12 Volt corded drill

[hookhill]

Well been thinking about sugaring alot lately! We just got permission for another 500 taps and now its time to come up with something to drill all those holes. In the past we used a 14 volt Makita and just kept recharging the batteries. It worked ok for 325 taps but time to take it up a notch. Looking around the shop I noticed we had several 12V cordless drills with bad batteries and a few car batteries. There has got to be a way to just connect the drill to a car battery and pack the battery through the woods. Did a web search and of course there are other people who have implemented this idea already. Here is the link:

http://www.stu-offroad.com/misc/12Vdrill-1.htm

So what we plan on doing is hook the drill to the small car battery via a cord and some clips and mount the battery on a old child backpack. Will let you know how it goes.

Jim

[maplwrks]

Jim,
Mike Bromley was doing that 4years ago and it worked real well. He was selling them in the Addison County area. He lives in the Bristol area, give him a call, he might be able to give you a few pointers.

[maplehound]

The small hot start batteries used to jump start a car or any 12 volt tractor also comes with a ciggaret lighter plug. It may be lighter thatn most 12 volt batteries, is recahgeable and varie easy to use. I might even try this myself.

[brookledge]

I did that many years ago with a drill that was originally a 12 volt drill with a cord but I got sick of lugging the weight of the 12 volt car battery.
No doubt about it though that it will last along time especially if you get a deep cycle battery.
The new type of batteries out are lithium-ion and are suppose to last 2-3 times longer than ni-cad. However I don't have one to back that up.
Keith

[NH Maplemaker]

If you were using any type of wet cell battery, I would be concerned about acid spill or evan vapor :!: Vapor from a wet cell will eat your clothes or evan irritate your skin or eyes! I think Ron (maplehound) is right :idea: The car start dry cells would work great Jim L.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

Is all the weight and agrivation of the 12 vold drill worth it??? Bascoms has gas tappers in price range from $75 to $200 and the $75 one they have had for a while so i bet you could get it cheaper then that... To me The couple hundread dollars (max) you would spend on a gas tapper out weighs the 12 volt all day long... I tapped with a 18 volt Dewalt once I think I was averaging about 40 taps per hour, with one helper, due to the drilling speed.. With my Tanaka we can average near 100 an hour.. I pull the plugs on my taps the weekend before I tapp and the 1 man drills and 1 man hammers the taps in the hole, about 30 seconds each including walk time in between..

[Fred Henderson]

Take a look on ebay for one. Might get one with reverse to boot.

[maplehound]

seems to me that gas tappers would be heavy and noisy. ( never used one myself) I do think that 18 volt is the way to go but the batteries on these cordless drills are expensive and sometimes it is better to buy new drill than a replacement batterie. If you can convert one to a car stat dry cell it could save you money and time.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have an 18 volt Hitachi and I can get 140 to 150 taps per battery and with 3 batteries, that is going to be close to a full day for one person anyways. The drill is very compact and light and has a 5 year warranty. As steep as most of the land is where my trees are, I don't need extra weight shifting as it is hard enough just to stand up.

The amount of taps per battery is with one of the new high speed $ 20 cordless bits from Bascoms.

[hookhill]

Yeah I thought about getting a gas tapper. Borrowed my neighbors once and it worked pretty good. It didnt work that much faster than a cordless though and is noisier. A gas tapper would be nice but I got the spare parts around for a cordless running off a car battery.