Author Topic: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?  (Read 15695 times)

Offline loply

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New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« on: December 09, 2014, 06:12:42 AM »
Hi folks,

I've got an old Bosch GBH 24 VRE drill which has both a battery with little life left, and a broken charger.

The charger flickers on and off and makes weird noises, the battery is ancient so didn't hold much charge anyway.

I'm wondering if I could convert this drill to run off 240v instead? Anybody know if it's likely to have a universal motor, and if so whether I could simply wire up the battery terminals (there's only two...) to 240? The trigger is a variable speed one so I don't know how that would factor in to the equation...

Unfortunately they no longer sell batteries or  chargers for this model, it was superseded by another with the same mode number but a different shape...

Cheers,
Rich

Offline BillTodd

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2014, 06:22:17 AM »
NO!

dont even try it , you're asking to be burned or electricuted.

There are perfectly useable battery drills around for £40 upwards and mains drills for less.

Bill
Bill

Offline loply

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2014, 07:11:56 AM »
Thing is, this drill was originally about £500, it's a quality item... Made in Germany, SDS, strong hammer, etc.

Seems a shame to scrap it and replace it with some lightweight junk. I'm sure it can be repaired or otherwise modified to bring it back to usefulness.

If the motor won't run on A/C I could possibly get a 24v power supply of some kind for it...? Just not sure how much current it would need...

Offline awemawson

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2014, 07:14:30 AM »
 Re cell the battery pack
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

lordedmond

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2014, 07:18:28 AM »
Take nealy safe way out
Get two Gell type 12 volt rechargeable bricks wire in series connect up to the batt terms in the drill ,yes it will have a cord , the batts will be on the floor. To charge them split them and charge from a normal car charger

Has as been said Do NOT under any circumstances connect that drill to the 240vac mains or you will have a very long rest in a long box with your arms crossed on you chest

Stuart

Offline edward

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2014, 07:25:33 AM »
Buy a new battery or re-cell the original battery and buy a suitable charger.

Stikealite offer a replacement Bosch fitting battery for £64 http://www.strikalite.co.uk/prodcat_type/39/ALL/0/Cordless_drill_batteries.html although it doesn't list your exact model. They will almost certainly be able to supply cells if that won't fit, and definately a charger.

They are really helpfull if you give them a call

Offline loply

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2014, 08:28:16 AM »
Never heard of 'recelling' a battery before... interesting.

Is the charger for a NiCd a simple affair, ie they're all the same? Just like a car battery?

If so, I guess I could just buy a generic NiCd charger and take the innards out, then fit them into the original Bosch charger plastic case thing? (So that the battery fits into the charger as per the original setup).

It never really occured to me that the battery could be taken apart and it probably just has normal cells inside.. I'm used to dealing with laptop batteries where they don't seem to want you to take it apart.

Offline David Jupp

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2014, 09:15:13 AM »
The strange behaviour of charger may just be because cells are u/s - are you completely sure the charger is also defunct??

Offline loply

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2014, 09:27:54 AM »
Pretty sure the charger is goosed, if you move the battery in and out it flickers on occasionally, and makes crackly electrical noises in the meantime.

I've checked the obvious loose/dirty contacts.

Offline vtsteam

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2014, 09:40:12 AM »
Okay, first check the charger power cord at the entry to the charger. If the intermittent charging problem is related to the cord position, then the problem is there.  It sounds like you are not at all electronics savvy, so then take it to a qualified repair person to fix the cord issue. They may also be able to fix something deeper in the circuit, if that turns out to be the problem. Why mess with it yourself?

Second, battery packs can have their internal cells replaced, BUT, usually it isn't easy to do, and is not a good thing to attempt if you don't already work with electronics. Many of these battery packs are inside heat welded plastic casings, and it's possible, but tough to get them apart without destroying them or knicking batteries inside with a cutting tool -- which can also be hazardous.

Third, batteries and chargers MUST be matched for type, charge current, and over-charge protection, or a fire or explosion can result. Batteries can be many different basic types: Li-poly, Li-ion, Li-Fe, NiCd, Nimh, etc. And each type has specific charging requirements, and within that range each different size and configuration of cells has different requirements. Again, if a person understands all of the technical details and has electronics experience, it's do-able. But if you don't, it's definitely a bad idea.

Again, it's often possible to find a service online that will re-cell batteries -- just like re-fillers for ink cartridges. That would be far preferable to having to do that yourself.

Ideally you will get your charger professionally repaired, and have matching cells re-celled into your battery pack, and at far less than the $500 you spent on th drill.
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline vtsteam

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2014, 10:01:32 AM »
Re. batteries charging and fires, please read the link below from a hobby model forum

While it applies to LiPos mainly used in model planes, I have personally had a non R/C NiMh battery pack overheat and melt a plastic case due to a peak charger failing to recognize when the battery was full. Luckily I was attending it at the time. Any rechargeable battery can, burst, or catch fire if the charger doesn't charge appropriately. Mixing and matching chargers and batts is serious business.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1936756&postcount=4
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline vtsteam

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2014, 10:13:05 AM »
http://www.drill-battery.co.uk/cordless/abatteries.php/6+BOSCH+GBH_24_VRE+127241

And there seem to be a lot of 24V Bosch chargers on EBay, both used and new when I type "bosch-gbh-24-vre" in the search field. It looks like you could find a replacement by matching part numbers to your charger.
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline awemawson

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #12 on: December 09, 2014, 10:44:57 AM »
This is a place I've been intending to use for a while.

http://www.recellyourbattery.com/prices

I've re-celled De-Walt 18v packs a couple of times - don't buy cheepo cells from ebay go to a proper supplier
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline steampunkpete

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2014, 02:02:05 PM »
Many moons ago I inherited a project that required a rechargeable, sealed battery pack for an underwater application. The terminal voltage was of the same order as your drill. What we found was that if the battery packs weren't built from cells from the same batch, and preferably consecutive cells off the production line, then reliability was low - the packs failed after a limited life. The problem stemmed from variation in charging characteristics from cell to cell; thus in a stack of cells taken from more than one batch, some cells would still be charging when other cells were fully charged, so in order to fully charge the pack some cells inevitably ended up over-charged. Your chances of being able to select a set of cells that you know meet the one-batch criteria are small.

I think that the moral is go for replacement genuine parts, and if you can't get them, then bite the bullet and get a new drill. Is it really worth the time and effort to bodge something up with the battery and charger if the drill is also old and may not have a useful residual life?

An NO don't even think of going down the 240 Volts a.c. route. You might have to be mad to post here - but 240 Volt mad is too mad.

Offline Chuck in E. TN

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2014, 07:17:09 PM »
Couldn't you find a electronis person to build a mains power supply with the required voltage and current capability into a stripped out battery case? Seems if the drill was worth keeping, that's what I'd do.
Where are you located Loply? I have a brother-in-law thats an electronics guy with a shop in Fordam in Cambs. I can hook you up, but be quick, he's retiring soon.
Chuck
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Offline snub

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #15 on: December 10, 2014, 02:15:31 PM »


I've re-celled De-Walt 18v packs a couple of times - don't buy cheepo cells from ebay go to a proper supplier


That is very good advise. I bought some cheap batteries ( about $1.50 each ).  Spent hours re-celling the battery pack. 2 months later they went for a crap.

Offline DavidA

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2014, 03:18:10 PM »
I was wondering about a different route.
How about getting a small 24 volt  lead-acid battery and making up an adapter lead to fit the drill.

Lead acids are longer lived than the usual Ni Cads etc.  also more rugged.

I am aware that there could be trouble due to the ability of the drill to draw a high current (lead acids being low internal resistance) but I should imagine that ,  with care,  it would do the trick.

You could use a couple of the small 12 Yuasa batteries strapped in series and carried in a pouch from your belt.

Just a thought.

Dave.

Offline steampunkpete

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #17 on: December 10, 2014, 04:21:32 PM »
Quote
I was wondering about a different route.
How about getting a small 24 volt  lead-acid battery and making up an adapter lead to fit the drill.

Probably a better idea than trying to make up a battery pack out of un-matched Ni-Cds.  :thumbup:

Offline snub

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2014, 01:09:05 AM »
loply, you may want to check this thread out. You may be able to bring your batteries back from the dead.

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,6295.msg66681.html#msg66681

Offline steampunkpete

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #19 on: December 13, 2014, 01:54:58 AM »
Quote
Any rechargeable battery can, burst, or catch fire if the charger doesn't charge appropriately. Mixing and matching chargers and batts is serious business.

Here's a sobering thought. If I've done my sums correctly there is as much energy locked up in a D size NiCd as two hand-grenades - it's just that one releases its energy much, much faster than the other.

Luckily for us using the wrong charger can't cause the Nicd to explode!  :clap:

Offline vtsteam

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2014, 11:18:59 AM »
Actually it can. Though not necessarily using the electrical energy stored -- but gas pressure. Overcharging can also cause a fire by overheating the pack, without bursting.

Lithium cells on the other hand can truly explode from the massive electrical energy stored shorting in combination an internal construction using combustibles.
I love it when a Plan B comes together!
Steve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDubB0-REg

Offline BenH

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #21 on: December 13, 2014, 02:32:07 PM »
Hi folks,

I've got an old Bosch GBH 24 VRE drill which has both a battery with little life left, and a broken charger.

The charger flickers on and off and makes weird noises, the battery is ancient so didn't hold much charge anyway.

I'm wondering if I could convert this drill to run off 240v instead? Anybody know if it's likely to have a universal motor, and if so whether I could simply wire up the battery terminals (there's only two...) to 240? The trigger is a variable speed one so I don't know how that would factor in to the equation...

Unfortunately they no longer sell batteries or  chargers for this model, it was superseded by another with the same mode number but a different shape...

Cheers,
Rich

They are nice drills used to have a company supplied one, does it have the rectangular packs or funky romboid shaped one?

Anyhow I've recelled all of my Milwaukee 18v and 14.4v over the last few years and use them daily, certainly works out cheaper then replacing the whole lot as they were quite expensive when new but I dont expect to get anonther 10 years out of them. If they are just the normal 'sub C' cells in the packs it's not too bad to do, I went for a upgrade as such and went from 2.0ah Nicads to 4.3ah Nimhs but my chargers were suitable for Nimhs already.

Offline John Rudd

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #22 on: December 13, 2014, 02:47:28 PM »
Ben,
Where did you buy your cells from please?
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Offline BenH

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Re: New life to old 24v Bosch drill?
« Reply #23 on: December 13, 2014, 04:27:42 PM »
Hi John I got mine from www.vapextech.co.uk/ certainly not the best cells in the world, I did find the shrink wrap a little thin on them so had to give them all extra wrap to stop shorting which made it very tight in the packs. I did have a single cell leak but I think that was more down to a short from a loose solder blob, with a  new cell in they have been ok so far and a lesson learned  :doh: