Has anybody tried a wire welder to jump the batteries seems to me the voltage is variable on the welder just a thought I have a dead 24 volt dewalt sawzall even the optional corded replacement for battery has taken a crap was a $400 doller present about 8 yrs ago n died in 3 with lottsa use no body has batterys or parts for it I am in the same boat on 18 volt batterys for my dewalt stuff seems you have to buy 2 every year to keep using them bah Ken
Some years ago I was working in my home shop and suddenly realized there was smoke in the air. It was coming from my DeWalt charger/ battery. Dragged the whole works outside, the battery was a swollen, gurgling, smoking lump. Turns out DeWalt had had some defective chargers, mine was within the date codes on the bad ones so they replaced the charger gratis, but not the battery. Since then I've put my chargers on a timer that puts them under power for only about three hours at a time. I lucked out buying new batteries off ebay, apparently there's a lot of new counterfeits around. I'm gonna gamble the six bucks and try rehabbing some old ones, not much to lose. For many years I worked for a company that manufactured a number of DeWalt products, and got to know a bunch of the Black and Decker engineering guys. (They referred to the company as Bleak and Darker...) You'd be surprised how many brands of cordless tools come out of the same plants in Taiwan.
I have rebuilt hundreds of batteries over the years. Mostly for hand held portable radios but a few for drills etc. The main thing is carefully getting the case apart at the parting line. Once you are inside, determine what size cells it uses and how many. Before you cut any wires or straps make a diagram of cell polarity and placment besides the wiring...It will help on reassembly. I use Nmh cells now rather than Nicad. Most batteries have the straps spot welded to the cells but using copper wire and soldering works for me. I buy replacment cells at several different places but one is: http://www.batteriesamerica.com/ It probably costs 20% of the price of a new battery to rebuild one.
I can't imagine a welder being a good idea for jolting old batteries. Welders have a higher open-circuit voltage (unconnected) that drops down once you complete the circuit. How high is it when you first touch the lead to the battery? I don't know but it could be 2x the steady state voltage.
Careful with the Lithium-Polymers(Lipo's)! Very unstable when overcharged and over discharged. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBie8VVpY6g&feature=related Or mechanical damage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OsBc8RqSKU
What a great time for this thread. I just scored a Skil 18 volt builder's saw, recipracating saw and variable speed drill this morning, with battery and charger. And a Delta -Rockwell table saw and planer, all for free, sitting behind someone's garage with a FREE sign on them.
This thread also reminded me i needed some batterys for my craftsman 18v shit.. Guess what... They are cheaper thru sears.. No shit. I searched the net hi and low and sears is actually a lot cheaper. The pissed is i had 2 batterys that didnt wanna charge and i went out to the garage earlier to get the part numbers and took one from the charger and tossed it in my drill and its good ? I used it while i was winterizing my camper and its fine ..Im just about to go check the other thats been charging since about noon.. Dave
why not shell out the extra 20 bux for the new drill and 2 batteries and use one battery on each drill....
I always run my batteries right dead when they go down by putting them in the flashlight part of my kit. Then throw them in the charger. Not one bit of trouble in the last three years.
I bought a black and decker VPX, seems like a great drill, plus it's got the Lithium batteries,no memory. seems really compact but it's 14 volt. They quit making them,and I called a black and decker service store, they said no one would spend the money to buy them,so they were discontinued. They are supposed to keep making batteries and service parts. figures,they go from those dog shit firestorm drills, to something decent,then they get rid of it,to make crap again. I've beat the crap out of it at work and it just keeps going. I also have a dewalt that i bought when the 9.6 volt was a big deal, the batteries expired right after the warranty. been collecting dust since.
the ryobi junk rocks. its not a high end piece like some of the others but lasts long, and are cheaper than cheap. i have a pretty fair mix of brand name power tools. some i like more than others but for something you arent making a living off of, the ryobi will do well. i actually like hitachi over most for cordless stuff.
we use a lot of the ryobi 14 and 12 volts at work,and they get a lot of abuse,but seem to hold up. problem is we've got a bunch of good drills and the batteries are finally going. as far as brand names, i'm going to avoid the rigid now,they used to be good,but a year old shop vac just died on us,took it apart and the motor just expired, and on the motor was a big sticker that said MADE IN CHINA, my dad has an original metal shop vac up in Atlanta,thats older then me,and it still works, this dies in a year crap has got to go.
Am I the only one on here that bought the Rigid set from Home Depot during that Christmas special about three years ago? LIFETIME warranty on batteries, switches, and brushes. Yes I said lifetime warranty on batteries! I do have to take the original sales flier in with my receipt every time I take something in, and usually do have to watch a manager scratch his/her head while they read the original ad, but, I'm on my third drill, second Sawzall, and second dual battery charger, all at no cost to me. Being that swimming pool repair/renovation is my business, I cut a shitload of pipe with the Sawzall, and put in tons of Tapcons, so I couldn't live without my battery operated tools.
The rigid had a one year warranty that expired about a week before it died. I took the motor apart, and the windings melted together,it was running fine,then it made a god awful sound and quit. It wasn't under a lot of load,just picking up normal shop vac stuff like dirt. I have heard from a number of people that the chinese use nonpure copper wire in their windings. in other words low grade shit. I wonder if it's the same in the drills?
Milwaukee and Greenlee both make a killer shop-vac. Be prepared to pay for it though, these aren't your $40.00 shop vac. Shawn
My son gave me a Rigid drill for Xmas 3 years ago with that deal. Both batteries took a shit during the summer this year. Took them to the service center across town ,got 2 new ones no prob. Best cordless drill I ever saw was a 7.2 Mikita my buddy had .He got it in the late 80s and it ran for years with no troubles. Only badthing took about 8 hours to charge it up.
Kinda off topic, not really. I am personally sick of cordless crap, batterys and chargers are a shot in the dark to get reliable ones. I had been looking at buying a cordless sawzall and couldn't get any 2 people to give me the same answer when I tried to research it. Yesterday I found a virtually unused honda suitcase generator for $100 and that is what I will take with me when I need remote power tools.
hey guys I just found this. I'm going to try it. http://www.astromart.com/articles/ar...article_id=587
I got the download and tried it last night, it worked first try on two of my batteries, need to try again on my three other really old batteries. All you need is two good batteries of the same voltage as the bad one, or one of double voltage, no variable power supply required. And a $15 digital voltmeter. You just connect the terminals in a series, and touch the last wire to the dead battery for a few seconds. I can send the PDF file to anyone who wants it.
He gives some conflicting advice as far as running down the batteries before charging: HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PACKS 1. Keep batteries out of extreme heat or cold. High temperatures age the chemicals inside batteries prematurely. 2. Never run a battery all the way down. The moment you notice a change or slowdown, it is time to swap packs. Modern NiCd batteries do NOT have memory effect. Never put a rubber band around the trigger to completely drain a battery on the advice of a crazy old-timer. 3. Top off batteries before storage. When done with the days work, recharge your packs before putting them away. Many modern chargers have a deep-charge mode that conditions batteries when left in the charger overnight. Consult your manual to see if your charger has this feature. 4. Charge up side down. Your charger creates a lot of heat when it is charging, especially if the pack is really low. Flip the charger so the battery is on the bottom and the charger is on top. This lets the heat from the charger rise and dissipate without further heating the battery
There was an article I read a while back on replacing the individual battery cells with Radio Shack replacements. I'll see if i can find it. (EDIT: Sorry, I can't find it. That was a few computer crashes ago). In at nutshell here is the process. 1) Put it on your charger to charge it up as best you can. 2) Then take it off the charger and take it apart and measure the voltage across the individual cells. The bad ones will have the lowest voltage numbers. 3) Then replace them with RadioShack equivalents (as in desolder and resolder in the new ones). Replace only the bad ones. I suppose you could start with two bad battery packs and then make a good ONE our of the TWO shot ones without a trip to RS.
I've had a couple of Harbor Freight specials for a while now. The 18 volt lasted longer, but the battery in it quit. The 14.4 volt, still works great, years later - came in a set with drill, flashlight, sawzall, and circular saw. The sawzall only runs about 15 minutes with it, but the drill lasts forever, and even on low power it's especially good with things like trim screws that you'd normally end up stripping if you tried them by hand.
run over to homo depot and buy a new ridgid cordless lifetime warranty including batteries you can't beat it
they bought some new b and D drills at work today, lithium, and you CAN'T TAKE OUT THE DAM BATTERIES what a pos,if it goes dead,you have to put the entire dam drill in the charger. they went from the VPX which is great,to these POS's. and on the running the old type batteries down with a rubber band, that comes from the old days when they had early generation NICAD packs, even some old drills i used to own said that, with modern batteries,you don't want to do this. most drills today are eithier nickel metal hydride, or lithium polymer, these don't have a memory,especially the lithium, when you are done with it,pop it back in the charger and it will stay fully charged. Both of these types of batteries are off shoots of the cellular phone craze.at least some good came from them.
It's not necessary to have the variable voltage supply, but it will make your friends happier. I am the new local "Battery Zapper" hero since I can set the voltage to whatever anyone needs (6, 9.6 12.2 14.4 16.0 18.0 19.2 and higher) and go to it. There really aren't too many guys out there that have 2 good battery packs that match what they're trying to fix. I gotta tell you, this works a majority of the time. The Tubman
The Jalopy Journal
