Hitachi Crodless Drill

[RichZ]

Both batteries for my Porter Cable cordless drill won't hold a charge anymore. In the past few years I've had Porter Cable, Dewalt, Bosh and Black and Decker cordless drills. Plus I keep a Harbor Freight one in the house for my wife to use, it works fine for light duty work. The batteries always fail on all brands of the drills, and they're as expensive as the drill. I'm through buying expensive drills, they don't last any longer than the cheaper ones. I saw a Hitachi 18 volt 1/2 inch chuck cordless drill at Lowes that looked pretty nice. It was reduced from $149 to $119. Anyone have any experience with them?

On the farm, I use my cordless drill more than any other tool, and I can't be without one. Right now I'm down to my wife's Harbor Freight one, and I don't want to abuse it.

Thanks for any info!!!

[Pat]

Rich, I really hade to have crod on my drills too. If you Google on crod you'll find multiple offrers to selly you some, including eBay.

Anyway, my next cordless with be an impact style as they are lighter and smaller for the same torque and only slow down rather than lose driving force as the battery discharges (within reasonable limits) The smaller size helps get into tight spaces and the light weight makes working overhead much nicer. You can get some pretty serious specs without such a large battery the tool feels more lke a free weight.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[MRB]

Go to Sam's Club and get a Kawasaki 18 volt drill with two batteries and a charger for $49.00. That's cheaper than one replacement battery for a name brand drill.

[Chillimau]

Pat,

I agree about the impact drivers. I just got a Dewalt and used it last night to put some Tapcon screws in my 20 year old concrete slab. Effortless!!! Just point and shoot! I have used various methods (screwshooter, slow drill, by hand with a ratchet and socket) to put them in before and none are near as nice and easy as the impact driver. The thing I see as being really nice is not having to lean on the impact to keep the bit on the screws/bolts, will make driving screws when you are all streched out on a ladder or underneath something real easy. Also no torque reaction from it like a drill.

I have several Hitachi tools (no cordless, but would consider them) and like them all real well, but I am not brand loyal. Look for the best tool/features/price.

My only recommendation is to stay away from the 19.2 craftman professional set. My BIL had a hammerdrill, circular saw and a sawzall set nearly brand new before he started building his house. Drill gears stripped out, circ saw bearings worn out and the variable speed on the sawzall gave up before the house was finished. Maybe he abused them, don't know, but the Dewalts that replaced them stood up better and are still going.

FIL has a Makita. It has a much finer graduation on the variable speed than my Dewalt. Very smooth and linear where as my Dewalt stair steps as you increase the speed.

I am on my first set of cordless tools, I too was/am worried about battery life but the convience is hard to beat. I have been charging the batteries as soon as I see a decline in performance and letting them cool before charging/using. Also storing them inside the house to keep them from extreme temps while just sitting.

Has anybody looked into rebuilding a battery pack? Cost effective?


Gary

[Pat]

Gary, As a long time electronics and ham radio guy I have rebuilt battery packs for all sorts of gear. Often the difficulty is finding a good supply of HD cells. The typical NiCds you buy are not very HD and likewise a lot of the other technologies so the low power density of easily obtainable parts is a big hangup.

If you do find a source of higher capacity cells sometimes the "form factor" is not conducive to efficiently using the volume available in the battery pack housing/enclosure.

There are other shortcomings such as chrome plated electrical contacts which take some fussing to be able to solder to them. Then the soldering must be done right or you can overheat the end of the cell(s) and cause problems. If yo are lucky you can find cells with welded on wire leads that are readily solderable or cells that have connectors spot welded on or similar.

I once had a good low speed high torque drill but the battery pack was obsolete and nearly dead. Iremanufactured the battery pack to act as a connector for an external pattery pack with a cord. Cheap, simple, economical and nearly useless.

One of my early successes was a Hewlett Packard model 45 RPN calculator ($400 in about 1970 or so.) I still have the calculator and putting new rechargable batts in it is easier since I reassembled the battery pack with tape not glue. It still requires finess with the soldering so as to not wipe out the replacements.

Short version: Yes it can be done and has been done and sometimes if you are lucky or thorough and skilled you can save a few $ but not make minimum wage for the time you invest. Of course if you retain the tool for a LOOOOOOONG time you could amortize the logistics over a greater period and possibly make minimum wage for your efforts but it is not likely.

I have build a lot of kits as well as scratch built projects and the number of times I saved $ is a very small minority. I liked doing it and the monetary incentive was not the only motivation. In general, for most things it is tough to compete with mass production and cheap offshore labor. Most of the time a part time job stuffing envelopes or flipping burgers would pay for a good store bought item faster and easier. For me, it is the challenge of doing it and ocassionally "fooling" myself into thinking I am saving $. (OK, sometimes I do but not on average.)

Slightly off topic comment: I was simultaneously angered and amused at Lowe's when I read a statement of origin on a carton. It said, IN SPANISH, that the product was made in China.

DONTCHAJUSTLOVEIT??????? Este producto hecho in China.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I hate to admit this because it puts the Japanese one-up on us, but the Makita cordless drills have the best staying power. I have a new one about two years old now and my old one which is at least six years only. If I piled up all of the drive screws that the old one has driven it would fill my pickup bed. My newer one is well on it's way to the same kind of record. Incredibly, out of the four batteries....two newer ones and two old ones......only one battery will no longer hold a charge. I use these drills for things that they were never intended for like running my cone bit to hog holes in electrical panels, and big spade bits to hog through wood. I bought the new one because the FWD-REV switch on my old one was getting bad. I then made my old one into a single-direction drill. A Makita is definitely worth the extra dough. I don't have time to nursemaid the homeowner-grade junk that so many of the other cordless drills are. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[RichZ]

I always try to buy American products, but it's getting hard with power tools. I was shocked when I got the last Dewalt cordless drill I bought home, and noticed that it said "Made in China" on it. And the chuck broke on that one, and after I had that fixed, the batteries both died. So I'm though with Dewalt tools.

[Pat]

Chilli Dude, I forgot to mention the economy of scale angle. One guy would never buy enough component cells at one time for his rechargeable battery packs to get a low enough cost to help make it practical unless you are adding a zillion NiMh or Li-Ion cells to your Prius to make it a PEHV (Plugin Electric Hybrid Vehicle.)

Look here ----> Get your rechargeable batteries rebuilt

They claim any brand 12-18 volts, longer run time than stock, and two weeks turn around time at $35 per battery pack.

This was from an ad in the latest Pop Sci.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]