Shelduck

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RGSP
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Re: Shelduck

Post by RGSP » Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:06 pm

Lithium based ones have been better than NiCd or NiMh batteries for me: I have a Makita combi drill, and it's still fine after 3 years of fairly heavy use. The saving grace with the latter two types mentioned is that their battery packs are pretty well always made up of a collection of standard cells in a bespoke wrapper. Take a junior hacksaw to the outer casing, find the dead cell (and it almost always is just one out of 10 or more), solder a new NiCd or NiMH cell in at a cost of < $5, and the pack will probably be OK for a few more years. Putting the wrapper back together may involve epoxy or Duck tape, and it won't look like new, but who cares?

Lithium batteries are better, but a spare cordless drill is always handy, if you have one laying around with a bad battery pack of one of the earlier types.
Last edited by RGSP on Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Shelduck

Post by Lopez Mike » Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:11 pm

Going shopping today to see what is in the local stores.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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DetroiTug
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Re: Shelduck

Post by DetroiTug » Wed Oct 19, 2016 10:02 pm

Mike,

Try a Ryobi brand (Home Depot) for battery drills. We've been using them for years daily driving screws, they are inexpensive and very reliable. They've had the same large battery pack for around seven years. They came out with a small drill a few years ago that uses a smaller pack, but the large one has been unchanged.

-Ron
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Shelduck

Post by Lopez Mike » Thu Oct 20, 2016 3:16 am

Good info. I've had good luck with Home Depot most of the time. I bought new solar panels for my sailboat last year and when I figured in shipping, H.D. was the least expensive.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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RGSP
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Boat Name: Platypus, Shelduck
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Re: Shelduck

Post by RGSP » Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:42 am

While I think about it, my last "workhorse" cordless drill was a Bosch Professional model, and very good it was too, if slightly heavy by modern standards. The thing is, I repaired its NiMH battery packs once in ten years, and eventually had to buy a new drill because the gearbox was getting close to terminal failure. I do have a smallholding (= small farm of about 10 acres) with numerous medieval buildings which frequently need repair, so it had a lot of use, but the point is that it was a good quality machine and wore out mechanically - after 10 years, so I'm not grumbling.

I hope the present Makita, which has a similar spec., but is lighter, lasts as long.

My builder friend in the next village used to swear by DeWalt cordless drills, but they never lasted him much more than a year. Mind you, he used to use them to put in 6" coach screws, and only accepted the drill was overloaded when it started emitting smoke.
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DetroiTug
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Re: Shelduck

Post by DetroiTug » Thu Oct 20, 2016 3:35 pm

I've heard that about Dewalt cordless drills as well, nice units, short life. If the Ryobi's are overloaded, they have internal overload protection and I think it is in the batteries themselves. The batteries get down to a point and then just stop working until charged again. Dewalt should never have the amperage available to get the drill smoking, that's poor design.

We use the Ryobi's to drive machine screws primarily and tapping holes in steel and aluminum, they are continually stalled without damage. What typically fails on them after 4-5 years daily use is the trigger switch, or the chuck gets so knackered that it's too inconvenient to use.

-Ron
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cyberbadger
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Re: Shelduck

Post by cyberbadger » Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:14 am

I was not happy with the Ryobi cordless drill I purchased to build Nyitra.

It stopped working after a week or two. It would just overheat and stay in Thermal shutdown protection, and the batteries also stop holding any sensible amount of charge.

I returned mine and upgraded to the Dewalt 20V Max XR Lithium 1/2" Drill w/ a Brushless motor. The aluminum nurled chuck is nice. It has a great light that has a few modes to light the workpiece or just use as a portable lightsource. I am very happy with the amount of charge the batteries hold - most times I don't even drain one, but I have two that I charge in rotation so I have always have a fresh battery ready. It has enough torque to actually break my wrist if I let it. Very rarely did it ever go into thermal shutdown, and that's after using dull 1" drills through galvanized steel rectangular tubing that I added to support Nyitra's boiler. On those rare occasions, the drill chuck was hot enough to cause a burn - so It *really* needed to go into thermal shutdown. I would throw it into a fridge for 1/2 hr and think about whether I was ready to pony up for another expensive large diameter drillbit.

The man negative is sometimes the knurled keyless chuck does not grab a drill bit properly and can cause the chuck to spin around the drillbit or slip. But usually I was able to dial in the chuck again and continue work.

Well worth the money in my opinion.

Best way is to Look inside a few general contractors trucks and see what they are using and if they are happy with it. Those guys beat the hell out of their equipment.

-CB
RGSP
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Re: Shelduck

Post by RGSP » Fri Oct 21, 2016 10:50 am

Ryobi are a slightly strange company: they don't actually make anything much at all themselves these days, with almost everything made for them under contract in Taiwan or China. What they offer varies a good bit between the US and the UK. They do a few professional standard machines over here, like my elderly 2000 Watt 1/2" router, but their cordless drills here are all aimed at the budget domestic market. They may well offer something a bit better in the US, but I can't sensibly comment.
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DetroiTug
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Re: Shelduck

Post by DetroiTug » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:50 pm

"I was not happy with the Ryobi cordless drill I purchased"

It wouldn't punch that 1" drill through steel? yeah I'd be disappointed too :D
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Re: Shelduck

Post by TahoeSteam » Fri Oct 21, 2016 4:00 pm

Hey! I'm glad I was able to goad you into posting some build info and pictures! She looks great!

~Wes
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