October 2009: Inside This Issue

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A few of the cordless drills
in my collection.

Overview

Through the years, I’ve accumulated numerous cordless tools and drills. My first cordless drill was a 9.6 volt Makita drill that I used for many years. This drill used the tall slender type of battery that slid up into the handle. Before getting the Makita, all of my drills were standard corded models that worked great, but were inconvenient to use at times due to their pesky electrical cord. Once I got the Makita, I rarely used the older corded electric drills. It was so easy to just pick up the Makita and not have to worry about finding an electrical socket, or an extension cord.

A few years later, I got a DeWalt 14.4volt drill, which offered more power (hey, I’m from Texas, we like everything to be bigger and better) and a few more torque settings. A few years later, DeWalt came out with their 18volt cordless drills and I got one of those. The increased power and run time, versus the 14.4volt model was considerable the 18volt drill became my “go-to” tool when I needed a cordless drill. Not long after I got the 18volt drill, I got to use the “new and improved” 18volt extended run batteries when I succumbed to the lure of a DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw.

Sweet! The extended run batteries (XRP’s) were even better and lasted quite a bit longer than the standard 18volt battery. Some time later, I succumbed once again to the lure of a DeWalt cordless jigsaw, with an 18volt XRP battery. I was in cordless tool nirvana. Then, I got a Fein 14.4volt that ran as smooth and sweet as my Mercedes, with less noise than the DeWalts.

I also got a Ryobi 18volt, a Skill 14.4volt drill and a Black and Decker 7.2volt drill as gifts. My collection was growing and I added three more cordless drills to my stable. When one battery ran down, I grabbed another battery. When both batteries ran down I picked up one of the other drills, whilst the other batteries were charging. No matter what the task, I had drills and batteries to spare, until one day when the batteries started their inevitable slide towards the recycling centre.

Dead and dying cordless drill batteries.

And Then There Were None

All of my cordless drills were using Ni-Cd batteries and like any rechargeable battery, you reach a point in time when the battery begins to lose the ability to hold a full charge, then to hold a charge at all. One by one, my cordless drill batteries succumbed to age, as they reached their maximum number of charge cycles and stopped working. The Makita died first, then the DeWalts and the Black and Decker. The Skill was next, then the Ryobi. The Fein is nearing its greater reward as well. Where I once had drills to spare, I now have a collection of drills with dead and dying batteries.

Thankfully the Fein drills are still working, but they do not last as long as they once did. The clock is ticking… No problem, I thought I would just get some new batteries and I would be back in business. I had been putting off buying new batteries because I always had several other drills that were working. When I began to have more dead batteries than working ones, I had had enough and I drove to the local mega-hardware box store to get a handful of new batteries.

A Rude Awakening

Whoa Partner! The cost to replace two batteries with most of the drills was 50% or more of the original cost, with each battery costing £39.52 – £76.00 ($65.00 - $125.00) give or take at the time (They have come down a bit since that time). Humm… I decided to cut bait instead of fish and I left the store with nothing. On the drive home I thought that with the high cost of replacement batteries, I might as well buy a totally new drill, which comes with two new batteries and a new charger. Sounds good, but then what do you do with the old power heads? It’s easy enough to take the dead batteries to the recycling centre, but what do you do with several power heads that still work, but just need a good battery?

Undaunted

With no easy solution at hand, I decided to check into getting the batteries rebuilt at a local battery rebuilding service. Rebuilt batteries were about half the cost of factory built new batteries, so I thought that might be the way to go. At least it would be cheaper and I could get higher Amp-hour batteries installed during the rebuild. More power! Using rebuilt batteries also allows the continued use of my existing power heads, which are still in good shape. As I was getting ready to drive back over to the battery shop to drop off 10 – 12 battery packs to get rebuilt, I quickly added up the cost.

Whoa Partner! At £27.36 - £39.52 ($45.00 - $65.00) per rebuilt battery, I would be pouring a significant amount of money back into several old drills. Some of which (like the 9.6volt and the 14.4volt drills), lacked enough power and run time for my current needs. Being born in the year of the rat made me want to stretch more life out of the older drills, but the numbers were not adding up. I kept looking around the Internet and found a few companies that sold new “no-name” battery replacements for a little less than the rebuilt ones I was quoted.

Decisions, Decisions

However, I had never dealt with any of these companies before and most of the websites offered little, or no technical specs on their batteries. Without knowing the Amp-hour rating of the batteries, it makes it hard to compare different brands, so I kept looking. The new Lithium-ion cordless drills were beginning to lure me into the abyssal vortex. Lithium-ion batteries are smaller and lighter than the same voltage Ni-Cd battery, which is a big benefit since my 18volt drill gets tiresome after using it all day.

I also thought about getting a 24volt drill, but the 24volt models seemed to be made for folks with forearms like Popeye the sailor man. Luckily, I never succumbed to the lure of 24volt drills. They were just too heavy to use all day, or for the occasional odd job around the studio. Then came the 28volt drills, then the 36volt mega-extreme drills… I resisted once again. The Lithium-ion versions of the higher voltage tools were quite a bit less in weight, but still seemed like overkill for what I needed.

While it’s easy enough to just buy a new drill or two, the dilemma of what to do with my old power heads remained. It seemed like a waste to just throw them away! I guess cordless drills are a lot like other tools and equipment, when they quit working you just get a new one and pitch them into the rubbish bin.

Another Option

One last option that I considered was to get a few Lithium-ion batteries for my existing 18volt DeWalt tools. The DeWalt line of 18volt tools can use the newer lithium-ion batteries, as well as the regular Ni-Cd’s, but you have to get a new charger to use the Lithium-ion batteries. So if you’re thinking about doing this as well, add up the costs before you lay out the plastic.

Two DeWalt Lithium-ion 18volt batteries and a charger are none too cheap. (One 18volt DeWalt Lithium-ion battery and a charger is around £108.83 ($179.00), two batteries and a charger is about £187.26 ($308.00), which is the same cost as a new 18volt DeWalt ½” NP-Lithium-ion cordless drill, charger and two batteries – £187.87 ($309.00) at a large online merchant.

Note: There is no difference in power or run time between Ni-Cd and Lithium-ion batteries of the same voltage and Amp-hour rating. None, zip, nada. The main benefits of moving to Lithium-ion batteries over Ni-Cd’s is less weight, a more compact size and virtually no self-discharge of the battery when not in use. Lithium-ion formulas vary however, some are better or worse than traditional Ni-Cd’s, or NiMH batteries.

Decision Made

Well, after much deliberation I have decided to get a new 18volt Nano-Phosphate Lithium-ion based cordless drill (DeWalts NPLI battery is good for 2000 recharges, versus 800 recharges for their current Ni-Cd battery), instead of replacing/rebuilding my old dead batteries – with one exception! The Fein drills are just too well made and smooth running to discard, so I’ll be keeping those and rebuilding their batteries in the near future. As for my old DeWalt drills, those will get pitched/recycled and the batteries will go to my local recycling centre.

The logic for keeping the old drills and rebuilding them just never worked out. Not when I can get a brand new drill with Lithium-ion technology that weighs less, for less money than rebuilding all of the batteries for the old drills. Now all I have to do is decide which new drill I want. If any of you have a Lithium-ion drill and you like it, let me know. If you don’t like your new Lithium-ion drill, let me know that as well. I still can’t get used to the idea that a drill costing a few hundred dollars is disposable!

Overview

My three Stihl chainsaws (026 petrol, 066 petrol and E-220 electric) are must have tools in my studio and they all see brutally heavy usage. Recently, I replaced several parts on my two petrol chainsaws and I found out a couple of nice little gotchas, that you might want to know.

Stihl 026

My newly repaired
Stihl 026 chainsaw.

The first chainsaw I purchased when I opened my studio was a Stihl 026, which is a great mid-range saw for smaller logs with its 18” bar. It has a good power to weight ratio and has served me well for fourteen years. (Stihl has a newer version of this saw called the MS 260 PRO) The 026 is my main saw for bucking smaller logs and de-limbing trees that are on the ground. It’s light and powerful enough to use all day in Houston’s sweltering heat and humidity, without making you feel like your arms are going to fall off at the end of the day.

Where it falls short is when you have to buck larger logs, or a really large tree. While you can make two cuts (one from each side of the log) to effectively process larger logs up to 76.2cm (30”), if you have a lot of logs to process it’s going to take some time to complete your task. The slower chain speed means that larger jobs take longer, but you can still get them done.

My 026 has been good to me through the years, requiring only regular maintenance like air filters, spark plugs and new chains. Last years’ hurricane Ike was hard on the 026 though… I loaned it out to help remove some downed trees and got it returned with a broken handle, bent bar, dull chain and with the sprocket assembly impacted with mud from it being used to remove a stump from the ground! As I added up the damage, I found it needed a new handle, bar, chain, chain drive sprocket, air-filter and a spark plug, along with the handle. So much for loaning your tools out!

My damaged 026 chainsaw
bar and air filter.

How Much?

Luckily, there is a Stihl dealer not far from my home, so I took a trip one day to order the parts I needed. All of the parts cost about what I expected (bar, chains, drive sprocket, spark plug), but the handle was high as a cat’s back at £39.52 ($65.00) and the air filter was really expensive as well. The handle is constructed of a metal tube, with a plastic overlay and was the same design as the original model.

The broken handle bar (right),
and the replacement handle bar (left).

The handle has a weak spot (all plastic, no metal) where the handle mounts to the lower body of the saw that the dealer said is prone to breakage. That’s just where my handle broke, as well as a couple of my friends 026 handles. When I added up the repairs, the cost was more than 1/3 the cost of the saw when I purchased it fourteen years ago. Moral of this story, never loan your tools out!

The 026's air filter must be checked
regularly for dust and debris to keep
the saw running at optimal levels.

Stihl 066

My newly repaired
Stihl 066 chainsaw.

Time is money in a woodturning studio, which is why I purchased the 066 chainsaw twelve years ago. It’s substantially more powerful than the 026 and currently sports a 76.2cm (30”) bar, 71.12cm (28”) from the bucking spikes, with enough power to run a 121.92cm (48”) bar without bogging down in green wood. It’s a heavy brute though and it will test your idea of how strong you think your forearms are after using it for a full day, especially when it’s 40.5 degrees C (105 degrees F) outside with 98% humidity and you’ve been bucking logs for eight hours. (Stihl’s newer version of this saw is called the MS 660.)

The main benefit of buying a big and heavy saw like the 066 is speed, power and length of cut. If you’ve got a lot of work to do, this saw will deliver time and time again. It’s big, heavy and loud as a pair of straight pipes on a hot rod, but it sure does a full day's work and then some. With the 76.2cm (30”) bar, I can make a single cut through most crotches, saving the maximum amount of precious feather figure. It’s also faster to cut through a 76.2cm (30”) log once, than it is to make two cuts with a shorter bar like the one on the 026, which speeds up processing large logs.

My 066 has also been good to me through the years, only requiring routine maintenance like filters, chains and spark plugs. During hurricane Ike, I also loaned out my 066 and it was damaged as well, but to a lesser extent. It came back with a bent bar and damaged chain. Whilst I was at the chainsaw dealer getting parts for my 026, I also picked up everything I needed to repair my 066 and I found out a nice little gotcha about Stihl’s replacement chain bar for the 066.

The original 066 bar (top) was designed
for 97 chain links. The new replacement bar
(lower) is sized for 98 chain links.

Gotcha!

My original 066’s chain bar was made for chains that are 97-links in length. Like most woodturners who have chainsaws, I have numerous chains for each of my chainsaws. When the dealer placed the new bar down on the counter, I checked the engraved information on the end of the bar to make sure it was the correct one for my saw. Everything was fine except for one thing, the new bar was made for chains that were 98-links in length, not the 97 of my original bar.

Close-up of the bar plate on the original
066 bar, showing 97 link size (lower right).

When I asked the dealer to double-check the bar, he said that the catalog said it’s the correct bar. A little more checking and he found out that Stihl had changed the replacement bars to 98-links and no longer made the original 97-link bar configuration. Why they made the change was not noted, but the end result was that all of my current chains for the 066 were now too short to work with the new bar, including a few brand new ones that I had purchased a year earlier at a sale and never used. The change in the bar size effectively rendered eight new/used chains obsolete. At £ 21.28 ($35.00) each, that’s about £ 167.20 ($275.00) worth of chainsaw chains that I could no longer use.

Close-up of the new 066 bar
plate, showing 98 link size (lower center).

To add insult to injury, I now had to buy eight new chains to fit the new 066’s 98-link bar, which was not fun but I had no choice. So, if you have an older model Stihl 066 and you need to replace the bar, get your pocketbook ready! Not only will you have to buy the bar, but you will have to replace all of your older chains as well. If you have several chains, the cost can add up quickly. Ka-Ching!

The replacement bar for the 026 was the same as the original bar, but not so with the 066. I don’t know if Stihl changed the bar sizes on any of their other bars, but you might want to check first if you need to replace your bar. It smarts a bit when you have to pitch brand new chains in unopened boxes into the rubbish bin! I thought about buying a chain breaker and the other tools necessary to make my own chains from bulk stock to make the old chains fit onto the new bar, but decided against it due to the cost.

Close-up of the drive sprocket,
retaining washer and roller bearing that were
replaced during the rebuild.

I also tried to find a local turner with an older 066 that might want the chains, but I struck out. Most of the turners I know of around my area are using the medium frame chainsaws or smaller units, not the large frame models. Hopefully if you find yourself in the same situation in the future, you can find another turner that you can sell/give your slightly used chains to, so the repair/replacement cost of your new bar will be easier to swallow at the checkout register.

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Steve