Tool Talk

[schlitzaugen]

Have a look around on the internet and you maybe able to buy the cases. I bought a kit for my Dewalt gear from the early 2000's that included the case, BMS and the tags to join the cells. I bought Samsung 18650 LI-Ion cells and made the packs up using my spot welder. My batteries are the old pillar style from early this century. It was either spending $400 to make up two new batteries of spend $4000 on new skins and throw away my old but still usable skins.

Wow. 400 bucks. Not sure what they cost these days but I don't expect 12 sub-c or even C size NiCd to be that much.
And you don't need to weld the links, you can just solder them. Just rough up the ends with scotch brite and use the largest iron you have. You can reuse the little Ni strip's off the old battery or you can buy cells with tags.

If you need to connect cells end to end just solder the tags, I'd you don't have tags just put s blob of soldering on both ends and squeeze together while they're hot. A section of angle aluminium helps with alignment.

 

[COL]

Wow. 400 bucks. Not sure what they cost these days but I don't expect 12 sub-c or even C size NiCd to be that much.
And you don't need to weld the links, you can just solder them. Just rough up the ends with scotch brite and use the largest iron you have. You can reuse the little Ni strip's off the old battery or you can buy cells with tags.

If you need to connect cells end to end just solder the tags, I'd you don't have tags just put s blob of soldering on both ends and squeeze together while they're hot. A section of angle aluminium helps with alignment.

This was for four batteries, two are 2500 mAh and the other two are 5000 mAh. These batteries are not NiCd anymore, they are Samsung Li-Ion 18650 cells. I have a charger that I bought that does the Dewalt Nano series which are still the tower batteries but are Li-Ion. The Nano series came between the Nicd tower batteries and the Li-Ion slide on batteries.

The 5000mAh are made up from the kit plus 10 @ 18650 cells. The 2500mAh are made from 5 @18650 cells a BMS sourced from AliExpress and I reused the original case.

I would not use NiCd batteries as Li-Ion is better technology, greater capacity and less weight.

Spot Welding is a lot easier than soldering, and does not put a lot of heat into the cell. If you are not careful heat can damage the cell.

 

[schlitzaugen]

I see. That is a serious upgrade.

I tend to avoid Lipo because they're fussy. NiMh likewise. Yes, Nicd will give at most 2400 mAh (in sub-c size) but they will outlast any of the others.

Yes, soldering comes with some risks, but I didn't managed to damage any cells yet. Like I said, Nicd are bloody tough. A big iron and some practice helps. When you're good you won't need more than a few seconds of heating. If you're just soldering tags together I would say there's zero risk.

 

[schlitzaugen]

Loctite freeze and release.
My new Zeus of tools.
I have used in the past, but this time I really felt up sh*t creek and was willing to try anything, no matter how hopeless and irrational .
A cheap live centre decided to weld itself to the tailstock quill and just did not want to get out. If you've never seen or heard of locked tapers, you've got to try this one. Or get on YouTube. I tried everything I had on hand and did not even manage to scare it. So whilst procrastinating in anticipation of the destructive madness I felt coming I had a light bulb moment and since it only cost 20 bucks I decided to give it a try. My expectations were somewhere between nagonna make a difference and accepting something (hopefully replaceable) is going to break.
Well, would you believe that after two days of agony and torment the bastard came out with just one (very determined) shot of freeze and release? I reckon I only have half a can left but boy, I smiled all day. The live part of the centre came off in the process, but that's just a bearing and the spinning cone. Bearing was buggered already anyway. Which gave me the idea to grab the stub in the chuck and spin it gently by hand after going at it with the magic can. They do say on the can to wait a couple of minutes after spraying and it seems they know what they're talking about.
I call it miracle in a can. Give it a try next time before you reach for the sledgehammer, it might surprise you. They say it cools stuff down to -42 deg C. I guess you need to spray in proportion to the mass you are trying to cool down but I wouldn't say they're lying.
What an amazing thing.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Get an adaptor and sling on another brand of genuine battery.
YGWYPF

Can you do that? These are a different battery type..... Now I think about it ... 12volts dc is 12volts dc.... as is 18volts. So you put a battery converter on an run the modern lithium batteries. This is fine as you will use whatever charger come with the batteries to charge them.

I have a Makita vacuum pump here, I just grabbed a 3D printed converter online to run my PXC (ozito bunnings brand) batteries on it. You just use the ozito charger obviously to charger the batteries.

The battery converters are all over amazon on ebay. So if you buy or own any sort of modern power tool, just use its battery (this also saves upkeeping multiple battery types).

 

[DoubleChevron]

Loctite freeze and release.
My new Zeus of tools.
I have used in the past, but this time I really felt up sh*t creek and was willing to try anything, no matter how hopeless and irrational .
A cheap live centre decided to weld itself to the tailstock quill and just did not want to get out. If you've never seen or heard of locked tapers, you've got to try this one. Or get on YouTube. I tried everything I had on hand and did not even manage to scare it. So whilst procrastinating in anticipation of the destructive madness I felt coming I had a light bulb moment and since it only cost 20 bucks I decided to give it a try. My expectations were somewhere between nagonna make a difference and accepting something (hopefully replaceable) is going to break.
Well, would you believe that after two days of agony and torment the bastard came out with just one (very determined) shot of freeze and release? I reckon I only have half a can left but boy, I smiled all day. The live part of the centre came off in the process, but that's just a bearing and the spinning cone. Bearing was buggered already anyway. Which gave me the idea to grab the stub in the chuck and spin it gently by hand after going at it with the magic can. They do say on the can to wait a couple of minutes after spraying and it seems they know what they're talking about.
I call it miracle in a can. Give it a try next time before you reach for the sledgehammer, it might surprise you. They say it cools stuff down to -42 deg C. I guess you need to spray in proportion to the mass you are trying to cool down but I wouldn't say they're lying.
What an amazing thing.

Do you think it would touch rusted fasteners?

 

[schlitzaugen]

That is what they say on the can. My live centre was not rusted, or maybe just surface rust although I always clean it before insertion (!).
The first time I used Freeze and release was on sheared off exhaust side head bolts in a cast iron Toyota block. Those were exactly what you would expect from never touched 30 year old exhaust side head bolts. It got them out almost by hand (when they were out far enough that I could grab them).

 

[Andrew Watkins]

Freeze and release became my new best friend a while ago when doing Haflinger drag links. All variants of splitters were tried, to no avail ( not helped by difficult access, but I had them very tight) Nothing worked

In the end I a) set best fitting splitter to max attainable tension b) heated up with hot air gun as much as I dared ( Andrew and Oxy bad idea with delicate parts ) then c) hit central bolt/taper with freeze/release. It gave with an almighty bang. Problem solved

Could see it working on rusted bits as well, as basic principle is that it preferentially shrinks one bit, movement betweenn surfaces would help any rust adhesion

It is good when backs are to the wall

ANdrew

 

[DoubleChevron]

Has anyone found a supplier for the braided cable harness material available these days? I was just re-wiring the headlights on the shitbox and putting back the driving lights I removed way back when someone decided to re-arrange its front end .... and went searching for the cable stuff they have talked about in a few youtube channels.

Click 13mm x 2m Braided Wrap Cable Management Sleeve

Find Click 13mm x 2m Braided Wrap Cable Management Sleeve at Bunnings. Visit your local store for the widest range of products.

www.bunnings.com.au

its better than anything I've ever used. Its about a million times better than that awful corrugated plastic harness stuff that doubles the size of every harness (so it no longer fits where it needs to run). And you can always add/remove wiring from it.

I must say, the main headlights have gone from quite dim ... to fantastic. I was going to replace the globes, but when I pulled htem out, I found 130/100w globes in there. No wonder they are nice and bright now

Oh, and you know everyone wanted "cibie" driving lights years back ?? Well I pulled the lenses out of the driving lights to run new wiring. So cast into the glass and housing is "cibie" .... pull the lenses out .... veleo .... Yeah cibie my

 

[Greenpeace]

Has anyone found a supplier for the braided cable harness material available these days? I was just re-wiring the headlights on the shitbox and putting back the driving lights I removed way back when someone decided to re-arrange its front end .... and went searching for the cable stuff they have talked about in a few youtube channels.

Click 13mm x 2m Braided Wrap Cable Management Sleeve

Find Click 13mm x 2m Braided Wrap Cable Management Sleeve at Bunnings. Visit your local store for the widest range of products.

www.bunnings.com.au

its better than anything I've ever used. Its about a million times better than that awful corrugated plastic harness stuff that doubles the size of every harness (so it no longer fits where it needs to run). And you can always add/remove wiring from it.

I must say, the main headlights have gone from quite dim ... to fantastic. I was going to replace the globes, but when I pulled htem out, I found 130/100w globes in there. No wonder they are nice and bright now

Oh, and you know everyone wanted "cibie" driving lights years back ?? Well I pulled the lenses out of the driving lights to run new wiring. So cast into the glass and housing is "cibie" .... pull the lenses out .... veleo .... Yeah cibie my

I buy the braided wiring wrap at Autobarn.
The store near me keeps about 5 different diameters.

 

[seasink]

Yeah cibie my ..

Cibie is a brand of the Valeo conglomerate. It has been for 50 years.

 

[Greenpeace]

Finally got round to removing the spheres on the front of the DS.
I don't have any fancy tools, so I cut some slots in a Cheap Charlie 5/8" spark plug socket, shoved both ends of a piece of seat belt across the slots then wound it up against the side of the sphere, then a little more grunt and the spheres came undone.
I tried a piece of an old leather belt first, but it snapped like a carrot, turns out the "leather" was actually pleather.
Anyhoo, a bit of a drip dry, and they are off to Steelies for a rebuild.

 

[DoubleChevron]

if they are not dead flat, you can get them recharged cheaply. Is there someone with a regassing jig near you? So long as the diaphragms are ok, I can recharge them for you ... it'll just cost return postage. Idon't have the tooling to unscrew them and change the diaphragm though.

seeya
Shane L.

 

[Greenpeace]

if they are not dead flat, you can get them recharged cheaply. Is there someone with a regassing jig near you? So long as the diaphragms are ok, I can recharge them for you ... it'll just cost return postage. Idon't have the tooling to unscrew them and change the diaphragm though.

seeya
Shane L.

One weighed more than the other, so I'm guessing there is oil above the diaphragm in that one?
I couldn't get any more oil to run out of it, so hopefully it doesn't decide to haemorrhage in the post.
Thanks for the offer though.

 

[DoubleChevron]

One weighed more than the other, so I'm guessing there is oil above the diaphragm in that one?
I couldn't get any more oil to run out of it, so hopefully it doesn't decide to haemorrhage in the post.
Thanks for the offer though.

yeah dead flat probalby. the diaphragms are probably 50years old and turned to black mush .....

 

[Roger Wilkinson]

Mine is a big bolt with slot cut in it with an angle grinder. I put a socket on the bolt head.

Roger