 or so farad 20v
"stiffening capacitors" used in car audio systems.

Shoot - the problem is voltage. Kids play with caps larger
than that in the small charge and go cars. The caps are up
in the farad size but 3v. Kills batteries fast.

Getting a set of those is trivial Making a series set and
then parallel sets. The issue is conduction voltage.

If you have clean materials - no much oxides a lower voltage
will work.

But I have seen screw drivers used to discharge cap banks that have
large hunks flashed out of them in usage.

Hard to beat 24v car batteries - 2 each 12v in series to weld with.

Martin

On 11/11/2010 4:46 PM, cHips wrote:
announced;
In ,
wrote:
In ,
wrote:
This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad
cells when they went shorted internally.

Same "techniqee"[sic] you (Gymmy Bob/Josepi) use for same
reason - internal shorting, of groups.
How is it working out for you so far amongst the sawdust sniffers?

Possibly but usually you give them a very short burst from a car battery.

Most capacitors would not have the capacity to actually weld metal.

Remember you're only trying to spot weld very thin metal. I'll try to
find the original article if I can.

Elektor magazine Nov 2006.

Guy used eight 10,000 microfarad capacitors in parallel.

Nice one, Stuart.
Not something I would try at home though:-]

Gymmy/Josie is smiling.. you took the hook and
worked.

The batteries may be safer...on the batteries. Capacitors have a limited
amount of foil and material thickness in them and most come with warning not
to short them out as it blows holes in the foils or conductors internally.

Thanx for top posting. It works much better than the garbage confusion at
the bottom.


"Martin Eastburn" wrote in message
...
Shoot - the problem is voltage. Kids play with caps larger
than that in the small charge and go cars. The caps are up
in the farad size but 3v. Kills batteries fast.

Getting a set of those is trivial Making a series set and
then parallel sets. The issue is conduction voltage.

If you have clean materials - no much oxides a lower voltage
will work.

But I have seen screw drivers used to discharge cap banks that have
large hunks flashed out of them in usage.

Hard to beat 24v car batteries - 2 each 12v in series to weld with.

Martin


On 11/11/2010 4:46 PM, cHips wrote:
announced;
In ,
wrote:
In ,
wrote:
This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad
cells when they went shorted internally.

Same "techniqee"[sic] you (Gymmy Bob/Josepi) use for same
reason - internal shorting, of groups.
How is it working out for you so far amongst the sawdust sniffers?

Possibly but usually you give them a very short burst from a car
battery.

Most capacitors would not have the capacity to actually weld metal.

Remember you're only trying to spot weld very thin metal. I'll try to
find the original article if I can.

Elektor magazine Nov 2006.

Guy used eight 10,000 microfarad capacitors in parallel.

Nice one, Stuart.
Not something I would try at home though:-]

Gymmy/Josie is smiling.. you took the hook and
worked.

In article ,
says...

Shoot - the problem is voltage. Kids play with caps larger
than that in the small charge and go cars. The caps are up
in the farad size but 3v. Kills batteries fast.

Getting a set of those is trivial Making a series set and
then parallel sets. The issue is conduction voltage.

If you have clean materials - no much oxides a lower voltage
will work.

But I have seen screw drivers used to discharge cap banks that have
large hunks flashed out of them in usage.

Hard to beat 24v car batteries - 2 each 12v in series to weld with.

Except that these days that will cost you more than capacitors unless
you work in a service station or otherwise accumulate working car
batteries.

Why reinvent the wheel?
http://ledhacks.com/power/battery_tab_welder.htm.


Martin

On 11/11/2010 4:46 PM, cHips wrote:
announced;
In ,
wrote:
In ,
wrote:
This techniqee used to be to break down the nickle bridges in NiCad
cells when they went shorted internally.

Same "techniqee"[sic] you (Gymmy Bob/Josepi) use for same
reason - internal shorting, of groups.
How is it working out for you so far amongst the sawdust sniffers?

Possibly but usually you give them a very short burst from a car battery.

Most capacitors would not have the capacity to actually weld metal.

Remember you're only trying to spot weld very thin metal. I'll try to
find the original article if I can.

Elektor magazine Nov 2006.

Guy used eight 10,000 microfarad capacitors in parallel.

Nice one, Stuart.
Not something I would try at home though:-]

Gymmy/Josie is smiling.. you took the hook and
worked.

On Nov 8, 5:39*pm, RP wrote:
Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

Search rebuild power tool batteries. THere's a place that offers them
- but the cost ain't cheap!

Supposedly, you can "zap" the old cells and bring them back to life.
I've yet to try this myself.

Where you you get the batteries you mentioned? How much do they cost
in small quantities?

"Hoosierpopi" wrote

Supposedly, you can "zap" the old cells and bring them back to life.
I've yet to try this myself.

Don't. It kills them all. I did and regret it. I now have 9 unusable
packs and 6 packs that only work for a while. Zapping them makes them die
much quicker, IMHO.

My advice is to combine packs to extend life. Charge a pack, then wait a
day and take apart the pack, and read individual cell voltage. You will
usually have 2 or 3 cells fail to hold a charge before the rest. Cut the
solder tab in the middle between cells, and put cells from another pack in
their place and solder back together.
--
Jim in NC

On Nov 12, 10:21*am, Hoosierpopi wrote:
On Nov 8, 5:39*pm, RP wrote:

Any you guys rebuild your own NiCad's or NiMh power tool batteries?
I'm going to do a few batteries of my own and maybe someone has some
tips or possibly some "look out fors". I ordered 100 sub c's to
rebuild a few batteries I've had kicking around.. I've been asking
around my area to see if anyone rebuilds them and everyone says no.
Maybe that's an open market for me. It would help keep me busier in
the winter.

RP

Search rebuild power tool batteries. THere's a place that offers them
- but the cost ain't cheap!

Supposedly, you can "zap" the old cells and bring them back to life.
I've yet to try this myself.

Where you you get the batteries you mentioned? How much do they cost
in small quantities?

I got the batteries from ebay from the vendor "battery geek 1". The
most cost efficient way for shipping is to buy 25 at a time.

RP