battery powered drills

[tatra805]

the charging question is a no-go. you can be lucky but as stated before batteries are quite nasty when you make them angry.


I had Metabo, Bosh and Hitachi.

The metabo was first generation and went dead after 10 years of use.
Bosh i would put in decent home use category.(the green ones, blue (pro-use) is a different story)
The Hitachi wins hands down (surely after twisting your wrist a couple of times).

Used a couple of dewalts occasionally but i found them to be rather heavy and big compared to the torque of the hitachi.

B&D and Skill i banned when i was 12. Hope that is clear enough.

Lot of players on the market with different levels in their range. I found a smaller pro-version to be better and more reliable (batteries especially) than the home-owner series in general.

 

[J_J]

I have to do some work on the tractor shed this weekend. I have an 18V B&D that burnt up. It was a piece of junk. I have a 14.4V skil where the charger melted. It was my 2nd skil and I'd rate it slightly higher the the B&D. I'm wondering if I can splice the 18V charger into the 14.4V receiver for the skil. I really have nothing to lose since I didn't really care for either one, I just don't want to start a fire. I saw a Sears charger that stated it would do from 9V to 19V. What do ya'll think? MP

Voltage is voltage, and if you know what you are doing, you can so almost anything, but be safe.

If you are inclined to do so, then yes you can. A lot of the chargers will charge a wide range of batteries. My Bosch charger will charge 12v,14.4v,18v, 24v. So somehow, it knows what the battery voltage should be. If you measure the voltage on a 18v charger, you will read a much higher voltage. If you think about it, those drills are variable speed, which means they can
run at 1v to the limiting voltage of the battery

 

[WH401]

I use one of the Dewalt 18v Nicad Hammer drills with 2 batteries and it gets the job done. That said if I was buying new I would buy one of the new Dewalt Nano (Lithium Ion) Technology powered drills. You can't beat the lasting power and output of the new Li-Ions. I would get at least an 18v model, they now have models up to 36v.

 

[JB4310]

Voltage is voltage, and if you know what you are doing, you can so almost anything, but be safe.

If you are inclined to do so, then yes you can. A lot of the chargers will charge a wide range of batteries. My Bosch charger will charge 12v,14.4v,18v, 24v. So somehow, it knows what the battery voltage should be. If you measure the voltage on a 18v charger, you will read a much higher voltage. If you think about it, those drills are variable speed, which means they can
run at 1v to the limiting voltage of the battery

Some of the chargers probably have the smarts to, and are designed to charge different range of batteries, but one that came with an inexpensive no frills model I doubt.

But your probably right, look at your car/truck battery when it's running, it's gonna be around 14 volts?

He said he's got nothing to lose, just don't leave it unattended or better yet put it outside with the 50 ft extension cord as was suggested. Plug it in far away from the "frankencharger" expect the worst, but hope for the best.

JB.

 

[marimus]

I'm running all Makita 18v Ion Lithium for cordless tools. Four batteries and two charges will keep me going all day on a job. The drill is strong enough to hurt you if you don't have a good grip on it or are in an awkward position. The sawzall does use allot of juice, but they charge in about 15 minutes, so it's not that big of a deal. The circular saw is just awesome. I rarely even bring my 7 1/4 inch saw with me anymore.

I've been relying on these cordless tools for two years now and highly recommend them.

Just say no to anything sold at Sears.

Eddie

Have you tried the angle grinder? Got one a couple of weeks back and its awesome. I thought it would eat through batteries, but its pretty good actually. Very nice piece of equipment.

The best thing about the Makita tools is the 15 minute charge, and you can select what tune it plays when you plugin a battery

 

[marimus]

I use one of the Dewalt 18v Nicad Hammer drills with 2 batteries and it gets the job done.

I have two of these drills and they are very good. The extra weight reminds me how powerfull they are, when I switched to the Makita Li-Ion drills, I hit myself in the head a few times - because with the lighter weight you forget how much oomph they have

 

[EddieWalker]

Have you tried the angle grinder? Got one a couple of weeks back and its awesome. I thought it would eat through batteries, but its pretty good actually. Very nice piece of equipment.

The best thing about the Makita tools is the 15 minute charge, and you can select what tune it plays when you plugin a battery

I've looked at them, but have hesitated on buying one because I'm not sure if I have a use for it, and I'm worried that it will just eat up batteries. I'd use it for a wire brush clean up tool more then as a grinder. I have a Makita 4 1/2 inch grinder already and it's night and day over the DeWalt one that I had before. I'm iffy on DeWalt tools. I have quite a few, but have also had quite a few of them fail on me fairly quickly.

Before buying the Makita kit, I was hesitant on the saw and sawzall. I only had a few experiences with cordless saws and wasn't impressed with them at all. They started out as secondary use items that I rarely used, and have become my first choice tools for most everything that I do. I really have to be cutting allot of wood to bring along my powered saws. Mostly, they just take up room in my shop while I keep the cordless ones in my truck all the time.

I also have the Makita radio. It's amazing in sound quality, but even better, it will play all day on a batter and then I just recharge it and put in another battery. I love that I never have to buy batteries for a jobsite radio. I also bring it on the dozer with me and plug in my headphones. I get good reception and never have to worry about batteries.

Eddie

 

[studor]

About seven years ago I bought a Ryobi 18 volt one+one system at Home Despot thinking it was cheap enough that I could throw it away after working on some renovations I needed to do at the time. The set has been used every weekend and more than a few weekdays since then, Including building two decks, putting batten and soffits on an outbuilding, docks, molding two houses and on and on. When the drill gave up last fall I bought the lithium ion replacement (on sale) and since the batteries are interchangeable I now power the old set with the new batteries. I have lots of Dewalt, Bosch, Craftsman, Delta, Makita and other brands of tools ( corded and cordless) but I must say I have been very impressed with the Ryobi The interchangable battery system that is still around after this amount of time has been much better than the Makita and Dewalt stuff that I have which seems to change battery styles all the time and the price of a new battery is more than the entire Ryobi tool I have also found out that you want to store those batteries inside in cold weather if you want the battery to last -- JMHO
regards

 

[zzvyb6]

I have all the Milwaukee 18v tools and some extra batteries on hand. The Best tool as far as handy-ness is the impact wrench. I even take it on the road with me when trailering. The hand circular saw is very nice to use, too (won't ever get a cord hung up). Obviously the drill is nice, tuff and a great screw gun. The Sawzall deal is little used but you never know. Even the flashlight is nice because of the features. Bought on eBay without batteries or cases. Bought a 6-pack of batteries: voila !.

Most cool use was to cut up a bag of dog rawhides into thirds. The cordless saw is safe, handy and immediate. Rawhide sawdust left out on the grass, not in the barn, deck, basement or whereever a corded saw would have to be. Dogs happy, GF happy, me happy.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I would be leery about charging with the wrong voltage charger. Most of the battery packs have a fuse and thermal sensor in them to open up if there is a shorted cell or they overheat. But like mentioned before they can blow. We had one of the techs in my lab charging a battery pack that was filled with the Sub C type NICADS. He used a power supply to charge them instead of a standard charger (read here wrong charging system not smart charger). After about an hour that whole pack blew up like M-80's scared the smelly stuff out all of us nearby. Fortunately no one was hurt. It made a mushroom cloud. Pieces of battery stuck in the sheet rock and 10' up into the ceiling.
My Ryobi is ok. I have had to replace individual cells in the battery pack when it wouldn't hold a charge. If you can solder that is a way to go. Or just buy the replacement packs.