I went to vote early today at the Tamarac library and on the way in passed a one day community garage sale next door at the senior center. At first I thought the crowd at the garage sale were people in line to vote, since that's where the line ended up in the last election. After doing my civic duty to vote the bums out I wandered through the sale on the way back to my van with the $10 bill I had saved for paying my electric bill. There is a bank next to the check cashing store where I pay FP&L so I figured I would just make one more stop if I saw something worth buying.
I got a Vector 2/4/6 amp battery charger for $5 and then the drill pictured below for $5 more. The
prevaricator* that sold me the drill said it worked but the battery only needed charging.
That wasn't exactly true. The charger had a blown fuse and the 12v nicad pack was stone cold dead and leaking. To be fair to Panasonic I don't think they intended a nicad pack made in August, 1995 to still be in service. Those cells were so old they were made in
Japan not China like the drill. I still had some nicad takeouts Bruce sent me, so I got to work.
The battery charger and pack were only secured with phillips screws, no glue or heat seal. In fact the 12v pack
actually was 12v. It had 10 cells. Not like the "18v" tool packs they sell now that only have 14 cells instead of the proper 15. I changed the fuse holder from 1/2 size and internal to full size and side mounted so if I blow a fuse again I don't have to open the case. It turns out soldering nicads isn't hard if you have the right paste flux and low melt solder. The drill works fine now with a rebuilt battery. It's variable speed/reversible and even has a hammer setting on the clutch for masonry bits.
I paid FPL later.
I'm going to have trouble going any lower. I'm already doing laundry off grid, but the rainy season is over and the irrigation pump used about 3 kwh last month. It's going to run again tonight.
*
http://encarta.msn.com/thesaurus_561596425/liar.html
