Older Makita cordless drill


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Old 09-26-16, 03:35 PM
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Older Makita cordless drill

My Makita cordless drill, maybe 15 years old feels like the clutch setting is down a couple notches, so much that if driving a screw into wood it won't go all the way in. I assume it's probably not worth fixing. I'm not even sure of the model number off hand, will need to see if I still have the manual. What's so disappointing is a couple years ago I was able to buy 2 batteries from Amazon (not OEM since the model is out of production) and the drill was working great.
 
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Old 09-26-16, 05:48 PM
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15 years out of a cordless drill? I think you got lucky.
 
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Old 09-26-16, 06:13 PM
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I should mention it was idle for several years since a battery locally was about as expensive as a new Sears drill with 2 batteries, so put off buying one. Then I found replacements online. Sounds like it's time to replace it.

(Cool username - my vehicle is a manual transmission)
 
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Old 09-26-16, 06:33 PM
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Yeah, I'm a control freak - I want to tell the car what gear to be in, not the other way around
 
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Old 09-27-16, 03:04 AM
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Are you sure the battery has a full charge? check it with a meter. I agree 15 yrs is a long time for a cordless tool .... and the new ones are a lot better. Quite awhile back I switched from a 9.6 volt drill to a 19.2 and was pleasantly shocked at both how much power the new one had and how much longer the battery lasted.
 
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Old 09-27-16, 05:07 AM
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One neat trick I've done is to modernize old cordless drills. I fly RC airplanes and occasionally a drill is needed at the flying field. Old drills like yours are frequently given/thrown away when the batteries die. I wire a connector to the drill that matches the connector used on my airplane LiPo batteries. Since I always have freshly charged batteries for the planes I always have a charged battery for the drill and no more hassling with old NiCads that quickly loose their charge.

Old 12 volt NiCd drills work really well as a 3S (three cells wired in series) creates close to 12v. 18 volt drills I over drive with 5S (five cells wired in series) which gives them too much voltage but who cares. They are old drills that were given away for dead and it works quite well.

The drawback is that I'm using external batteries. Gone is the convenient plastic battery case that clips into the drill. Instead I've got an external battery stuck on the drill with a Velco patch so it's not trim and sexy, but it works.
 
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Old 09-27-16, 07:05 AM
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"I switched from a 9.6 volt drill to a 19.2 and was pleasantly shocked"...pun intended I guess! The batteries (have 2) are charged, this feels like it just no longer engages in direct drive...or whatever the term would be.

I like the idea of using the batteries for something else. If the drill is in fact shot (probably is) I'll hang onto the charger and batteries. For now I have an inexpensive drill that I bought as a spare a while ago from Harbor Freight.

stickshift - I hear ya.. unfortunately manual transmissions are becoming scarce. Almost impossible to find a full size 4x4 pickup truck with one, (even 10+ years old) so mine is a automatic.
 
 

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