I have through the years bought battery powered tools like drill motors etc. When the battery's go bad I just don't see much different in cost between buying new battery's and buying a another new battery powered tool with the new batteries. As a rule you get two new battery's with that perchance. I just took one of the old batteries packs apart and had a idea. Has anybody ever tried to take 10 AA flashlight batteries and solder together and install them into the tool battery pack. We are just becoming a throw away country when we are just throwing way a perfectly good working tool that all they needs is new battery's.
#2
reynoldston
I have been doing a little research on cordless power tool battery's. It just doesn't look like the flash light battery's are going to work. It looks like they use a rechargeable CiCad 1.2 volt cells in them. So I bought 12 new CiCad battery cells off E-Bay for 19 dollars. You can have old cordless power tool battery's rebuilt for 50 dollars or buy new battery's for over 100 dollars each. I will let you know how this works out when the new battery cells get here. I also see a new DeWalt cordless drill with two battery's for 129 dollars.
#3
Parkmower
Lithium ion is the way to go. The weight savings alone make it worth it when your using it for better part of the day.
I know this doesn't address your rebuild questions.
I agree and any new tools I buy that is what I get. Just trying to save some older tools from the trash and just taking a gamble to see if I can rebuild the old battery's? So far I have 20 dollars invested. Who knows I might have thrown 20 dollars away because if this doesn't work its all going in the trash.
#5
reynoldston
I put the battery cells I bought from E-Bay into the old battery case. It took 12- 1.2 volt cells. Wasn't too bad of a job. So the battery is just like new now for my cordless Porter-Cable drill which cost me 19 dollars to rebuild. It charged up and the drill runs like a new one. Now to see how long the rebuilt job will last.
If you like to play around with that kind of stuff, you might want to try some lithium - ion batteries. All a laptop battery is, is a bunch of 18650 batteries, soldered together in a plastic case.
A lithium - ion battery has some different characteristics, from conventional batteries, but the challenges aren't insurmountable. An 18650 cell runs between 3.2V and 4.2V ... 3 of them in series do a pretty fair imitation of a 12 volt battery. 3 of them are worth about 6 bucks on Ebay. If you DO decide you want to try and use them, please ... read up about them. They have some danger to them, as they don't deal well with being discharged below 3 volts. But anyway, Google can explain it better than I can.
#7
reynoldston
The whole job turned into a flop. I have been charging the old battery's in which were no good so now the charger gave up. One good battery and no way to charge it?? Its not worth buying a new charger so it all go's into the garbage. It was just a experiment from the start and I have 20 dollars invested.
