Discovered while doing some work at the boat a few days ago, that three of my four Porter Cable 19.2V Ni cad battery packs that drive my tools have stopped participating in the effective storage of electric power. Not unexpected, it has been a long time, several of them are at least ten years old. Has anyone used one of the online re-builders that you would recommend? Or has anyone rebuilt your own and how was that experience?
Good tools, I prefer not to pitch them and start over which is an option many take.
The packs are made up of a whole bunch of batteries that are soldered together + to - and then shrink packed into a voltage that your cordless uses.
I dropped my one cordless into the water and that took a few months to dry out the pack and tool. A lot of WD-40 too., and it was never much good after that in terms of duration. Not like the battery I did not drop into the water.
No I don't know of any re builders. A guy could buy his own batteries from Batterys Plus or Hobby Lobby and solder together his own pack Just make it look like the out set up.
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I've dropped a lot of things in the water over the years and I have always had to pitch the electric ones. Not anymore. My nephew works at an electronics dealer and repairs damaged items. When my cell phone slid off the deck and landed into a very small bucket of water on the driveway, (i couldn't of hit that bucket if i tried) he removed the battery and placed it and the phone in a zip lock bag full of uncooked rice. He told me to wait 3 weeks and then take it out and try it. To my surprise it worked perfectly. The uncooked rice draws the moisture out of the item and holds it. He tells me they keep 100 lb. bags of rice at work just for this.
I've never heard of battery rebuilders before but, being a Makita cordless tool owner with many 18 volt lithium-ion batteries (read: expensive) I'll check it out.
A few years ago, one of my men knocked a Makita 18v impact driver into the bay. Yes, salt water. We immersed it immediately in fresh water and it worked fine. True, the battery was fried but the tool survived just fine. Until someone knocked it into the bay again. It didn't survive the second dunking. Either did the employee who continually expressed his ineptness.
A long while ago, I misplaced my cell phone. I was standing next to the running clothes dryer, pondering it's whereabouts, when I heard a knocking noise coming from inside the dryer. Yep, the phone went through the wash and was almost dry when I realized I'd left it in my Carhart pants whe I put them in the washer. I took it out, took it apart and set it near the woodstove for a few days after which time it worked fine for about 2 years. I only buy Motorola phones!
Bob23
A close friend and former coworker at Porter Cable/Delta in Jackson, TN, tells me there is a rebuilder there who does 19.2V packs for $25 each. That's a great deal, most online rebuilders charge at least twice that. So I'll be making that 100 mile trip sometime soon, visit with him and get my packs rebuilt.
I'm lost without those things. Doing woodworking and making furniture I like to keep one set up for pilot hole drilling with counter sink and another for driving screws, and a third with a centering bit to pilot door hinge holes. Switching function with too few batteries to run the tools is an irritant, kind of like when the shop gets to cluttered and I finally have to stop and clean it up.
I have a Motorola Phone that is to military specs. You can toss it in a bucket of water and walk away, come back and fish it out. Also a near bullet proof construction. So far so good.
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