Power supply for my cordless tools

[kbalch]

This thread has been moved to the Must Read subforum. Congrats (and thanks) to The FE Factor for making such a valuable contribution!

[Gary F]

I think I get it. zinc casing.. HCL.. = zinc chloride (?) and toilet bowl cleaner or liquid plumber.. same.. add more zinc.. and some water to the acid.. so far so good.. Thank you.. good stuff..

[Marc Broussard]

Human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. This build is out of the box innovative. I doubt I would go thru all that if my drill driver ran out of power. I would grab a corded drill. But, that takes nothing away from this really cool tool. You could run the Dewalt radio on it in the interim. Leave it permanently set up to power cordless bench mounted equipment . Have a variety of battery dead tools set up to run off it. My cordless end grinder, router, cut off saw set in a mini table, etc.

[davidhoneybadger]

Thank you. Never thought of it. Now I will build one..............or has any one thought of a BIG CAPACITOR BANK IN THAT CASE............WITH A 12V DOWN CONVERTER? ....Hmmmmmmmm Come on guys........there is someone out there smarter than me.

[fixit45]

Hi, Sorry to sound negative but surely the whole idea is for the drill to be cordless. If you are in a position to have access to mains power
then why not use a conventional mains powered drill

[mklotz]

Hi, Sorry to sound negative but surely the whole idea is for the drill to be cordless. If you are in a position to have access to mains power
then why not use a conventional mains powered drill

I have to agree. If you need to string AC extension cords to bring mains power to the location of the power supply, why not just use a mains powered drill (which is likely to be more powerful than a cordless drill)?

If one doesn't possess a mains drill, then what he's done makes better sense assuming you have an extra adequate power supply lying around or can obtain one for less than the cost of a corded drill.

When I did my drill conversion...

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/c...ill-cord-34044

I realized that I didn't mind a drill with a cord if the cord was short and I didn't have to string extension cords to the work site. Powering the drill with an external SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery) turned out to be a very nice compromise that maintains the independence of battery power.

Thankfully, the advent of lithium battery technology with its long charge retention and fast recharge has put an end to many of the problems associated with NiCad batteries. I now have two Milwaukee drills that use this technology and only use the SLA setup rarely.

[dsgreene71]

Hi, Sorry to sound negative but surely the whole idea is for the drill to be cordless. If you are in a position to have access to mains power
then why not use a conventional mains powered drill

Well...from my own personal experience as an electrical contractor... when I am working from a lift or a ladder, drilling holes, driving fasteners, cutting conduit...I certainly don't want to deal with a corded tool. But throughout any given day on a job site, I often move to an area where I then need to be running tools almost continuously, as I install equipment, enclosures, build out equipment rooms, etc... Cycling through pricey LiOn battery packs, (that DO have limited recharge lifespans) when I could now simply, just switch their power source, is a huge plus to me. I would need to bring along the charger and extra batteries anyways. I also don't have to carry around, or go get, the corded versions as well.

Most new construction job sites I work on progress through various stages of mains power availability...almost none, temporary, (where every other trade is competing for the limited amount of extension cord chaos...and god only knows what you battery charger might be sharing a branch circuit with...), you get the idea.

Finally, I have at least 3 full sets/kits of cordless tools that were NiCad powered, and they are all great tools, but I am not buying new batteries for them. If I can use them in my home shop or garage with a set up like this...why not?

I am already planning this build for my Rigid X5 set...
My grand plan is to pick up another one of their rugged wheeled tool boxes, and mod it with:
1) AC to DC power conversion.
2) Dual battery charger.
3) Duplex GFCI receptacle.
4) Dual USB charge ports.
5) Volt/Amp display.

And my sincere thanks an hats off to the builder for a great build, and a superb video documenting it!