How to repair power tool batteries

Order it. When the part arrives, don't do anything with it until you need a big emotional payoff. Then, Install it. Your planer will also probably have chipped blades or "knives". I've found cheap planer knives on ebay.

The knives on this unit and most are double-edged, so you can turn them around for a second life if you didn't break them.

In the future use a slow feed rate if you suspect you'll hit a nail. Here's my old Ryobi belt sander. It was friday evening and I was beltsanding away, excited for a long weekend of boatbuilding.

Then this photo happened. No more teeth on belt. No parts suppliers would be open til tuesday. I couldn't find any belts in my own bins with the right pitch, thanks to their weasel ways. I thought, I'll make it a chain drive. So then I wasted a vast amount of time destroying the tool with a chain drive mechanism that never worked. Don't do that. Get the real parts. These days it's fast and cheap. Those are quantitative improvements that have made a huge qualitative difference.

Welcome to the new but better economic reality of tool repair. Here's the best kind of screwdriver to get. The blades all turn around so you get four different blades and two sizes of nut driver. They store in place so you don't lose them. Buy a big one and a little one. This is the big one.

Oil it well, or when it lands in the bilge it will rust in place and will take some wiggling to get it open again. Body Grinders, routers, and other tools that run at high loads for a long time wear out their brushes quickest. Brushes usually don't die suddenly. At first you'll have to shake or twist the tool to get it to start.

Then maybe you'll have to push the wheel with a stick to get it to start. Eventually it won't start at all. Brushes are really easy to check on a good tool. They're under the little "frankenstein neck bolt" plastic covers. Be careful because sometimes the springs jump and throw stuff away stuff you want.

One of these brushes is obviously messed up, looks likethe spring broke, shorted, and lost its springiness. It came with spare brushes. The more powerful the motor, the more likely a bad switch is.

Circle a. Body grinders pretty often also. Feels similar to bad brushes, but spinning the motor with a stick does nothing. Messing with the switch makes the motor jump. This switch has a rubber cover. I peeled it for visual inspection and see broken parts inside and charred contacts.

A continuity test also reveals a bad switch. I do an online search to find the parts diagram and part number. I detach and push out the old one. I push the new one into the plastic clips and wire it up just like the old one, and Bob's my new grinder! I mean Uncle! Old tools and drills in particular tend to die from power cords. Here's how I put one on a Bosch jigsaw. Power cords can be tricky to diagnose.

Which is a good thing, because you'll get tools for free and they're easy to fix with random power cords. I used to do a continuity test by shoving needles into the cable and hooking my meter's clips to those. That way I could find out just where the break was without messing up the insulation. If in doubt, replace your batteries with the same type. In effect what I've done is made the drill 'weaker' in exchange for longer battery life.

I overlooked that I do occasionally use this for a heavy-duty job. I still get by, but the battery needs to be fully charged or it really struggles to finish the job. In conclusion, if I really was using this only for smaller jobs the NiMh would be great, but being able to power through heavier jobs is something that I realize now I took for granted.

It's like an economy car with a weak engine If I need new batteries again, I think I'd be willing to spend more money for higher-capacity NiCad's greater mah even if they had a shorter life, unless I was certain I was only using the drill for light-medium duty jobs this is the only drill I have. An example of the type of heavy duty job this struggles with: driving a 14 screw designed for use without a pilot hole Voltage: This matters a lot!

If you're an electronics whiz you may be able to determine that you can get away with a different voltage, but for the rest of us the safe bet is just to stay with the exact same voltage.

If the batteries aren't labeled you can do the math I was happy with the purchase and would recommend them if you don't want to bother shopping around on your own. I purchased Tenergy batteries from them, which is a solid brand. I also chose the option "With Tabs" and I would highly recommend this I have made battery packs without tabs in the past and it is MUCH harder without the tabls. The tabs shipped with a protective heat-shrink on them In my case this was a very simple process after the battery case was removed: 1 Disconnect connections on old battery pack 2 Cut heat shrink around one battery that held the heat sensor against the battery yours may not have this.

In my case, I think the heat sensor is there to monitor battery temperature and to limit current if the batteries get to hot this is because heat damages batteries 3 Remove the old battery pack. Mine just lifted away without any other connections or tie downs. In short, use a hot iron but only for a very short time.

Too much heat can damage the batteries and could even cause them to explode I found the easiest way to solder these tabs was the following: Smear a small amount of flux where the tabs would be contacting each other, place solder between the two tabs I just held the tip of the solder between the tabs , and heat the top tab, compressing everything together.

Once all is hot, move the iron away from the connection so you can still apply pressure to the joint while the solder sets. In one fell swoop the iron melted the solder and made a great connection It took only a few seconds to make each of the connections. Aside from taking the heat much faster, the tabs were long enough that I was able to fold them backwards or sideways and connect to the neighboring battery I had one tab pointing toward the neighboring battery, and the other tab pointing away The process is a bit harder without the pre-installed tabs I used a large heat-shrink tube to re-attach the sensor, but tape might work, and you might not have a sensor.

I was lucky in that the tabs were the same size as the quick disconnects, just not as thick. I pinched the quick disconnect to be sure I had a solid connection. I could have also re-used the heavier tabs from the other battery pack.

Did you know it's illegal in many places to throw away your old rechargeable batteries? Recycling is free and easy, and you won't be dumping poison into the environment. Note that it will take longer to charge if you upgraded to a higher capacity ie: twice the run-time means twice the charge-time. Not bad for less than an hour of effort per battery pack. Did you find this helpful? Please rate my work and leave feedback!

Question 3 years ago on Step 3. I have redone a 18 v nicad and my tester shows i have I have bypassed all connections by the use of jumper wires and still wont power the drill. I know the drill is ok by testing with other battery packs. Have you any idea why this may be happening? Thanks, and i will look forward for your answer. It's very important to note that there's a lot more to swapping cell types than the number of batteries to make up a given voltage. The electrochemistry of the new cells must be compatible or the charging systems will not work, or even be dangerous.

NiCd and NiMh batteries are not, necessarily, interchangeable. The latter needs a more sophisticated charging system to avoid damage. Whilst many modern chargers cope with both, this can't be guaranteed on dedicated systems. In general, the safest policy to to replace like with like. Never, ever, put Li-ion cells in a device intended for NiMh or NiCd or vice-versa as, at best, the charging system won't work and, at worst, it can be dangerous, even if the sum total of the voltage is comparable.

Also, when replacing Li-ion cells, be very careful to ascertain if the originals have protection circuits or not. Protection circuits must be used on all Li-Ion systems or there is a considerable danger of fire for instance, it's extremely dangerous to completely discharge a Li-Ion battery as, on, recharging it can plate electrodes with metallic lithium. Protection circuits prevent this and other problems. The recharging process is best performed by someone familiar with working in electricity.

If mishandled the battery can catch on fire, explode or spray acid. Individuals attempting this process need to understand that they are performing this process at their own risk and need to guard against damage to self, property and others. More Articles. Written by Deb Katula. Tips Protect your skin, eyes and hair with safety glasses and insulated clothing during this hazardous process.

Warnings If mishandled the battery can catch on fire, explode or spray acid. About the Author.