There are two sides to this coin.

In this part the drill has gone on the fritz.

The other the battery goes on the fritz.

IF BOTH GO YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO

The moderately priced drills last quite well these days. OZITO and GMC are quite good although my current favourite is a Black and Decker 12v job that never seems to run out.

Somebody told me you should get at least one boat out of a battery drill.

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You have the power..................................

As a person of Scottish descendent I am always lothe to throw away anything that might have another life. Wood for example is kept until it can only be classified as sawdust before it is considered for the waste bin [and then it is not at all certain that it will get thrown out..... I might need to make up some filler with a bit of epoxy.

You will all have a couple of battery powered drills around the place I am sure. One of two things can happen with a battery drill.

The first is the motor or the gearbox or the casing claps out leaving you with a perfectly good battery.

Do you keep it and buy another drill just the same so you then have more than one battery. Probably not as the drills get more powerful and cheaper each time you look.

The drill craps out.

Think about it. Here is a perfectly good power source that comes with its own recharging system. In the case of the battery shown here I had dropped the drill so many time the case was cracked beyond repair with duct tape.

So I pulled the connector plate out of the bottom of the drill and the assembly resides in my emergency box on the boat so I can power up an electric pump or a set of nav lights. This one is an 18v battery but most devices are tolerant of the voltage difference. I have not yet tried to run my radio on it I will check the handbook for the voltage range first.

There are of course many other uses you can put this too and if you say run a small fluorescent set up it will probably run for a couple of weeks.

The other side of the coin........ the battery craps out. SEE THE INDEX

I have experimented with wiring the drill up to a cigarette lighter socket plug and plugging the drill into the boats 12v system. Wow, pulls like a schoolboy and a good backup when you are away in the boat. A range of drills will work with this system but if you a feeling a little freaky about it plug it into the battery on the wifes car. to see if you are going to blow the drill up.

I suppose there is a third dimension and that is you buy a cheap battery powered drill and do both of the above. Here in New Zealand you can buy a battery dril for about $20. They are not all that long living in the duration business but you might get a good enough battery to run your gps or something in a dinghy. Just pop the whole assembly in a plastic box and seal the edges with tape and you have a waterproof power supply.

Jasper