Charge Rate for gel cell battery?

Col Taylor in Wagga had them on sale, and I couldn't resist at that price

Silver lining in every cloud?

David

I agree with you there Poxy - good gear can help when you have limited skills

- I have lousy co-ordination etc, and coudn't cut a straight line if I tried - but with a Triton workbench I CAN cut straight, and replacing my stick welder with a MIG welder let me go from blowing holes in metal to making joins that didn't fall apart. Same with tennis - lousy player, but a damn good racket helped a lot.

..and though I am lousy flyer? (can't really claim that title yet), a JR 8310 helps a lot

David - who reck> The Raven wrote:

He had them listed for $89 in his pre-stocktake sale, but I assumed they were the old (non-Advance) model.

Hate to give you the bad news, but sadly you assumed wrongly - it was the Advance model he was selling - might be worthwhile asking in case any left at that price

David

PS I might have paid 89 - memory is a bit off at times

Poxy wrote:

A local hobby shop in Melbourne Australia was. I'll admit it was a special but even at normal prices they are around $100ish AUD.

I see your point but it's a hard one to justify given the amount of use it'll get. I won't buy rubbish but I won't be spending heaps either.

Was it Roj's by any chance? It sounds like there's a pretty wide margin on those chargers, which means pretty much any shop should be able to do that kind of price if they have one on the shelf.

I had a look at the Ozito and GMC saws the other day - they certainly aren't as solid, nor have as nice a blade as the expensive ones (Makita, Dewalt, Hitachi etc), but they'll probably do 90% as good a job I expect, t about

What that says is there's a pretty fat margin, which means I should be able to wangle a similar deal out of Col or even the local shop when I get around to finishing my new Formosa....

quietguy wrote:

I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread (or if it was i missed it), but if a gelcell battery is kept on trickle charge and allowed to go over 13.8V, it will quickly be hosed. Don't ask how i know.:-) When trickle charging, you have to use a regulated charger that'll float the battery at no higher than 13.8V. Bill(oc)

Yes, it was Rojs. Roj and Col Taylor generally have the best prices but a few other hobby shops are realising they need to compete on equal footing. I suspect Roj and Col work on slim margins and bulk buys, while it has its risks it does tend to work over the "stock one and have a good margin" method.

With any of Rojs and Cols specials you need to buy them then. Wait until the special is gone and you're unlikely to see that price again anywhere.

The GMC stuff is usually a lower quality copy of a Ryobi (most parts interchange). I'd be happy to fork out for a better blade to use on a GMC (for example). Ozito stuff I've tried, lasts long enough to justify its price but not much else.

The only GMC thing I've bought is a high pressure cleaner - it seems to be holding up pretty well so far and has some crazy long warranty designed to compensate for its cheapness I guess.

At the cheap end of the market, there's also Aldi - they do tend to have a rather mad assortment of stuff on offer, but most of the time the quality is surprisingly good. Case in point: I have one of their 18v cordless drills which I've used intensively for landscaping in very harsh, dusty environments and building/renovation work for 2 years - I've dropped it from ladders onto concrete numerous times and it's never skipped beat. The battery is starting to give shorter stints between charges, but when it gets too bad I might try and re-pack with new NiCads or whatever's in there. Anyway, based on that experience, I'd probably buy a power tool off them with some degree of confidence.

When I was building bird cages I bought one of those GMC metal cutoff saws - worked just fine, and as I only do a bit of metal fabrication now and again it fits the bill at a damn good price - I also have a GMC 9" angle grinder - great for cutting water tanks and 44s in half.

But the 4" angle grinder that I use all the time is a Ryobi - works a treat, lasted 10 years so far

Horses for courses is the way to go

David

Poxy wrote: