Simple 12V Cordless Drill Hack!!!!!
Intro: Simple 12V Cordless Drill Hack!!!!!
Give your 12V battery drill some real GRUNT!!!!!
YAY! Almost finished my scooter for Project: Underglow. (Will be published soon) I just need to drill a hole here...(grabs battery drill, clips in battery)...5mm bit......about there......and drill. Bugger. Battery flat. AGAIN. I was fed up. It was 2:30 in the morning. So I did this real quick hack to my drill. AND took photos :) just to show you'se mob.
It basically involves tapping into the 12V input to the speed controller, which would normally be fed by the crappy battery they give you. Sure, you can re-pack them with some big Ni-MH's, but I'm poor at the moment (around A$95 to repack a pack here in oz). So I decided to just hook it to a big SLA, which will give me some juicy current.
Pros:
*Drill for longer (higher capacity battery)
*more torque (SLA has higher surge current capacity)
*Lighter (only lifting an 800 gram drill, not an 800 gram drill AND a 2.2Kg battery)
Cons:
*Cord hanging out back (I can live with that)
So lets get started!!!!!
YAY! Almost finished my scooter for Project: Underglow. (Will be published soon) I just need to drill a hole here...(grabs battery drill, clips in battery)...5mm bit......about there......and drill. Bugger. Battery flat. AGAIN. I was fed up. It was 2:30 in the morning. So I did this real quick hack to my drill. AND took photos :) just to show you'se mob.
It basically involves tapping into the 12V input to the speed controller, which would normally be fed by the crappy battery they give you. Sure, you can re-pack them with some big Ni-MH's, but I'm poor at the moment (around A$95 to repack a pack here in oz). So I decided to just hook it to a big SLA, which will give me some juicy current.
Pros:
*Drill for longer (higher capacity battery)
*more torque (SLA has higher surge current capacity)
*Lighter (only lifting an 800 gram drill, not an 800 gram drill AND a 2.2Kg battery)
Cons:
*Cord hanging out back (I can live with that)
So lets get started!!!!!
STEP 1: Stuff You Will Need
You will need:
*A drill
*An SLA
*Some fat cable
*Terminal block (optional)
*A drill
*An SLA
*Some fat cable
*Terminal block (optional)
STEP 2: Lets Get Started!!!!!
First, you need to remove the battery. You won't be needing that for a long time.
Then, take a screwdriver to the beast. There were 6 screws, none were hidden on my drill.
pop the cover off. You should be rewarded with a mess of wires.
Get your cable. Make a note of the polarity. Find where the battery connector is. I decided to just crimp the cable to the back of the connector. worked well enough.
Route the cable out the bottom, clip it back together and put the screws in.
Then, take a screwdriver to the beast. There were 6 screws, none were hidden on my drill.
pop the cover off. You should be rewarded with a mess of wires.
Get your cable. Make a note of the polarity. Find where the battery connector is. I decided to just crimp the cable to the back of the connector. worked well enough.
Route the cable out the bottom, clip it back together and put the screws in.
STEP 3: Set Up the SLA
Now you are going to want to grab your ( charged!!!!!) SLA, and set it up for use with the drill.
This basically involves gluing a terminal block to the top of the battery, so the drill can be disconnected if required.
First, get your terminal block. Glue it in the center-top of the battery.
Now, get some cable. hook one end to the terminals of the SLA, and the other to one side of the terminal block. Paint the ends of the terminal block if you want, so you don't get your polarity wrong.
This basically involves gluing a terminal block to the top of the battery, so the drill can be disconnected if required.
First, get your terminal block. Glue it in the center-top of the battery.
Now, get some cable. hook one end to the terminals of the SLA, and the other to one side of the terminal block. Paint the ends of the terminal block if you want, so you don't get your polarity wrong.
STEP 4: Finished!!!!!
You're done!!!
hope you enjoyed my instructable!!!
Please rate!!!!!
hope you enjoyed my instructable!!!
Please rate!!!!!
30 Comments
dboyd12 8 years ago
Thanks for the great instructable. I would like to do this with my old 12v ryobi cordless drill. Do you know if I can use a standard automatic auto/car battery charger that is switchable between 2/10 Amps to charge the12v 5ah SLA battery?
wogga 11 years ago
There are a couple of things that people have touched on, but I'll spell them out in one comment:
1. You need thick, short cabling between your battery and DC device - it draws watts as volts x amps. House wiring is 110v so amps are low and cabling can be pretty tiny. When you are using a 12v device that is somewhat powerful, you will need much thicker/shorter wiring. This shows itself as voltage drop and warming wiring--or worse.
2. Lead Acid- even 'deep cycle etc batteries' - don't like to be used 'all the way'. In fact, if you care about your lead acid battery try to only use it 20% or 50% up. You can get a rough idea of how much 'drill life' your battery has by figuring out how many amps the battery is vs how many amps the drill is rated at. If they give watts, figure it out from watts = volts x amps.
anthonyfca 12 years ago
The SLA (Sealed Lead Acid?) looks exactly like the type used in some computer uninteruptible power supplies (UPSs)
Thanks for this, just brilliant for what I need - and from some time in the past. Nice .
Anthony
abstracted 12 years ago
cleardanny 12 years ago
This is good for a place where is no electricity if you have it's not usefull .
Andale_The_Great 13 years ago
campingfreak 15 years ago
CameronSS 15 years ago
Derin 15 years ago
Lee Wilkerson 13 years ago
~/Lee
Da_Fudge 15 years ago
PKM 15 years ago
Derin 15 years ago
PKM 15 years ago
Derin 15 years ago
Derin 15 years ago
Da_Fudge 15 years ago
Da_Fudge 15 years ago
mapmaker54 14 years ago
Ev 13 years ago