New Life For an Old Drill

My 35 year old drill lives again with a LiPo battery.

[@Preso58]

Man, I'd forgotten about those old Makita drills. A real blast from the past!

[@lwilton]

I have one just like that I bought in about 1974. It's on its third or fourth set of batteries, and still works just fine. I use it every few days.

[@niallsommerville9813]

Old meets new, perfect combination.

[@Convolutedtubules]

You can replace the cells in the original battery for modern li-ion ones. They are even higher capacity than li-po pouch batteries.

[@fpreston9527]

I have the same drill with dead batteries. Thanks for the tip

[@jae878]

That’s awesome! My dad had one like that when I was a kid. He picked it us off the road. He used to charge it with a couple cotter pins shoved down the sides of the battery where the contacts were and clip the leads from a regular car battery charger to the cotter pins. Worked for years like that. I think it was finally lost in a garage fire.thanks for sharing

[@RotarySMP]

Beautiful casting.

[@iteerrex8166]

I always say, get quality and take good care of it.

[@messenger8279]

I have several of these and you can feel by the weight they were quality.

[@marcoramirez2895]

I don't have one but have seen them. I was gonna say they sounded sturdy

[@RustyInventions-wz6ir]

Very nice work sir. Got your sticker. It’s going up in the video in next week. Thanks

[@billsmini10]

I bought 4 of these tools in the 80's. Drill, Jig saw, Miniature circular saw, and Miniature sawzall type saw. Good to know the batteries can be replaced with more modern batteries.

[@RetroSteamTech]

Nice job 👍👍 I did much the same thing with a couple of old DeWalt drills, swapped out the old NiCads for LiPos, worked a treat. Pretty impressive gearbox in that drill. Cheers, Alan.

[@Fur8002]

Brilliant, I have one of these of about the same age and I have a spare LiPo battery, thanks, I will do the same.

[@richb419]

I have the same drill and a stapler (still have them); the battery pack was more expensive than a Ryobi drill. I modified the battery pack to hold a Lipo but the problem is there is no voltage limiter in the drill, you can accidentally deplete the pack under it's safe voltage causing the new pack to die. I used it for a while and finally bought a Ryobi, still using it (about 10 years now) but replaced the battery pack with a Lipo. I really liked this drill Rich

[@CraigLYoung]

Thanks for sharing 👍

[@jirvin4505]

Works well. Did same to my old makita. I added typical rc battery connectors so I change out the battery

[@janosnagyj.9540]

When the notification popped up, I read it as "new light" so I thought it goes as "through old windows" 😅I think it's time to go to bed 🤣

[@adrianwilliams763]

Thanks for sharing

[@bobweiram6321]

Great work. I would make sure the battery has overcurrent protection circuitry. Lithium ion batteries can degrade rapidly without them. In some cases, they can overheat and self-combust.

[@michaellinahan7740]

That looked identical to my first cordless a ryobi back when they made quality tools (early 80's). Plenty of torque even though it was only 9V.

[@jrehtil1494]

Super job

[@Alan_AB]

You can spot a qualified electrician miles away. Just look at the techniues and quality of your soldering!.......... It never leaves you.

[@likeakite]

Wow look at the quality of the motor and gears !

[@SteveeCee]

Nice one squirrel

[@ctrlaltdude]

Aliexpress sells replacement batteries. Then it's still NiCad so this is better but if you don't want to open it up, that's an option.

[@leerogers6423]

So the planet doesn't have to make another one👍

[@jdmccorful]

Lookin good. How's the lubrication on internal gear train?

[@ping170]

Great upgrade 👍No undervoltage protecton for the lipo pack ?

[@myfordboy]

I am using a LiPo I already had so not worried about that.

[@HappyHands.]

Be careful. the discharge rate of hobby pouch LiPos may not be enough for a drill like this. one would be better off replacing the NiCad cells in the battery case with Lithium dry cells

[@EngineVids]

Is that an aermotor casting?🤔

[@myfordboy]

Yes it is.

[@EngineVids]

@@myfordboy wow nice, it would be nice to see you make model petrol engines😎

[@eduardojud56]

just need a more practical electric connector to battery

[@anzdes219]

is this work your main job ?

[@myfordboy]

Just a hobby.

[@olavl8827]

Yes! I'm not exactly a "treehugger" but I do worry about all the waste that we produce. It can't be ideal. So if a device such as this little drill is still good why not give it a new life.

[@ralhmcc47]

waste not want not

[@szsenyuk8887]

Want to share the battery number and supplier for it with us???🤔

[@inventivemachinist8747]

Any 3 cell 2200mah lipo. Amazon, Ebay, or local hobby shop. They're used in rc airplanes

[@inventivemachinist8747]

Don't leave it fully charged for a few months because the battery can puff. Not too big of a deal though if you use drill regularly