RE: Time Will Tell

[Ed Pawlowski]

90 days seems common, but pro-rated seems like BS. Add in postage and why bother after the first month or so.

[Leon]

Exactly!

I ended up going to Batteries Plus, the battery in question was crap shortly after 60 days. I bought a new battery at Batteries Plus and it had a 1 year warranty. It was not the same manufacturers battery and was only a few dollars more expensive than the rebuilt from Prime Cell.

A big plus, Batteries Plus has OEM Li-ion batteries too.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------ Thanks to Puckdropper for suggesting a timer for the battery charger, made another trip to HF where I found a suitable timer for $4.99.

Let's see now, two (2) cordless drills, a drill index box of drill bits and a timer.

Not only is this becoming an investment of note, but also an engineering project.

Oh well, keeps me out of bars at night and wild women on the week ends.

Lew

[krw]

I really don't want to know what you're doing with your drills.

[nailshooter41]

Lew, we are taking the trip on the RYOBI drill bits together. When I boug ht the drill, I decided to set it up as a kit since there was room in the b ag. So the RYOBI drill/driver set also has RYOBI drill bits to go along wi th it. I hate looking for bits, etc., as when I am ready to go, ..I am rea dy to go!..

So indexes, while they don't have usually have the best quality bits in the m, keep the bit organized, all in one place, and protect themselves from ru bbing around on one another to dull the bits while in transport or in the t ruck.

I have so far found the bits to be satisfactory as I have never needed numb ered drills as 90% of my work is woodwork, and my metal work is roof flashi ng and other water diverting fabrication that requires only 1/8" drill for rivets. Most of the screws I use on my metal work are self tapping, so not a lot of metal drilling these days.

So the RYOBI bits have worked well so far. I have drilled a lot of wood, p lastic, and other soft stuff and a few smaller holes in metal with them. T hey work just fine. I did drill some 3/16 soft steel plate holes a while b ack an the bits did fine, using pneumatic nail gun oil as a lubricant. Lik e everyone else, I would rather have a professional grade index from BluMol , Lennox and the like, but this is 1/5 the cost and does what I need for no w.

The only numbered bits I have these days are in the little case with my tap and die set that I use once every ten years.

Since I drill a lot of pilot holes for wood screws and nails, I am not that interested in the exact bit to be used. I still use the same old method I was taught, and that was to match a bit to the screw that allowed you to s ee the entire thread of the screw, but no the shaft itself (unless fastenin g soft wood). With that in mind, I have bought a grab bag of resharpened d rill bits from HF before, and they were as good as any bits I have ever bou ght, period.

They are from some manufacturing industry, maybe event their own, and the c ome really sharp, properly along the length of the shaft as well, and strai ght. These bags of bits aren't always available and when I have found them they come in all lengths, sizes and twist variations. Perfect for wood wo rking. They aren't marked with sizes (I don't need that) but are very fine ly ground and finished. They sell a big bag of bits covered in oil that ha s about 25 to 30 bits or so for $7. They are all smaller sizes like 3 3/32 nds to about 5/16ths, and no guarantee which sizes you get. They also have a jumbo size, which only has a few really large bits in them, but they are too large for my wood working needs.

Robert

[woodchucker]

I have never seen those at HF. But they are 1 hour away in every direction so I don't get there that often.

Drill bits are the type of thing that I can resharpen pretty good, better than most new bits. The only thing I need new ones for are the finer bits that break.. I try buying the jobber lots of the smaller bits.

[Dave in Texas]

Ditto that. Three or four years back I spent $72 for two Primecell rebuilds for a 12v Mikita impact driver. I didn't need the tool right away but wanted to have the availability if I needed. Several months passed before I had that need. The Primecell rebuilds wouldn't even take a charge.

Dave in Houston

[nailshooter41]

I remember Leon's post about that from some years back. I had a Makita bat tery rebuilt here in town by a company that specializes in rebuilt batterie s for older tools, but will do newer ones as well. They rebuilt my battery for my beloved Makita 14.4v monster, and it worked great. However, they w ent out of business.

One of the reasons I finally decided on the Ryobi was because of the lack o f ability to find good rebuilds along with the my problem of putting a $90 battery in an 8 year old drill. Looking at the Ryobi, it came with two bat teries (granted, low milliamp models) but they recharge in 30 minutes. The y also come with a three year battery warranty along with the rest of the t ool. If lost, they can be replaced with an exact match for $35. You can al so buy up the battery amperage and get much stronger batteries for a few do llars more.

After trying out the drill and driving a hundred or so screws with no pilot hole, I think this will be fine for me. The drill wasn't close to breathi ng hard. Even as a contractor, I don't drill more than a hundred holes or drive more than a hundred screws all at once very often. So I don't have t he huge battery needs a lot of guys do. And if I did, the other battery is charged and waiting be used, and another fully charge battery is only 30 m inutes away.

I am totally off any rebuilds for now. If my tool failed when using it on a job and the failure was due me being a little too tight with a buck by bu ying a rebuild I would be really pissed off myself.

Robert

[Ed Pawlowski]

Primecell does not make the batteries and probably most of the rebuilders use the same brand of cells. I have to wonder if that would have happened with any other one. You do have to charge them even if not used.

am totally off any rebuilds for now. If my tool failed when using it on a job and the failure was due me being a little too tight with a buck by buying a rebuild I would be really pissed off myself.

Ryobi seems to have many followers for the reasons you state. One fellow I know just tosses it every few years and buys a new set of cordless tools.

I had a bad experience with a drill needing repairs and that is why I moved up to the Panasonic. Could have been one of ten or ten million that broke though. It was an OK drill when it was working.

At work we needed a light drill for a lot of small sheet metal screws. It was just one project and would rarely be used again. I bought a 12V Rigid and it did a fine job. That was 7 years ago and the batteries will still take a charge, but don't know for how long. I should replace them give it to someone that can use it as it just sits now.

[nailshooter41]

Yessir, and I made that reference in an earlier thread somewhere around her e. It seems to be a trend. I don't think most "high performance" "profess ional tools" are worth the money these days. I make a living with my tools so I don't save a dime to spend a dollar, but so many of the more expensiv e tools we see these days are not much better quality than the home owner v arieties it is pathetic.

40 years ago when I saved up to buy a real Milwaukee "hole shooter" it was a big drill. $90 for a corded drill 40 years ago! Used on the job nearly daily for a decade and off and on since then, it still runs. I have worn o ut more circular saws than I can count from my days as a production house/c ommercial framer, and then as a contractor. Milwaukees were the top of the heap then. My oldest Milwaukee is around 30 years old, and I finally got tired of rebuilding it with switch, bearings and cord when it came up to $1 25 or so to do it. But... it still works. My oldest Milwaukee Sawzall wi th the all aluminum housing and red lightening bolts down the side was my o nly recip saw for years and years. I bought it in a pawn shop for $50 buck s in the late 70s, and it still goes to the job once in a while when I need it. (It was replaced with a 15amp monster oscillating recip model.)

I wear out tools now, so I always look at performance first, then bang for the buck. If I worked in a shop like Leon and NO ONE ELSE touched, handled or used my tools (rumor has it Karl was allowed to use the Domino machine only under close supervision, then just once...!) I would most likely buy F estool or brands similar and know they would last me the rest of my life.

But I have to balance the price with the fact that my tools might get dropp ed or knocked off a scaffold or ladder (by me!), be used in the rain, subje ct to misuse by others, theft, or anything else out of my area of control. On a job, $hit just happens sometimes.

I am hoping that this new Ryobi drill/driver set fills the bill for a while . I am not really at risk for many dollars, and although now I find I use t he impact driver much less than I thought I would it is a handy tool when n eeded. For its warranty, I almost bough the Rigid 18v li drill, but the ha ndles are just too damn small for my mitts.

Robert

[Lew Hodgett]

The major drawbacks to the Harbor Freight cordless drill is the recharge time (3-5 hours) and there is no indication that the battery is finished recharging.

Below is an automatic shut off circuit using standard shelf componets.

Enjoy.

Lew

------------------------------------------------------------------ Hardware:

1, 6 circuit switched power outlet strip. 1, Manual 24 hour timer with two switched outlets. 2, LED night lights.

Directions:

Program the timer to be "ON" for 5 hours and "OFF" for 19 hours.

I used "ON" at 00:00 (midnight) and "OFF" at 5:00 AM.

Plug timer into power outlet strip.

Plug an LED night light into power outlet strip.

Plug an LED night light into 24 hour timer outlet.

Plug the 24 VDC "WallWart" from the Harbor Freight recharger module into a 24 hour timer outlet.

Plug 24 VDC plug from the "WallWart" into the Harbor Freight recharger module and insert battery to be recharged.

Plug power outlet strip into a source of power.

Rotate timer cam until it just touches the "ON" cam.

Turn the power outlet strip "ON".

The LED night light plugged into power outlet strip should turn "ON".

When the cam turns "ON", the LED night light plugged into a timer outlet will turn "ON" and the RED and GREEN lights on the battery charger will turn "ON".

After 5 hours, the timer will turn "OFF", the LED night light plugged into timer outlet will turn "OFF" and the RED and GREEN lights on the battery charger will turn "OFF".

At this point, turn the power outlet strip "OFF".

The LED night light plugged into power outlet strip should turn "OFF".

Remove the battery and allow to cool.

NOTES:

The timer only allows the recharger to be on for

5 hours and then turns "OFF" for 19 hours.

It will recycle if you haven't if you haven't turned off the power during that 19 hour period.

[Puckdropper]

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:5444bd2c$0$44749 $c3e8da3$ [e-mail]:

Why do you need all the extra stuff? The LED night lights and power strips? I just plug the timer in, set the off time to the charge time, and let it go. If you buy a timer that uses pins, all you have to do to disable the "on" function is remove the pin. (Others require a bit of cutting with a knife...)

You do need to remove the battery from the charger, though, as many NiCD chargers don't include any kind of discharge protection (a fancy way of saying an ultra cheap --less than $0.01/charger-- diode.) It's usually not too bad, though. Catch it the next day or something and you'll still have most of a full charge.

Puckdropper

[Whaley]

Why reinvent a cheaply made charger? Buy a good drill and save more in the long run. I'll never waste another dime on a Harbor Freight drill.

[krw]

[Martin Eastburn]

I learned that trick charging ni-cads on my RC airplane. How to have the batteries ready when I fly only 1 mourning a week. This keeps the battery from over charging or 'burning out' also.

I have my emergency power for 12v and jumper cable power box this way. I my 11" telescope power pack for the RV wheel set this way.

Works. Mart> The major drawbacks to the Harbor Freight cordless drill is the

[Bill]

To be fair, the last time I asked HF Drill, the same one Lew bought, to help me mix paint for two days it did not disappoint. But a "driver" it is not.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------- "Puckdr> Why do you need all the extra stuff? The LED night lights and power

--------------------------------------------------------- Pilot lights, in this case LED night lights are always optional in a control system.

They earn their keep by providing information in a fashion that is easier to get and use than without them.

In this case, they provide information about the status of the charging system from several feet away.

The timer is large enough that if you plug it directly into a wall mounted duplex receptacle, you will block at least one receptacle, maybe more from a 2 gang duplex receptacle configuration.

The only way to resolve this problem is to add an extension cord to allow remote location connection of the timer.

These days, the cost of a 6 circuit switched power outlet strip is just the lowest cost extension cord available.

SFWIW, the timer is not being used in a normal fashion.

You program a single 5 hour "ON" time cam once and forget it.

I used a toothpick to get around my fat fingers problem.

No attempt is made to calibrate the timer to the "Real World" time. It's not relevant.

You are only interested in a 5 hour chunk of time.

The pilot lights provide this information in the blink of the eye at a cost of about $5/pair for the LED night lights.

To each his own, but I'm willing to make that investment.

Lew

[Morgans]

The major drawbacks to the Harbor Freight cordless drill is the recharge time (3-5 hours) and there is no indication that the battery is finished recharging.

Below is an automatic shut off circuit using standard shelf componets.

Enjoy.

Lew

------------------------------------------------------------------ Go one better. Add a manual 7 day timer, plugged into the 24 hour timer. If you set it so it starts a one day 6 hour cycle when you start the charge, the same thing happens. It charges and shuts off, but since it will only run the 7 day timer for 5 hours per day and then stop, it will take about a month before the charger (plugged into the output strip of the 7 day timer) to start. No need to switch it over. Letting it charge once per month or so will keep it full.

Old rc'er trick.

1, 6 circuit switched power outlet strip. 1, Manual 24 hour timer with two switched outlets. 2, LED night lights.

Directions:

Program the timer to be "ON" for 5 hours and "OFF" for 19 hours.

I used "ON" at 00:00 (midnight) and "OFF" at 5:00 AM.

Plug timer into power outlet strip.

Plug an LED night light into power outlet strip.

Plug an LED night light into 24 hour timer outlet.

Plug the 24 VDC "WallWart" from the Harbor Freight recharger module into a 24 hour timer outlet.

Plug 24 VDC plug from the "WallWart" into the Harbor Freight recharger module and insert battery to be recharged.

Plug power outlet strip into a source of power.

Rotate timer cam until it just touches the "ON" cam.

Turn the power outlet strip "ON".

The LED night light plugged into power outlet strip should turn "ON".

When the cam turns "ON", the LED night light plugged into a timer outlet will turn "ON" and the RED and GREEN lights on the battery charger will turn "ON".

After 5 hours, the timer will turn "OFF", the LED night light plugged into timer outlet will turn "OFF" and the RED and GREEN lights on the battery charger will turn "OFF".

At this point, turn the power outlet strip "OFF".

The LED night light plugged into power outlet strip should turn "OFF".

Remove the battery and allow to cool.

NOTES:

The timer only allows the recharger to be on for

5 hours and then turns "OFF" for 19 hours.

It will recycle if you haven't if you haven't turned off the power during that 19 hour period.

[krw]

I don't blame you. I have a set of the 12V (drill, impact driver, and driver) and two each of the 18V drill and impact driver. I wouldn't trade them for all the cordless tools HF makes. BTW, I also have a couple of the HF drivers that have been sitting on the shelf from the day I got them. Junk.

[Bill]

So how do you explain Mike's confusion about this? I don't think he is lying. I won't argue the point that the HF drill is a good value for $16.99. krw, why do YOU say they are Junk?