Help me convert my old drills

[sewoodruff]

Hello,
That's a great topic,
I've been looking for something similar for a long time.
The reason is not that my battery pack is out of order, the reason is that whenever I have to screw something in my shop, (that's not so often, not every week end), my three battery packs are always flat.
And as I don't want to plan several hours ahead that I have to screw something, I use the cordless drill very rarely.
As I am in my shop, I have no problem with the cord, and would prefer to have a tool always ready to use, even with a cord, rather than an always flat cordless tool.
And I don't want neither to have the battery charger always plugged, in case of an hypothetical use ....

I've always wondered why the manufacturers don't do such corded power screw drivers. I sometimes use my electric hand drill, but I really miss the torque limitation and the speed is too difficult to control.

My drill has the bad idea to be 14.4 V, so I guess using something like a car battery charger of 12 V would not fit ?
However, would that be so damaging for the motor to be 12V powered instead of 14.4 V ?

Diyer, I like the third solution you provided, that's exactly what I need, but will it be possible to find a bridge rectifier or regulator to convert from 18V AC to 14.4 DC ?
There are also lots of solutions over the Web making use of Laptop chargers, but I never considered these kind of solutions as serious, I feel that the current pick in real use would be far superior as what they could supply.

Thanks notagoodwelder for posting the question, and sorry if I 'm invading your topic.
Christophe

Christophe,

I had the same problem and my solution was after recharging the battery I plugged the charger into a timer. You know the same kind people put their lights on when they go on vacation. I started out with a short time each day and increased the time until the battery still had full voltage after two weeks. The timer was cheap and I still had the convenience of a cordless drill.

Glad to know I wasn't alone with this problem.
Steve W.