Hijacking a Corded Drill Motor

Community Projects
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I’m working on a project which requires more torque than the hobby motors available on sparkfun. Gearing systems, chains, and pulleys, would all work, but I believe the cheapest and easiest method for my project is to hijack a motor from a drill. Specifically, a $20 Black & Decker (http://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER … /202516274).

I was able to remove the casing from the drill and hook a DC power supply to the motor. Unfortunately the motor is only pulling 200 milliamps, not enough for my project :(. Why isn’t the drill pulling a full 5.2amps as the product suggests it should? Quick vid - https://instagram.com/p/21o3TWS7Hb/?tak … longstreet

I’ve tried more than one power supply and my current is rated up to 15amps.

Project - https://www.dropbox.com/s/gke5zdtvue4i4 … l.mp4?dl=0

Any ideas? Thanks,

Joe

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What voltage is your power supply? AC or DC? The drill is clearly 120v AC.

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What’s the voltage of your power supply?

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It’s variable, but 12 volts is what I’m using. I’m guessing the motor runs on 12 volts, but I could be wrong. Do you think it could be more?

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joelongstreet:
It’s variable, but 12 volts is what I’m using. I’m guessing the motor runs on 12 volts, but I could be wrong. Do you think it could be more?

You're guessing it runs on 12 volts.

You’re guessing that a power drill, with a cord that plugs into the wall at a nominal 120 VAC, is running at 12 volts.

What, exactly, makes you think that your power drill, again that plugs into the wall, wants to run on 12 volts?

Have you, can you, read the manual?

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfIma … 852ec7.pdf

Can you look at page 4 and tell me what you think now?

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@suitable1 - it’s a DC power supply and yes you’re correct, the drill is clearly AC.

I’ve heard these drills use universal motors, but I’m not sure if there’s a minimum requirement on voltage. 12v DC clearly makes the drill spin (not incredibly well), and 120v ac clearly makes the drill work as intended. Wonder if there’s something in between which might work.

Thanks,

Joe

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Buy a cordless drill…?? Then supply the voltage that the default battery supplies… It is rocket science.

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Thanks codlink, I’ve considered a cordless drill but I couldn’t find many high torque motors with a low price point. Do you have a suggestion.

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I found an old dc 19v laptop supply which is works well. Thanks everyone for your help and politeness.

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joelongstreet:
Thanks codlink, I’ve considered a cordless drill but I couldn’t find many high torque motors with a low price point. Do you have a suggestion.

Home Depot sells a corded screwdriver that uses a 12VDC power supply for $19.99 (or at least they did 2 years ago when I bought one). That would be trivial to convert to battery power.