Craftsmen 19.2 Rechargable Batteries

Hey, figure I would see if anyone heard of this. I have 5 Craftsmen 19.2 Rechargable Batteries, 2 work great, the other 3 do not take a charge, the battery charger shows a yellow light and doesn't give it a charge at all. The 3 non working batteries are completely dead. I have heard of doing a flash spark, but cannot seem anyone that knows exactly how to preform that procedure.

Any suggestions / recommedations?

THanks in advance...

Never heard of doing a flash spark to recharge or revive a dead battery. But in regards to those Craftsman 19.2 volt batteries I have a couple of 19.2 drills and those batteries are garbage. They are only ever good for 2 or 3 months worth of charges. Even if you follow the directions for the batteries they die out pretty quick then won't take a charge. I have two drills and three batteries with a tandem charger. I've resorted to just throwing them all in the pile of useless tools and use either my Ryobi 18v mini-drill or my 110V Dewalt drill when I need to drill something. The Craftsman power tools are junk. The only thing Craftsman is good for is hand tools.

What's a flash spark? I have a Makita 9v cordless drill, doesn't owe me anything. Batteries are mad expensive for it, like $40. I have a few batteries, one recently croaked, one I got off Ebay was the only time I got ripped off, it was D.O.A. with another cordless Makita that had a wobbly chuck.

Some of my Makita batteries are still working after like 15 years. I've had the chargers croak before the batteries.

I've got a Craftsman reciprocating saw I've been using for around 15 years too, wouldn't say it's junk.

EDIT: Quite a few vids on Youtube. This guy reminds me of Richard Heene, Balloon Boy's nutty dad...

http://youtu.be/ENmAJ2GOAMY

I have heard people bad mouthing Craftsmen cordless tools, but 8 years ago, I had purchased a 5 piece combo (drill, saw-saw, jig saw, circular saw and light) set from Sears and then three years ago, at a black friday deal, I had picked up another cordless drill set. I used these tools hard, mind you the circular saw and saw saw (reciprocating saw) aren't the best since the batteries die very quickly, but if you a quick cut and not close to an electric outlet, it works very well. Both drills have done multiple remodeling projects, I would recommend them to anyone.

Everything still works except for the 3 batteries that will not charge on the charger. I have heard if you "shock" the battery, not sure of the exact science, but it somehow mixes the cells inside the battery and allows a full charge.

I've got the "flash spark" "recipe" for NiCad batteries. This is suppose to make it good as new, or, get rid of the low charge memory. (I've never tried this!)

Wear eye protection! It's possible to blow a battery!!

Fully discharge battery. ( tie the trigger closed or whatever it takes). For 9.7V & less use a car battery, for 9.7 to 19.9V use two car batteries in series to make 24V. (Over 19.9.....I dunno!) Wire negative to negative. (maybe check before it's dead to find which is which?) Run a wire from the car battery positive & make a bare end to hold in your hand. "scratch" or "tap" the positive wire in your hand to the positive of the dead battery 2 or 3 times a second for 10 seconds for 9.6 & less, 6-7 seconds for 9.6 & higher. Check battery with volt meter. It should be the rated voltage. If not, tap for a few more seconds. Once it is up to rated voltage, discharge & recharge on the charger.

Good luck & you didn't hear this from me, LOL.

Freddy wrote: .... Wire negative to negative. ...

For 24v you want negative to positive ... then use negative from one battery, and the positive from the other to make 24v.

SMITTY wrote:For 24v you want negative to positive ... then use negative from one battery, and the positive from the other to make 24v.

Of course.... I was talking about hooking the car battery (ies) to the battery you are "jumping".

Speaking of batteries.... I'm going to make a separate post. Check it out.

Gotcha ... Just makin' sure!

It always seems with any cordless drill, if you want to buy 2 new batteries, you can find a drill kit with the drill, 2 batteries and a charger for about $10 more than buying just the batteries themselves. Watch the sales. I buy the kit and put the spare drill and charger on the shelf. If either one fails, throw it out and use your spare. Cheap insurance.

We have places around here that "rebuild" NiCd battery packs for cordless tools. No idea what the cost would be.

If you are handy with a soldering iron, go to Ebay or your local hobby shop and get the appropriate number of "sub C" cells and rebuild it yourself.

I have a Craftsman drill that I was going to do this too and as usual, I outsmarted myself by thinking I could "upgrade" to lithium. Except I didn't realize you can't just do that so I have a bunch of new lithium sub C's that I don't have any use for.