Educate me on Sawzalls

The Junk Drawer is for those Off Topical discussions where we can ask questions of the community that we feel might have the ability to help out.

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BadDog
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by BadDog »

Why are you fooling with that? The rest of us all went back to corded? Try to keep up...
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by SteveHGraham »

Corded? That's for losers.

When it became a project, it no longer mattered whether it made sense.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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warmstrong1955
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Steve is like that guy who bought the chain saw.....

He couldn't cut a thing with it, and took it back to the salesman and told him he wanted his money back, the saw was junk.
The salesman pulled the rope, fired it up, revved it up a few times, and Steve asked "What's that noise??"

I read this somewhere......now....where was it.....?
"A man who can't handle tools is not a man. You're disgusting."

:lol:
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by SteveHGraham »

No, the problem was that it wasn't a Snap-On chainsaw. I refused to touch it. It wasn't expensive enough.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
spro
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by spro »

Steve, your investigation of the 18v Bosch batteries and charger are useful information. Keep us informed.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by SteveHGraham »

I have learned some interesting stuff.

Here is the Youtube guy I referred to. He puts Li-ion batteries in old NiCd cases. Evidently, you have to prevent lithium batteries from discharging too far, or they die permanently. I believe the ones that come with tools have circuits in them to prevent this. Someone here can probably tell me. Anyway, you can put lithium cells in a drill battery without special circuits, if you add little meters that scream when the batteries get low.



Now you need a new charger. The guy in the video uses a cheap charger for RC car batteries. I looked it up, and it's about $30. You have to have a 12V source for it, though, and if the source is weak, it slows things down. You have to cut into your old charger and fix it so the charging contacts connect to the new one.

Is this a good idea? Search me. It looks like the chargy stuff will run you maybe 60 bucks. The meters are a few dollars each. Then you have to buy what are known as 18650 lithium batteries. They put out about 3.7 volts, with a 5-Ah capacity. I think this means you need five in series to run an 18V drill. You can get them for a little over a dollar each from China.

So I guess you're in for around 60 bucks for charging equipment, plus say 10 bucks per battery for cells and a meter? I don't know how long it would take to charge with that little charger.

It is my understanding that lithium batteries sometimes blow up when charging, and that this is bad. I don't know a lot about that. But a $10 5-Ah battery sounds cheap enough even for me.

Looking at the comments, I see one person recommends getting a 5-cell lithium (LiPo) battery from a site called Hobby King. A 3-Ah battery costs $20, but you would have to take it apart and reconfigure it to get it into an old drill battery case.

Maybe this is only a good idea for people who enjoy explosions and third-degree burns.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Educate me on Sawzalls

Post by SteveHGraham »

I found a site with an article written by a guy who knows more than the kid in the video.

http://bspt.altervista.org/pimp-my-dril ... onversion/
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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