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I replaced my dead Black & Decker NiCd drill battery with a custom 18650 lithium pack

r/Tools - I replaced my dead Black & Decker NiCd drill battery with a custom 18650 lithium pack

My old Black & Decker drill had a NiCd battery that was basically dead and wouldn’t hold a charge anymore. Replacement packs were pretty expensive, so I decided to rebuild it with lithium instead.

I made a 3S2P pack with six 18650 cells, added a 3S 40A BMS, and designed the internal layout in CAD, so everything fits inside the original battery case.

It charges up to 12.6V, which works well for the drill since the original pack was around 12V. For charging I used a small USB 3S lithium charger module, so I can just plug it into a USB power supply.

The drill is lighter and stronger now and holds charge way better than the old NiCd pack.

Repo + CAD if anyone’s interested::
https://github.com/Pegoku/12VBatt

Cone 10 120V L&L Kiln, Genesis control, Ships UPS UPS
  • Cone 10 120V L&L Kiln, Genesis control, Ships UPS
  • Cone 10 120V L&L Kiln, Genesis control, Ships UPS
  • Cone 10 120V L&L Kiln, Genesis control, Ships UPS
  • Cone 10 120V L&L Kiln, Genesis control, Ships UPS
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    BearACHC

    There are tonnes of old perfectly functional tools (especially drills) with dead batteries. I think it's worth hanging on to them for a minute cause technology has almost made it super easy to do this kinda upgrade.

    Love to hear your workflow!

    Pegoku08

    Yeah, one day I went to the local recycling center and found a pallet with several tools. There were four drills and one angle grinder, all battery powered. I replaced the battery cells and now they work perfectly..
    I gave them to some family members and friends.

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    DifficultBoss

    In a world full of waste, with a convenience first attitude, this is cool to see. If there was a collection of the print files it could make retrofitting perfectly good drills with new batteries a somewhat practical application. Places like Re-Stores that constantly have old battery powered tools could revive them or something. Just spit balling because I think this is cool

    DifficultBoss

    Not to mention USB charging, very convenient.

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    -BananaLollipop-

    Got that 2000's hammer attachment.

    Mr_Iskander

    We have same drill with same dead battery. Cant ever find a new one...

    JJ_1191

    I mean thats cool as hell just for fun but a lot of effort to save 150$

    destrux125

    I have one of those drills from when they had just converted them to 20v lithium packs in like 2012. Great drill, used it hard for years at home and at work always expecting it to break but it never did. Now it's my secondary cause my dad bought me a hypertough 12v drill to use at work (huge fan of the hypertough 12v stuff).

    andrewbud420

    I just bought quality tools instead

    schrijver

    You could have bought a more expensive brand at the time, but they back then they had NiCd batteries too, and they wouldn’t have stood the test of time either.

    destrux125

    No batteries from back then would still be good, all my Milwaukee power plus batteries from back then are long dead.

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    Express_System_412

    damn. been looking for something like this...

    also have laying arround b&d drill with dead battery...

    and been wondering why chinese boys doesnt sell cheap DIY liion battery kits for this brand of drills like they do for makita etc. etc.