Drill - with 12v car adaptor?
 

Hi there,

we are thinking about taking a drill with us when we leave to travel in our landy. Does anyone know if you can get a small, cordless drill that can be charged off a 12v battery?

Or perhaps I should just take a little hand drill?

What are peoples thoughts.

I searched the web and could only find one on e-bay for £135.

Just thinking aloud at the moment, so if you think a drill is just going one step too far tell me too. I wil then turn my attention back to how to carry our canoe!

Cheers

Ollie

I bought a 12v charger for my makita chordless, a bit slow but works.
There is no reason not to justget a 12v drill, take out the battery and solder some wires to the contacts, crocodile clips on the other end and away you go.
Alternatively, if you have a compressor use an air drill.

Re:- canoe -drill a hole through the bottom and bolt it down:nono:

quick!
 

man that was quick :)

I like the canoe/drill combo .

thanks

right place, right time:thumbup1:

I have charged Makita 18 volt cordless in my van using a small 12v/240 volt inverter without any problems.

No reason you couldn't run a 12 volt cordless off your car battery

Inverter
 

OK - we have an inverter already in situ, so perhaps thats the way to go. we are trying to get 12v chargers for all things we can though.

Is Makita a good drill? It's not really an area I know much about, but two mentions so far.

thanks for help

cheers

Ollie

I think they are tough drills. We use them all day everyday at work and they last better than most. Can take being dropped and thrown.

Very good value.

Makita 6280 DWPE3 Drill Driver 14.4V - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

Keep an eye on the website. They often have an offer on with an extra battery and accessories for £99.00. That's when I buy mine:thumbup1:

Laters

Actually, I've just looked at that link again and that price is with three batteries. Bloody good value.

We bought a 9.6v battery drill for £9 in one of those really cheap elect shops, dumped the battery and chargers and crimped the wires into the contacts with alligater clips at other end.. Really powerful and light and boy did we need it - with a rusty land rover. Pop rivets and rivet gun were very useful too.

Perfect:
9.6V DRILL DRIVER, Brand New, 501794 on eBay, also Drills, Drills, Power Tools, Business, Office Industrial (end time 05-Apr-08 15:32:00 BST)

Get yourself on ebay and do a search for '12v drill body'.
The quality brands sell drills on their own without batteries and charger (which make up a large percentage of the caost of a full kit).
You should be able to get a decent one from Makita, Bosch or Dewalt for about £50. Make sure it's got 2 speeds and produces a decent amount of torque.
You'll need to open it up to remove the battery connectors inside and attach a power cable to connect to your battery.
I buy Bosch profesional kit for work these days - I've killed a few makitas recently.

Inverter is the way to go...more appliances can use this, including battery chargers for you camera, etc.

BUT size your inverter properly and test it out before you leave;)

I say 12 volt everything and avoid using an inverter, except for a drill. 12 volt doesn't have enough poke to it. A Higher voltage is much better - you will use it most before you go - almost worth looking out for a manual drill to take instead - bit probably not ;-)

I think taking a direct charge from your battery isn't great for it - or is that welding from them?

The new Makita 18v with Lion batteries are very good .But check that your inverter has enough jam to charge the batteries , otherwise go 12 volt and rig up a direct connection to your vehicle battery .Milwaukee 12 volt drills are very good .
My advice would be to avoid Dewalt [ if they are available in UK ] and Black and Decker .

What about taking a cheap generator ?

The downside to using an inverter/charger combination is if you do need to drill something it is more than likely going to be metal and a small 12v drill battery will be flat very quickly drilling this stuff. If however you take it straight of the vehicle 12v battery as described in earlier posts you can keep the engine ticking over and drill all day loing....

B&q
 

Ollie

B&Q do a pretty good / cheap / robust cordless drill with charger that would neatly plug into a 12 V inverter unit you have......I have used it in hammer action mode on masonary and its pretty tough....holds charge well too

Give us a call

Nick

Welding from your battery is a bad idea for you battey's health - the massive voltage discharge can warp the internal plates eventually shorting them out - however bear in mind useful in an emergency situation.

Running a 12v drill directly of your car battery will not cause any harm to it. As long as the alternator is not over loaded (this situation can arise from extended jumpstarting - massive current draw- from a depleted battery) you can get down to some serious drilling. Sometimes you can get these combination 12v sets including a drill, torch, saw, sander etc for a resonable price - give cabinet making lessons enroute.

Good move to take a cordless drill with you. I took one solely because I had the room but it turned out to be the one piece of kit that I used more than anything else. Just remember to take ample spare bits especially the 2mm ones which always seem to break-at least when I'm in charge. We charged ours (a B&Q Chinese made jobbo) off both a 600W inverter and genny. Former took a while but did the job.

Q

My advice would be to stay away from the really cheap no-brand drills. They might be the same voltage but you don't get the same power / work out of them. They take forever to charge and then don't last that long.

A 14v Makita or other decent make should be fine for what you need. I can't think there is anything on a vehicle it wouldn't cope with. Drill bits need to be decent quality as well though; Dormer are pretty good jobber bits.

Forget 12V. Aldi has a pneumatic drill for less than a tenner. Twice smaller and more powerful than an electric drill.

Richard,

Sorry pal, wrong advice. :nono:

Battery welding does not require "massive voltage discharge". If anything, it's "current discharge", but for welding it's not as massive as, e.g. for winching. Ever heard of ReadyWelder?

Pneumatic?
 

OK - just quickly before I head off. Thanks for the many replies so far. I didn't think this would attract much attention. Wrong again !

Anyhow, I will search at a later date, but just quickly, how much roughly for an entry level compressor that would allow me to go down the pneumatic route ?

What other uses except the tyres also?

thanks :) As always,very grateful

blowing out blocked fuel lines and cleaning air filters for a start

Wow
 

A quick search gives me

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ght=compressor

I have only got to 2003 in the answer, but that is 6 pages! No nearer to knowing really. I think maybe I will just settle to an electric drill. I probably just need to leave before the Landy is too heavy to get out of the UK!

Anyhow, if anyone knows of a simple, beginner level compressor let me know, but I think I'm still more interested in just sorting out a electric drill of sorts.

I'll sleep on it.

thanks

Just to add a bit more fuel to the fire ;an electric [ or pneumatic] impact would be a very handy thing to have along !

Quote from ReadyWelder website:
"2.) We highly recommend the purchase of good quality ,12 volt deep-cycle marine/RV batteries ranging from group 24 to group31, which is our preference............ Regular auto batteries and other batteries not designed for deep cycle discharging and recharging will have a shorter life span if drawn too low too many times. ...."

"4. I've got two 12 volt batteries under the hood of my vehicle. Can I hook up the Ready-Welder II to these batteries with the motor running and batteries cable still connected? Answer: No. The batteries are normally wired in parallel for these applications (assuming your vehicle operates ion 12 volt) and the RWI-II normally uses 24 volt for welding and requires these batteries to be wired in series. Be sure to read the operating instructions page for some exception to the 24 volt rule! Leaving the batteries connected to the vehicles electrical system while the RW-II may cause severe damage to the vehicles electrical system. Don't do it!..."

In the context of over landing you would need to bring 2 x 12v deep cycle batteries for welding applications which IMO is too much extra weight in a these trips.

You are correct about my wrong use of the term "voltage" discharge, it is the current discharge that I meant to refer to. Point taken the the current discharge is not probably not as "massive" as I stated. Thanks for correcting me - I'm here to learn too.

Using compressed air with a jet nozzle is also a great way to get your camp fire roaring if the fuel is a bit damp - acts like super belows.

Bellows
 

If I don't have to pack the bellows then I have room for a compressor :) Jeez might even leave the poker set at home ....

Richard,

For welding you need appropriate voltage and current, say 24V and ca 40A. Your quote from ReadyWeld literature is correct in the sense that prolonged use of starter batteries will run them flat and possibly cause damage.

But then two deep cycle batteries, like Optima yellow top, while excessive for weekend greenlaning, are quite useful on an overland trip - try running a fridge for two / three days on a single battery. On top of that, you can use this capacity for all sorts of other jobs requiring constant load, including welding. All you need is to reconfigure the batteries from a parallel to a series setup (24V).