flyingbeekeeper
10 W
So I had 2 cheap drills who's packs were dying and I converted them over to 18650s because I had some spares from a pack built (see Homemade Pack thread)
And I posted a thread about a dangerous voltage inversion on one of the 18650s that I pushed too hard, at which point it devolved into a tool conversion thread. Thus, here is a thread for DIY tool conversions.
For my 18v cheap drill, I opened the battery case, ripped out the guts, kept the connector and shoved 4s2p into the case and wired it up. No balance lead, I just want to see how it performs over time.
For the 12v drill, I did the same thing but only put in a 3s2p pack.
My 18v XRP Dewalt drill I'm more protective of. I have 3 batteries, 1 good, 1 bad, 1 dying at 15v. The bad one I ran with an idea someone mentioned of an external pack.
I opened the bad pack, ripped out all the cells but the one in the stem. The stem has a cell that fits perfect. It holds the connector fine, so I fixed it in place and soldered a bypass around it to the connector. Then ran these 18ga wire to an external pack and put them in a leather hip pouch that is thick enough to protect it in the field. I found the 18ga wire gets hot while using a sawsall. I'll fix that with 14 or 10ga wire from my stocks.
The pack itself was 5s6p at about 12ah, with a balancing lead coming off it. I just used packing tape to tape that out of the way while in the pack. For charging, I'm just using the aligator clips on my icharger to clip to + and - and charge off of it. In the future as I convert the rest, I'll convert the stock Dewalt charger with a modded meanwell or other powersupply.
And I posted a thread about a dangerous voltage inversion on one of the 18650s that I pushed too hard, at which point it devolved into a tool conversion thread. Thus, here is a thread for DIY tool conversions.
For my 18v cheap drill, I opened the battery case, ripped out the guts, kept the connector and shoved 4s2p into the case and wired it up. No balance lead, I just want to see how it performs over time.
For the 12v drill, I did the same thing but only put in a 3s2p pack.
My 18v XRP Dewalt drill I'm more protective of. I have 3 batteries, 1 good, 1 bad, 1 dying at 15v. The bad one I ran with an idea someone mentioned of an external pack.
I opened the bad pack, ripped out all the cells but the one in the stem. The stem has a cell that fits perfect. It holds the connector fine, so I fixed it in place and soldered a bypass around it to the connector. Then ran these 18ga wire to an external pack and put them in a leather hip pouch that is thick enough to protect it in the field. I found the 18ga wire gets hot while using a sawsall. I'll fix that with 14 or 10ga wire from my stocks.
The pack itself was 5s6p at about 12ah, with a balancing lead coming off it. I just used packing tape to tape that out of the way while in the pack. For charging, I'm just using the aligator clips on my icharger to clip to + and - and charge off of it. In the future as I convert the rest, I'll convert the stock Dewalt charger with a modded meanwell or other powersupply.