Blatchat bulk buy impact gun!

[BertBert]

Now I have a non-branded impact gun that I think originated in a Blatchat bulk buy about a hundred years ago. I rather like it, but the nicads are now dead.
Anyone familiar with them (the impact guns, that is)? Just looking for ideas to convert to Li-Ion or similar rather than just bin it!
Cheers
Bert

[F355GTS]

Hi Bert, I've a couple of them, still going but as yours batteries are poor (always have been). not heard of a Li-Ion solution but if you find one that would be great

[DVandrews]

I have converted mine to Lipo batteries, these fit nicely inside the existing battery pack shells and with some small mods the existing charger can be hooked up to the Lipo balance charger. I have converted all my drills which had dead battery packs to Lipo , the Lipo packs are inexpensive and much lighter and more compact than the equivalent Nicad/Nimh packs. As long as you are careful with charging and dont let the cells get too low on voltage then they are singularly brilliant , I now have too many portable drills as they are all now revived.

As an example my Bosch 24v drill has a 2.3 AH battery pack that costs £90, the equivalent Lipo pack costs £22 for 4 AH and this fits into the pack easily. When it goes legs up, replacement of the Lipo pack is straightforward.

Dave

[BertBert]

Sounds very interesting Dave. What batteries do you use as I can't get seem to get close to that price? Also how did you mod the charger to get balanced charging?

[DVandrews]

I buy my batteries from Hobbyking. You just need to take the charger apart, cut the connections from the two charging prongs to the PCB in the charger and solder on two wires which are then connect to the Lipo charger, the battery pack then slots into the charger in the normal way and the balance plug can then be plugged in as well., I made a small slot in the battery pack from which the balance socket protrudes.

Dave

[DVandrews]

Here are a few converted battery packs, the charger shown will accept 7 of the different types of packs I have converted as the electrodes are in a similar place. The remaining two types of packs have the original chargers converted in the same way.

An original Bosch 24v 2AH pack weighs 1.4KG, the new 4AH Lipo converted pack weighs 550gms, this makes the devices far easier to handle.

A low discharge rate such as 20C or 25C is sufficient for a drill or impact gun, this lowers the price of the packs considerably although I have noticed that prices have risen by around 20% since I bought mine.





Dave

Edited by DVandrews on Monday 6th November 09:53

Edited by DVandrews on Monday 6th November 10:00

Edited by DVandrews on Monday 6th November 10:20

[BertBert]

Thanks Dave, that looks like the route I'll be going then!
Bert

[BertBert]

interestingly, looking at the Hobbyking site, the 3000mAh batts look too long for my battery case. Which ones did you use Dave?
Cheers
Bert

[DVandrews]

Can’t remember which ones, but I remember trawling through the list to establish which ones woud fit which packs, for one I wired two packs in parallel within the battery pack to give increased capacity, I als have a couple where the Lipo cell protrudes from the battery pack, which has so far not been a problem and has enabled a much higher capacity cell to be fitted.



Not ideal , but very convenient as the capacity for the DeWalt pack is now 5AH.

Show me your pack and post the internal dimensions..

Dave

Edited by DVandrews on Monday 13th November 21:20

[V7SLR]

Dave, that looks suspiciously like you've moved into the utility room, or maybe even the kitchen! She'll be having words!!!

[BertBert]

Cheers Dave
I'll post pics of my 'pack' fnar, fnar at the weekend when I am home again!

[DVandrews]

V7SLR said:

Dave, that looks suspiciously like you've moved into the utility room, or maybe even the kitchen! She'll be having words!!!

I just brought them in as I am knee deep in a Caterham upgrade so the garage has various bits everywhere.. They were returned PDQ.

Dave

[gareth h]

DVandrews said:

I have converted mine to Lipo batteries, these fit nicely inside the existing battery pack shells and with some small mods the existing charger can be hooked up to the Lipo balance charger. I have converted all my drills which had dead battery packs to Lipo , the Lipo packs are inexpensive and much lighter and more compact than the equivalent Nicad/Nimh packs. As long as you are careful with charging and dont let the cells get too low on voltage then they are singularly brilliant , I now have too many portable drills as they are all now revived.

As an example my Bosch 24v drill has a 2.3 AH battery pack that costs £90, the equivalent Lipo pack costs £22 for 4 AH and this fits into the pack easily. When it goes legs up, replacement of the Lipo pack is straightforward.

Dave

I was racking my brain trying to remember who had shown me their conversion, now I remember!