cordless tool 18V to 12V converter

Very good idea👍

If you have any equipment rental companies in the area... may well be worth trying-before-buying from them too.

Not sure it's a good idea, see below and elsewhere, but if I were doing it I'd go for a converter rated for at least 3 or 4 times the approx 10A stall current, likely to cost around £30.

eg

If you need plastic bits 3D printing can help. .stls of the common connectors are readily available online, and though typically not very good, they can be adapted.

The metal parts are usually not too hard to make with simple hand tools, shears and files etc, and a heavy duty soldering iron.

Most 12v drills are not going to be capable of that. In fact, most

Also a good hammer action is going to be heavy. Do you want SDS plus or SDS Max?

I'd think a good SDS plus would be enough, something rated for 22m in concrete, 16mm in steel.

You don't say what sort of 12v drill or 18v batteries you already have?

Peter Fairbrother

Current type: Dewalt "XR" 18V. Have for for current pistol-grip drill and driver - pair for "general building work".

Thanks for linking me to a representative converter 20-ish volts to

The tool gets bigger, it is marginally capable of the job, and it's good money after bad. Had the tool taken the batteries I have, I could have even piloted and drilled to size to keep down the size of what I take dow the mine - this being only for if get a granite boulder I need to break apart to make easier to take away. Carry in a shoulder bag for if-and-when. That "solution" gone.

I tool a 240V SDS drill to the mine

"I'd think a good SDS plus would be enough, something rated for 22m in concrete, 16mm in steel." I'd guess so - will update if find anything different.

Anyway, good news is plan for coming session - going to run an air-hose up the raise and use a jackhammer to break up the rocks lying around on that sub-level.

Explanation offered by an ex-miner why boulders there... When used as a training mine, they showed going into the side of the tunnel as if looking if lode went that way, and didn't use enough blasting medium to shatter and break up the rock - said needed twice as much blasting medium.

DCH133 @ about £100 ?

There is granite and granite, but

Peter Fairbrother

Not sure it's a good idea, see below and elsewhere, but if I were doing it I'd go for a converter rated for at least 3 or 4 times the approx 10A stall current, likely to cost around £30.

eg

If you need plastic bits 3D printing can help. .stls of the common connectors are readily available online, and though typically not very good, they can be adapted.

The metal parts are usually not too hard to make with simple hand tools, shears and files etc, and a heavy duty soldering iron.

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The battery terminals on my 14.4V DeWalt drill are flat blades nearly 2mm thick, the drill contacts are female receptacles. You could make individual flat blade contacts attached to stiff solid wire and poke them in, slide rubber tubing down over the wires to prevent an accidental short if they come loose, then secure them somehow at the opening to the battery well. The white nylon terminal strips with setscrew wire connection make good removeable wire splices to connect the flexible power cord, and perhaps hold the terminal wires in place.

Polymer clay is uncured PVC resin that can be molded to fit an irregular recess and then hardened in that shape by baking. Plastic parts may be difficult to copy by measurement because of their draft angles, which are necessary to remove them from the molds.

"Heatshrink" tubing is better than electrical tape to insulate connections because it won't loosen with age like some brands of tape. The Marine version contains hot melt glue that waterproofs the joint.

Must be doing something right because I also found that channel. The comparison you found - the two plausible "classic electric drill shaped" SDS drills - going into granite is about as good as it gets. Didn't find that exact one.

Having spent all this time, will probably go for one - likely the newer-model drill. Seems to have enough of an advantage to be worth that extra "headroom" in performance. Slower revs but more impact = longer drill-bit life? I have something like 3 or 4 of the DeWalt "XR" 18V batteries. going with my other DeWalt tools. So should be fine down the mine. Or doing some prospecting. Or whatever.

Must be doing something right because I also found that channel. The comparison you found - the two plausible "classic electric drill shaped" SDS drills - going into granite is about as good as it gets. Didn't find that exact one.

Having spent all this time, will probably go for one - likely the newer-model drill. Seems to have enough of an advantage to be worth that extra "headroom" in performance. Slower revs but more impact = longer drill-bit life? I have something like 3 or 4 of the DeWalt "XR" 18V batteries. going with my other DeWalt tools. So should be fine down the mine. Or doing some prospecting. Or whatever.

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I noticed a tendency for the fracture line to be perpendicular to the bottom of the holes instead of continuing beyond them, so a large flake shears off the surface. Perhaps a quarryman would have some good advice.

Went for the DeWalt DCH263N

In that test (and others?) there seemed to be enough advantage to the DCH263, in max drill size, drilling rate and amount of holes drilled per battery charge. Plus the price is 20quid higher - not vast difference.

Hopefully will report back what it can do. Aiming for weeks time at the mine.

Rich S

Went for the DeWalt DCH263N

In that test (and others?) there seemed to be enough advantage to the DCH263, in max drill size, drilling rate and amount of holes drilled per battery charge. Plus the price is 20quid higher - not vast difference.

Hopefully will report back what it can do. Aiming for weeks time at the mine.

Rich S

---------------------------- Nice drill, beyond my price range to buy new. Are they paying you for this?

No.

But haven't got a "cordless" SDS drill, price pretty good for "bare" drill and have the batteries already for my "carpentry type" driver (for wood-screws) and drill (for wood-bits going into joists etc.)

You are probably seeing the price in a pretty box with two large-capacity batteries - 4Ah or 5Ah.

You are probably seeing the price in a pretty box with two large-capacity batteries - 4Ah or 5Ah.

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I've used a large powerful drill to cut 4" holes for conduit in steel and would rather not have to need to again. It was inside a closet-sized electrical enclosure and when the hole saw jammed the long-handled geared drill would continue for another quarter turn, whether or not some part of me was in the way.

The Makita is something of a beast too, but I use it outside. When with a crew I feel like the squad member who has the machine gun.

Got the DeWalt DCH263 - arrived. Seems for-real - batteries I already have fit it, etc. Bought a couple of SDS masonry drill-bits - 14mm and 10mm.

Already have 14mm "feathers" - splitting wedges.

Hope to take them to the mine next week and see if can split rocks - this hard granite.

Got the DeWalt DCH263 - arrived. Seems for-real - batteries I already have fit it, etc. Bought a couple of SDS masonry drill-bits - 14mm and 10mm.

Already have 14mm "feathers" - splitting wedges.

Hope to take them to the mine next week and see if can split rocks - this hard granite.

-------------------------------- The advice from Trow and Holden was about splitting granite neatly in a quarry. The miners may have other ways to split it roughly to dispose of it.

The only way I've seen was with the hydraulic jackhammer on an excavator, and it could take perhaps an hour to crack a large granite boulder left from blasting and meant for fill. They drilled to blast but not to break up the rubble.

Amazed at supplies store here in UK - one link was "black powder". Followed the link - is used by stonemasons - makes total sense. Will part rock from rock - but not shatter the rock - which a "modern" blasting medium would.

So you saw unusable stone - for some reason - shape, flaws, etc.? - which they had to break-up?

Probably mentioned previously - the task at the mine is said to be because, although they used a brisant blasting medium, they didn't use enough of it to shatter rock into easily-managed small stuff. Which nett is usually much cheaper (?) than having to break up big rocks.

So you saw unusable stone - for some reason - shape, flaws, etc.? - which they had to break-up?

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That was at a construction site where they were smoothing very uneven terrain enough to build houses on. They blasted the ridges to fill in the gulleys and named the development in memory of what they had destroyed. A machine like this crushed much of the rubble to gravel, sharp-edged like you want instead of the glacial-runoff-smoothed gravel in the ground here.

Hi everyone.

Posted at top of thread - wishing to thank everyone who contributed to this "journey" whose extent (effort, duration) I never anticipated.

Here is the outcome - what a surprise. In a very pleasant way! There is hope this is "for real". I handed the equipment to another person who came by to see how I as getting on, and trying it he concurs - it works and it is to be hoped this is "for real".

Well would you ever have believed it...?!

Best wishes, Rich Smith

Excellent, Rick

Rich,

NICE job! You have a working solution to this problem👍

Forgive me... but my mind immediately went to why not make (or buy) some larger feathers to fit the Pneumatic drill hole and maybe some smaller feathers so your battery drill could use a smaller drill hole🤔