Trev’s Tips

Drilled

Just a short tip this month and it has nothing to do with mechanical repairs to cars for a change. 

In the middle of last year I was sucked into one of these great super cheap deals where I picked up a cordless 12 volt drill which came with an extra battery and a bonus cordless torch.  Although, at the time, I did actually need a cordless drill I thought that I might get a dual purpose out of this purchase by using the portable 12 volt batteries for alternative camping uses such as powering a depth sounder on a dinghy or running low power fluoro lights at night time.  Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to test these ideas because within the first couple of months of having my new toy the batteries went flat and would not take charge.

After trying many chargers and different suggested techniques for bringing the batteries back to life I eventually gave up and decided to throw the whole lot in the bin.  After all what good is a cordless drill and torch if you don’t have the batteries to run them.  With dismay I stood at the bin, drill, torch and batteries in hand remembering all my other perfectly good cordless power equipment that had followed a similar fate due to failed batteries when it suddenly struck me, surely if the drill is powered by 12 volts why couldn’t I get it to run from my car’s battery.

Of course the batteries were buggered so they went into the bin but the drill and torch were returned to my shed where I set about attaching a 4 meter power cord to a pair of alligator clips and then I soldered the other ends of the wires to the two contact terminals on the inside of the drill. 

Next was the road test where the drill and torch operated perfectly.  Since this first prototype I have now taken the alligator clips off the drill’s power cord and attached a cigarette lighter plug (just for convenience) and the torch is permanently mounted under the bonnet of the car for easy access.  I did loose a bit of power in using the cigarette lighter plug as the power source rather than running it straight off the car battery with alligator clips but there still seems to be more than enough power for most operations.

After this I got together a collection of tools to go with the drill, made up a handy soft carry case and the drill now permanently stays in the car ready for use at any time.  Will I ever use it or will it be something that sits around taking up space?  Well in the short time I have had it I have used it on 4 occasions whist camping.  Admittedly one of those times was only to drill holes in some sea shells to make a necklace for my daughter but the other times it had a very useful purpose.

The accessories I have for the drill included the obvious drill bits, a grinding wheel, a wire brush wheel and a sanding wheel.  One application that I could imagine it would be very useful would be if you had to apply a patch to the inside of a tyre.  The inside of the tyre should be scuffed up firstly before the patch is applied to allow it to stick properly.  Previously I have used an angle grinder to do this scuffing but obviously in a bush situation running an angle grinder is difficult unless you have a generator.  Now with the drill and the sanding disks it is a very easy operation.

Don’t be concerned about the wiring of this drill.  You can’t do it wrong.  The worst that can happen if you mix the wires around the wrong way is that the drill will spin in reverse.  To fix this just flick the switch on the drill which allows the drill to spin the other way and it will now be turning correctly.

This is a very easy project to do in a spare hour if you have an old 12 volt cordless item lying around your shed and can be setup for less than $15 for the cost of the cigarette lighter plug and some wire.

Happy playing

Trevor

Dad’s the boss.  Right Mummy?