Cordless drill battery and charger - might have been dumb

[TimR]

In a thrift shop today I found a Craftsman 3/8 inch drill driver, 15.6 V for $10 so I bought it.

I was thinking batteries are probably old, but there might be some life left, and how expensive can they be? I don't have a driver except for muscle powered, might be good to have one for the deck project.

I also didn't notice there was no charger in the box.

Well, Amazon seems to have chargers and batteries that will work but at more than $60 each. I could have bought a new tool for that.

Is there any cheaper way to make this thing workable?

Is 15.6 V just too small now? I see everything is higher.

[johnk...]

What's important is the POWER! VoltsXAmps.

John Kuthe, EE in a former career.

[Ralph Mowery]

Often it is less expensive to just buy a new item than get replacement parts. I have never understood the battery replacements being about the same as a new cordless item. As that battery is probably a nicad and not the newer types you just blew $ 10.

[gfretwell]

You can probably do better than Amazon on the batteries and I would look at Ebay or Craigs list for a used charger. If they are NiCads count on the ones you have being bad. I have 2 12v Makitas I have had for a while and they are OK for a backup when you are doing something where you need 2 drill motors to go fast but my 18v LiON Makita kicks their ass. I had all 3 going on this project but I used the 18v for driving the screws.

[Wade Garrett]

If the thrift shop was run by a charitable or community service organization, chalk it up a $10 donation to a good cause...

[Ed Pawlowski]

The 15.6 is plenty of power.

Buying the correct charger can be sill expensive. Maybe someone can come up with a cheaper solution with something else.

[TimR]

Yeah, it was too good to be true, but I really had no idea how expensive batteries and chargers were. Now I know better.

After a little research (which I could have done before an impulse buy) I see 12 V would be plenty for my home use. I have corded tools for big DIY jobs, but what I don't have is a driver, and cordless is handy for that. I just hung a gutter this week and a cordless driver would have made that much quicker.

Harbor Freight has a drill driver for $16, Black and Decker at Home Depot is $35. And then there seems to be a big jump up to the $150 range. So I guess I could spend the money buying a charger and maybe rebuilding a NiCad battery pack, but the Craftsman is probably a lower end quality tool that might not justify the effort.

[micky]

IIUC most thrift shops are owned by charities, so at least your money went to a good purpose, I think.

[Clare Snyder]

Solder soime wires to it with battery clips and get a lawn tractot 12 volt battery.

[TimR]

Actually that's sort of my plan. As the Nicads are trash anyway, why not empty one and run wires from an old laptop charger into it? Should give me a decent driver, as long as I don't insist on cordless.

I found a Skil on sale at Amazon for $45 that looks like a good deal too, a step up from HF without going to a Makita or higher. (which I would do in a heartbeat if I thought my kids would appreciate it, but none of them are IDYers, and I have a limited number of years left.)

[micky]

When I was shoppign for a car, someone had a beautiful, somewhat-tricked Mustang convetible. He also had two sons, one 16-years old, who didn't know how to drive a stick and didn't seem to want to learn.

I do know how to drive a stick but for a car I'll drive all the time for years, it's not worth the extra effort to me. So during the test drive, I asked him to drive.

[micky]

I've read about people buying just the cells used to make up the batteries, and that they are cheaper. I forget the details.

Google or search this group or maybe even sci.electronics.repair here or in groups.google coom.

I have a cordless drill and something else I forget ( alittle round saw?) that I bought at a yard said. Old batteries, voltage too low to bother replacing, but i dont' recall the voltage.

[gfretwell]

If the cells are a standard size and you can solder, it is an idea. Just be sure to get the ones with the solder tab on them.

[TimR]

I took apart the battery packs to see. There was a good bit of corrosion so I'm confident the NiCads were trash.

The end piece with the contacts that goes inside the tool handle used a cell for support, really a cheap and flimsy way to do it, and the plastic end that held the actual prongs cracked in pieces. I've saved it for a winter project, could wire an old laptop charger to it and run it corded I guess.

[Tekkie©]

On Sat, 11 Sep 2021 08:16:51 -0700 (PDT), TimR posted for all of us to digest...

IDK if a laptop charger would meet the requirements to rum the drill under load.

[TimR]

I have an old laptop charger rated at 15 V DC and 5 A.

A little research suggests a cordless drill might need 20 A at start up or stall, but might be fine at 5 A for a small screw or drilling holes in thin wood.

Meanwhile I bought the 12 V Skil cordless drill driver that was on sale and so far I'm happy with it. So my plan is to try the thrift shop version out with the laptop charge as a project on a rainy day but not expect it to really be a useful tool.

My $10 investment led me to buying a new tool. Win.

[BTW]

Get a fifteen buck hyper touch 3.0 for sale right now at Walmart, and use that...+ To + - to minus and two cables of 16 guage wire or better,,,and done, and get 20 dollar battery charger too

[TimR]

That would have worked, I think, and have been fun to try. But I threw the old one out, and bought a new Skil. I'm happy with it, it's been very convenient not to have to string cord for a small job. I really like Bosch tools but don't do enough projects anymore to justify.

I also have a coffee grinder style hand drill and a brace and bit, each of which has come in handy for small jobs without power, but the cordless is nice.

[trader_4]

I did that for my old Milwaukee. Bought batteries on Ebay and rebuilt the pack.

[trader_4]

I guess that depends on how many amps the laptop charger can supply versus what the drill needs. Those chargers take hours to charge batteries so it may not have the amps the drill needs., especially when fully loaded.