18v portable cordless drill converted to corded

Trying out the blog app.

used a pc power supply to power an old cordless drill with dead nicd batteries

PC power supplies generated 12V and apparently up to 20A.  More amperage if two of the 12V lines (and maybe two of the grounds) are tied together; the spec has a 20A limitation on each wire.

yellow is 12V

black is ground/common

green is the trigger to start.  atx power supplies don't start when switched on, but instead wait for an impulse.  jumper the green to black and it provides that impulse.  

next step is to buy a PC power wire that matches on on the supply and cut one end off, run it into the battery pack, and solder it to the original battery connector tabs.  Also might need to glue the tabs into place because they were originally fixed in place by sitting on top of the battery pack.

I first tried a laptop power supply at 18V, 2 Amps, which ran my cordless drill (no mechanical load) but would not run my cordless sander, which is about 8x the power draw according to the label. The PC power supply had enough power supply to run the sander, and then some.