Tired of Battery Powered Drills

[Jim Dwight]

The don't meet your specs but I have two DeWalt 3/8 chuck corded drill. One has a keyless chuck and is handy but the chuck isn't great. The keyed chuck one is for more serious drilling. Both spin too fast to power big auger bits - I do that with the Ryobi 18V cordless on low speed. But for a corded backup drill, they work fine. I have 3 batteries for my Ryobi tools but one is at our condo and I occasionally let both lithium ion batteries get depleted on me. A corded drill will let me keep working for an hour while a battery charges.

If your cordless are Ni Cd, I suggest you invest in lithium ion batteries if you can for your existing tools. Makes a huge difference. I was surprised. One big benefit is they deplete while sitting there in your shop much slower. If I was smarter and used only one battery at a time with the other in the charger I'd never be out of a battery. But sometimes I want to use multiple cordless tools.....and I get tired of moving the battery.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have looked for hours on end for a corded , variable speed, reversible with clutch drill.
The only one I could find is the Ryobi. Works for what I need.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-5-5...48CK/205216292

[Dan Rude]

I picked up the dewalt T-Handle for my HD pocket Kreg Jig. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014GKA86?...=ATVPDKIKX0DER It meets the need. Milwaukee close quarter drill had a clutch version when Souix made them. Souix no longer makes corded tools. Dan

[Lenore Epstein]

When my 18V NiCad DeWalt batteries went all doggy on me I started shopping for Li/Ion batteries. Fortunately I was brought up short by sticker shock, which gave me enough time to suspect that the NiCad batteries had developed a "memory" from regularly being recharged without first being fully or almost-fully discharged.

I had nothing to lose, so I reconditioned them the same way I do any other under-performing rechargeable battery. The treatment: simply run each battery down until it's completely 100% dead and then fully recharge it. I did the same with my 12V NiCad Makita batteries even though I hadn't noticed a problem, and was surprised at how much better they performed.

You only want to do this when you notice a problem because batteries are only good for certain number of cycles, but it might help enough to stave off the need for a new drill or fancy Li-Ion batteries for a while. Of course, Li-ion batteries don't develop memory problems and are supposed to deliver more power and hold a charge better than NiCads, but they're damned expensive, so unless you typically run the battery-powered drill all day you might not really need them. Not that I mean to stand between any woodworker and the acquisition of new toys or anything.

Another thing I learned: older batteries weren't supposed to be left in a charger, but my newer 18V batteries can be left in the charger indefinitely. So check your batteries' specs to see if you're safe leaving one in the charger at all times.

HTH

[Paul Lawrence]

... suspect that the NiCad batteries had developed a "memory" from regularly being recharged without first being fully or almost-fully discharged. HTH

You are correct in detecting that your NiCad battery has a charging problem, but there is no real thing that is "memory" in a NiCad battery. What is happening is an effect of the many cells that make up the battery. Each cell has enough differences that they each don't charge / discharge in the same way. Eventually you end up with at least one cell that has discharged more than the others and therefore will not charge up in the same amount of time as the others.

The most problematic solution is to "run each battery down until it's completely 100% dead". When you do that you are discharging all the cells within the battery at the same time. Therefore, the weak cell (or cells) discharge to a low value before the good cells do. At that point, with the good cells still discharging, the weak cells will actually reverse and become part of the discharge load. This very well could ruin the weak cells (and most of the time it will.) Now you have a really bad battery.

The most advantageous solution to the "memory" problem is to recharge the battery long enough to bring the weak cells up to full charge. That's what caused the NiCad problem to start with; short charging cycles.

An automatic charger , with its early shutoff, may not be capable of this kind of recharge, but long term charging is the solution. "100%" discharging is only asking for more trouble, eventually.

[Lenore Epstein]

You are correct in detecting that your NiCad battery has a charging problem, but there is no real thing that is "memory" in a NiCad battery. What is happening is an effect of the many cells that make up the battery. Each cell has enough differences that they each don't charge / discharge in the same way. Eventually you end up with at least one cell that has discharged more than the others and therefore will not charge up in the same amount of time as the others.

The most problematic solution is to "run each battery down until it's completely 100% dead"....

That's what I get for offering simplistic advice about things I'm not an expert in. Heck, I forgot that we're talking about battery packs, not individual batteries.

So is what you're suggesting the equivalent of rebuilding the battery pack? That was going to be my next step if reconditioning the thing didn't work, but I never got to the point of finding out how hard that would be. Could you point me toward a source of info so I can do it right the next time they start to go bad?

Anyway, I just wanted to offer the OP an alternative to spending lots of dollars for new tools or even just new batteries, and it sounds like your solution is superior in the long run. Fortunately for me, despite the possibility that I may have shortened their lives, my battery packs are all performing great eight months later, saving me hundreds of dollars in tools or replacement batteries.

[Hilton Ralphs]

For me it is not about the extra battery, it is about the speed of the drill. I use corded drill for higher speed requirements and would love to find a small VS form factor that spun at 3000 RPM or so.

Glenn, I bought a Bosch corded 3/8 drill that has no clutch or hammer action but it does spin at 4000 rpm. I wanted this specifically for drilling pocket holes (to get a cleaner cut) and because it lacks all the other features normally found on a drill driver, it's very light but does the job very well. It only weighs 1.2 kgs so not too heavy for extended periods of use.

Bosch GBM 6RE

bosch_gbm_6_re.png

[Al Launier]

Hilton did you actually mean to say 3,000 rpm instead of 30,000? Could you state which model you bought?

Although cordless drills usually come with a spare battery so one can be charged while using the other, the speed for small diameter drills is inadequate for the best sfpm for different materials. Also torque is limiting on larger size drills. I like corded drills that provide variable speed & have long cords, preferably 8', or even longer.

[John K Jordan]

What is happening is an effect of the many cells that make up the battery. Each cell has enough differences that they each don't charge / discharge in the same way.

A more serious issue is that nicad cells can grow "whiskers" and short internally. Look up "nicad whiskers" on google. This will kill the cell and thus the pack.

We have had reasonable but not perfect success in restoring these cells by zapping them with a jolt of current. My buddy Joe used a bank of capacitors. Another friend used a touch from a welder. This guy designed a circuit (and explains a bit about the chemistry problem):
http://www.sentex.ca/~mec1995/gadgets/rejuv.html

I've had more success zapping individual cells than the whole battery pack. This is a problem with rechargeable tool batteries since disassembling the pack is sometimes difficult.

If the pack is weak instead of dead, I've had success with repeated charge and deep discharge cycles. Some chargers will let you trigger a deep discharge. Once I needed to do a LOT of cutting with a battery powered circular saw, notching posts up on a ladder for beams. I started recording the number of cuts I could make with each charge on a stack of batteries. The number of cuts on some very weak cells went from less than 10 to nearly 30 after several charge/deep discharge cycles.

JKJ

[Hilton Ralphs]

Hilton did you actually mean to say 3,000 rpm instead of 30,000? Could you state which model you bought?

Al, I updated my post with the correct specs, model and picture. This is a 220v model but I'm sure there's one for 110v.

[Al Launier]

Thanks Hilton, appreciate the response. I'm going to look into one of these.

[Greg R Bradley]

Glenn, I bought a Bosch corded 3/8 drill that has no clutch or hammer action but it does spin at 4000 rpm. I wanted this specifically for drilling pocket holes (to get a cleaner cut) and because it lacks all the other features normally found on a drill driver, it's very light but does the job very well. It only weighs 1.2 kgs so not too heavy for extended periods of use.

Bosch GBM 6RE

bosch_gbm_6_re.png

That drill on US 120v 60Hz power is 0-2600rpm.

On US power, the Milwaukee 0240-20 at about $70 will run a bit faster and hold that speed under a bit of load. It does weigh a bit more. The 0100-20 in my pic above is the only one that actually runs 0-4000 in the US. It is lighter than the 0240 and is their high quality Magnum line but it is double that price.

[Hilton Ralphs]

That drill on US 120v 60Hz power is 0-2600rpm.

Yes indeed. Very odd to say the least. I've just checked and the model is 1006VS. Here's a link to the European equivalent that I bought. I can only think it may have something to do with the Hertz but I'm not sure. Mine spins much faster than my cordless 18v drills.