Makita 9.6v tool score!

[bonneyman]

I mentioned over at the dark side that I had always wanted a Makita right angle drill. Just thinking out loud.

A member I know and have swapped with before says he has several drills and a saw, plus batteries and chargers - and I can have them all for the cost of shipping!!! Just got the box in today. man it is a sweet lot! to be added to my stick battery tool collection. 

[goodfellow]

I mentioned over at the dark side that I had always wanted a Makita right angle drill. Just thinking out loud.

A member I know and have swapped with before says he has several drills and a saw, plus batteries and chargers - and I can have them all for the cost of shipping!!! Just got the box in today. man it is a sweet lot! to be added to my stick battery tool collection. 

Great score -- time to do some battery pack rebuilding George.

[bonneyman]

I'm considering converting a few of the batteries to LiPo. I've seen Utube vids on it, and I have enough batteries to sacrifice a few and still have the old NiCads.

[bonneyman]

Here's a picture of the loot.

[fatfillup]

I remember when they came out.  My buddy who did custom auto stereo work had the right angle drill as well as the regular drill.  Used the crap out of them

[bonneyman]

Upon closer examination the RA drill trigger/reverse switch is broken. So I'll remove the said trigger assembly from one of the other drills and swap out the bad one in the RA drill. Clean and relube it while it's apart. And will probably opt to put a keyed chuck on it, as they are dimensionally smaller than the fancy keyless ones. being it's for tight area use a smaller chuck would probably help out.

[J.A.F.E.]

Nice having spares to keep things going. What kind of grease will you use? I've been using keyless chucks long enough to know the keyed ones really are the better choice even though not as convenient.

Nice score you made.

The Li-ion conversion do they include the limiting circuitry as well?

[bonneyman]

Nice having spares to keep things going. What kind of grease will you use? I've been using keyless chucks long enough to know the keyed ones really are the better choice even though not as convenient.

Nice score you made.

The Li-ion conversion do they include the limiting circuitry as well?

I try to keep the OEM grease if I can.
If the original grease looks clean but maybe a bit dried out, I'll remove it all and add a few drops of SUPCO 88 to soften and revitalize it, then re-insert it after cleaning any carbon and varnish.
If the original grease is black and sooted I remove it, thoroughly clean the guts, then use SuperLube or the RLL.

Several of the vids I've seen use a limiter circuit, or a sensing board that sets off a LED they install somewhere on the outer shell that will be visible. When the light comes on during use, that means time to recharge the battery.

[J.A.F.E.]

I've become a big user of SuperLube. Not familiar with the SUPCO but thta sounds better than cleaning out old grease which is not a pleasant task to me.

[Rural53]

My first cordless drill was a Makita 7.2V that looked a lot like the keyless one in the right of the group photo. Talking to the guy I was working with at the time, early 90's, a few Christmas's ago, he still uses the one he bought at the same time, with rebuilt batteries, when he is doing finishing jobs like installing door handles and locks.

[bonneyman]

Yeah, those 7.2 volt versions were real popular with the light duty guys.

But now with LiPo battery drills being 18 volts or more the old 9.6volters go for cheap. That's fine with me.

[highland512]

I remember my dad buying a set like that in the mid 90's with a flashlight and drill. The battery would usually die halfway through the last screw 

[bonneyman]

OK, I pulled the RA drill apart and inspected the trigger switch - neither of the other two drills has the same switch. Tried pulling them apart and just swapping out the bad contacts. The RA drill has a miniature circuit board in there. I guess a variable voltage limiter so as to control RPMs? Put everything back together and looked up the replacement switch. Ereplacement parts has one for $18 - but it doesn't look like it has a circuit board, and it fits about a dozen different model drills. I'm thinking they've discontinued the OEM part and now Makita is making a blanket replacement.
It only has two wires, soooooo, the thermal limit switch in the drill is gonna get removed, and I'll live with the overamp protection only and on-off with no variable speed.

Macgyver to the rescue again!

[geneg]

After the Black & Decker screwstik, a Makita 9.6v with a keyed chuck & a metal case was my pride & joy.  I paid thru the nose for it & used it for years.  I also later got the right angle drill, the circular saw, and a few other drill drivers.  The circular saw was great for cutting in electrical boxes prior to the rotozip or cordless Sawzall's.  Went thru a series of batteries & chargers, but still love the system.  The cost of replacement batteries drove me to Milwaukee for daily use, but I still use a Makita around the house.  I've picked up some at sales for parts & sometimes get decent batteries.  Please be sure to share your battery rebuild process.  I'll follow along.  There is a vast difference in the chargers available for this system.  The later intelligent chargers will bring back some batteries that the original single stage charges won't charge.  The amount of torque & the battery life defies the fact that it is a 9.6 volt system.  It stands the test of time.

[J.A.F.E.]

Not familiar with Makita but you're looking at a DC motor and likely the circuit board is some kind of chopper circuit to control speed. The switch may be good still - it's easy to test with an ohmmeter or the contacts might just be dirty - a squirt or two of some contact cleaner even into the assembled switch might work wonders.

How big is the circuit board?

[bonneyman]

I've never found the 9.6 volt Makita's underpowered. It was just the life of the newer batteries just sucked.
When I started in AC in the late 80's, I borrowed other guys battery drills and used them. Panasonic was one, maybe B&D, and Makita. Just liked the Makita. The long (but thin) battery and thus the handle let me get into tighter areas that the other drills with the bulge at the base just couldn't reach. Guys used extra long bit extensions but the Makita's just shined.

The circuit board is like half the area of a postage stamp. Affixed directly to the top of the trigger switch. On my trigger the direction switching lever is gone - there's just a hole where it should be. I guess I could try taking the switch apart and figuring out what side is + and - and soldering the motor right to it. I'll see what the parts place says on Monday. If I can get a new switch in less than a week I'll do it. Those switches wear pretty fast being plastic and all. Even if I could get the old switch working it's still old.

[bonneyman]

FINALLY got the replacement trigger switch in Jan 2 (I ordered it Dec 7th! - mail is REALLY being slow), and it was an OEM equivalent - not exact replacement. So, no variable speed as you squeeze the trigger. (Just on and off). Also had to eliminate the overheat thermistor (direct soldered into old switch), so the thing only has the manual reset overamp protection. But got it all back together and popped in a freshly charged battery - it works as advertized.
Then cleaned up the saw, replaced a missing shroud safety spring, and it works too. The remaining two clutch drills will serve for parts for all the other working tools.

If someone can use a keyless chuck in 3/8" let me know - I've got at least 2 or 3 now including the ones on the pictured drills and won't use all of them.

[bonneyman]

Picked up a plastic Makita carrying case for $5, and am in the process of converting it from an 18v tool set to store my 9.6v tools. Coming along nicely!