What's in your tool box

[Catamount]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

tdw-
"converting a [12v] rechargeable drill to run off a 12v marine battery." It ain't rocket science. If you have a "12 volt" drill, just run wires to feed it. If you have a "14 volt" drill...again, just run wires.

I think the question really is "how do you connect the wires at the drill?" I've read about (but haven't yet tried) taking the guts out of a spent battery and using the connectors from that to plug your cord into your cordless drill.

That said, I have for my Dewalt tools a battery charger that uses 12V DC as its input. I also have an 800 watt inverter for running regular power tools...

[hellosailor]

"I think the question really is "how do you connect the wires at the drill?"
No offense meant, but that's a question that says "This person really shouldn't be playing with electricity yet".

The two answers are:
a) Use a soldering gun, or
b) Use crimp fittings to match the qd fittings that are on the battery pack.

Most of the battery packs use standard qd fittings to connect inside the drill, unplug the battery and plug in a power cable with matching fittings crimped onto it. If there are no qd fittings, you solder or crimp directly.

This one *ain't* rocket science, it is "Screwdriver 101".

[Boracay]

My most used tool is the Karcher 2004 wet/dry vacuum cleaner.
$A99 from my local mega hardware store.
http://www.ciao.de/Kaercher_A_2004__...#productdetail
I use it for everthing from vacuuming up sawdust to sucking the last few drops from the bilge.
It was the only way that I found to remove oily sludge from deep under the engine.
I keep on expecting it to die but it keeps on going on.

Hellosailor, extensive research on screwdriver 101 has turned up the following:
A cross-point shaped screwdriver has a cylindrical metal shaft with an axis coaxial with an insertion direction for driving a screw having a socket. A bit section, formed on the end of the shaft, has four blades. A circumferential groove is formed in the exterior of each of the blades. The grooves are in a single plane extending across a width of each plane. When the screwdriver engages the screw socket, the grooves substantially align with a top portion of the socket. The grooves provide a clearance between the bit section and upper end of the socket top, thereby reducing wear on the screw socket and permit the driver to engage and drive the screw at a depth that the standard driver can not engage and drive upon. Often the screw is rounded out by a standard driver.

No where do I see any reference to where to put the wires. May I suggest that this is just a bit more complex than you might have implied?

[yotphix]

Must have meant screwdriver 201! And anyhow, rocket science isn't that tough either, lots of 12 year olds build them all over the world.

yotphix, by god, you were right

It is an object of the invention to provide a technique to effectively prevent a power tool from being adversely affected when a battery is removed from the power tool. According to the present invention, a power tool is provided that includes a tool bit, a motor that drives the tool bit, a body that houses the motor, a battery detachably coupled to the body so as to supply driving current to operate the motor, a control device that controls the operation of the motor and a power circuit that leads the driving current from the battery to the motor. Within the power tool, the control device stops the motor prior to an interruption of the power circuit when the battery is disengaged from the body in order to prevent a large driving current from being passed through the power circuit. As a result, arc can be effectively prevented from being generated between the battery and the body of the power tool.

Well, soon to be coming to my toolbox...

Stuff from these guys

http://www.festoolusa.com/

I saw their air powered integrated vacuum DA in action. Impressive. The air and vacuum lines are integrated into one "hose". The vacuum unit can be fitted with HEPA filters. The system is sufficient for sanding bottom paint without tenting (at least by WA state ecology requirements).

Festool quality seems to be spoken of very highly.

[hellosailor]

"arc can be effectively prevented" There's no fun in that.

KN-
I haven't met power tools with battery safety interlocks of any kind yet. Don't see why you think this is any more complicated than screwdrivers. You remove one set of power leads (the battery) and hook up the other set (the ships battery cord) instead. That's about as complex as asking "How does the screwdriver operate the screw?".

I have an aunt who was not allowed to hang pictures. She never did understand which end of the claw hammer was used to drive the tiny nails for the wire hangers. Like I said, some people just shouldn't be allowed to use power tools. Or play with electricity. If they can't figure out the little stuff, they're only going to get in trouble with it. They should stick to buying lunch for whoever comes over to do the work for them. (Works out better and safer for everyone.<G>)

[Catamount]

hellosailor, I agree that just connecting the wires should be easy, but for some people I think they want more than just raw wires hanging out the handle of their drill -- they want a nice plug on the end of the cord that will click in to the handle just the way the battery does (they may still want to use the drill with a battery on occaision). So it becomes a mechanical (not electrical) problem of fabricating a plug that matches the "socket" in the drill handle, which is where gutting a defunct battery comes in.

(mechanical problem -- it really is screwdriver 101)

[hellosailor]

"want a nice plug on the end of the cord that will click in to the handle just the way the battery does (they may still want to use the drill with a battery on occaision)."
Now you're changing the rules in midplay. That's not allowed.<G>

If you want a plug-in replacement for a battery, that's one thing. If you want to REPLACE the battery, that's another. Sounds like you should just buy the DC power cord for the drill, and if your drill doesn't offer that option, buy a better one that offers it. Plugs and wires and battery clips aren't that complicated, if it takes that long to figure out which and how...again, everyone is better off if you just buy lunch for the guy who does it for you.

Here is the problem of over simplifying things like that. A little anecdote.
I am a HAM (no wise cracks) Back in the early 90's Yaesu came out with a remote head mod for the FT747. I bought the kit. I am fairly proficient with electronics, and installed it. Worked great!. Then I was compacting the radio for an expedition. I reassembled the radio without the remote head, and...nothing. I couldn't get it to work, and couldn't figure out where I went wrong. I took into Yaesu in L.A, and they knew the problem right away. The cabling for the control head was not well marked, and would fit very well in the inverse position. I had installed it backwards, and it fried the unit. They repaired it for free, and showed me the almost microscopic mark that was supposed to indicate the correct installation of the cable. It was clear to them, that the design was such that even someone who knew what they were doing was likely to make a mistake that would cause catastrophic failure of the radio. Trying to modify something that was not designed to be used the way you would like to use it has a certain degree of risk. Should you simplify the procedure, it is likely people will be destroying tools. I am a firm believer for the right tool for the job. Sure, I will hammer with a wrench if the situation requires it, but I see no reason to remove hammers from my tool box, just because a wrench might work.

[S/V Elusive]

Well... that's hammering the point on in.

Anything I can do to yelp

[cat man do]

My favourite tool and I don't use it often is this sander by Telesch. You can get a boat looking good enough to fool 90% of people without using a torture board.

Got to be worth it's weight in yellow shiny stuff.

Dave

S8

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Power: 375 W

Orbit &#216;: 5 mm

Orbits: 7200/min
Plate size: 200 mm

APPLICATIONS:

Particularly suited for obtaining finishes with the desired degree of coarseness. In car body repair and in marine applications it can be used for finishing primers and fillers. In woodworking, the double rotary-orbital movement provides a smooth finish, levelling the ripples that are caused by differences in hardness between the grain and the fibres.



Also love my GMC battery drills. Have had Bosch and Metabo ones before and they clogg up with epoxy just as easily as the GMC stuff.

The 2 year warranty on GMC is great, got about a year and a half out of one of my batteries and they replaced it for free.

When the next one of the originals started to die after nearly 2 years they just gave me a whole new 18 volt drill with 2 batts and charger for free, and let me keep the old drill as well.

A lot of my stuff is getting replaced as it dies with this stuff, but not all.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

tdw-
"converting a [12v] rechargeable drill to run off a 12v marine battery." It ain't rocket science. If you have a "12 volt" drill, just run wires to feed it. If you have a "14 volt" drill...again, just run wires. The 12v drill wants battery voltage, engine and alternator off, but probably will work fine if they are on. The 14v drill will probably run a little slow from just your battery, and prefers the engine on. For either one, you'd pick a wire gauge that has less than a 3% voltage drop for that length and load, using voltage loss tables you can find on the web. Probably 30' of #10AWG would be a safe way to go and 50' of #10 might still work OK. "OK" is going to depend on how much power the drill takes.

Any other voltage is more problematic. A 9.6v drill *might* be OK with intermittent use, and you can use long wires of lesser gauge to force a voltage drop from the battery to the drill to help that. But to do that "right", or for any other combination, you really need to know the amp draw of the drill under full load, and add an inline regulator to drop the ship's battery power to that voltage. That's gonna be an "If you know what you're doing with chips only $25" solution. Do it wrong...and you'll wind up turning something into a $25 puff of smoke.<G>

Yep. it's the wire gauge thats the clue for sure and of course ensuring that the new connections are good and solid. I've got at least three dead drills in my workshop , going to have a go at it when I get some spare time. Will be a very handy tool to have on board.

ps - for any of you who are interested I noticed that in the 'cruiser log' section of setsail.com they have a number of articles on who has what tools. It's a good read.

Andrew