Thanks, these old ratchets are great quality and worth trying to fix up.

I agree, I can't believe they are that bad.

I do a full test on a three phase motor with this meter in another video. I believe it's called motor testing 101.

Do you know what they were in to get nasty? I've not had any issues with mine yet. Are yours the new non USA version or do you have ones made by Western Forge?

I have a Braun here as well as at least one or two others. I'm thinking of good was to compare them, and it'll probably be a video sometime in the future. For the money, there's nothing wrong with the Braun from what I see so far.

I saw those adapters and was thinking about giving one a go. How's the torque with the lower voltage?

@@TalkingHandsTools They work a little slower. The only drawback is that the M18 battery does not communicate with the consumer and does not have overdischarge protection like the original Milwaukee V28 battery.

@Popajaja you're correct the V series of batteries had the Battery Management in the battery the new tools have it in the tool. You would have to watch your charge manually.

I apologize, but it appears a bunch of my early videos only uploaded in lower resolution for some reason. I could try and re-upload the video at some point. I honestly wasn't aware till just now. I thought I uploaded everything in 1080P I guess my old crappy internet got me.

Let me know how they hold up. The Doyle pliers in this video are a copy of the Channellock 428. I tend to go for the 428s before these Doyle in the shop.

I think I can test that with some of the new gear I recently got. If they are a little harder than others, they should hold up a little better. I was surprised how bad the flush cut quality was on the Klein. I've had the Klein in the work gear for years. If you didn't see the final episode where we compare all the cutters together, check it out. The performance of the Klein surprised me greatly.

Glad to help out, my only warning on this one would be keep track of your batteries. If you get down to one bar take them off. Don't wait for the tool to shut off. 13.2V seems too low and might hurt the longevity of your batteries.

It is amazing how decent the cheap ones are.

Great info, I currently do not have a rig to bring cells down, but I did have the power supply. I have a normal charger somewhere, and I agree it would have been a better choice due to the lower current. I guess it was obvious I don't use the rapid charger much due to me not knowing what the flashing light meant. I could very clearly hear the charger stop charging, and it flashed green for about 15 minutes, which led to me speculating what the flashing green might have meant. The nice thing about playing around it is that you learn. I just happen to shoot a video while I learn, so mistakes are gonna happen for all to see. I could have edited all them out, but I like to leave them in the hopes it's shows people it's okay to make mistakes and maybe show you have to be willing to evolve with your project. You might have an idea going into a project, but if you're successful, you should know a lot more when you're done. The other nice thing about leaving mistakes in is it creates a dialog where hopefully others that had a similar experience can say what they've seen and what they do. Thank you very much for your insights it helps out the discussion a great deal. I agree with you that whether you drain high cells or float charge low cells, you need to get them all close before you try to charge them, and a non-rapid charger is preferred. I do think I prefer taking the low cells up only due to I have the advantage of an infrared camera, if there is an issue with a cell and it gets hot I stand a better chance of finding it with the individual charging method. Thanks again for taking the time to comment. I greatly appreciate hearing what other people do when they are faced with this. Hopefully, I was able to show you at least stand a chance of fixing your pack if you get the dreaded 8 flashing lights.

Do you think if there's a high current draw or if they sit an extended period, it could throw things out of whack? I've brought back a few equalizing the cells this way, and they are still operating fine.

@@TalkingHandsTools The issue with lithium batteries sitting for long periods of time is self discharge if it gets below the BMS low battery cell cutoff voltage, thus preventing it from being recharged, and possibly damaging the cells once it falls below the minimum cell voltage for enough time to cause damage. I have been told that if you are not going to use your lithium batteries for extended periods of time to keep them in a freezer, but make sure you let them defrost fully before using or recharging! This is supposed to slow down the self discharge to almost nothing. It seems to me to be a failure of the BMS board and charging system, either in design or a malfunction, that it cannot detect that while some cells are at charged voltage, others are not, and charging needs to be applied only to the low cells until all cells are balanced. This is a normal function of quality lithium BMS that include cell balancing. I am disappointed by my Milwaukee 12 Ah batteries having a much shorter life than I expected, and will be looking to follow your lead in refurbishment. I suspect that Milwaukee went with the cheapest BMS they could get away with, one that may not even include balancing, and the batteries are suffering for it.

Thank you very much for the comments, what your saying is aligning with what I've seen in practice. For what it's worth, I have brought back a 12ah pack this way. I didn't shoot a video on that one, but it prompted me to shoot a video when I played around with this one. That 12AH pack has been going through charge cycles fine since I balanced the cells.

@@TalkingHandsTools Thanks for the info. I am an electrician in the power industry, and have a small pile of Milwaukee batteries that have stopped working, and you are giving me the courage to fiddle with them. I suppose I will keep a bucket of water handy just in case :) Now to find a power supply fit for purpose.....

@GoCoyote the batteries aren't too bad. You will want to make sure nothing gets hot as you charge them. A constant current power supply like I use in the video is best. That way, you can make sure you're not putting too much current into the cells. I'm an industrial electrician myself. Just make sure you work on rubber and you keep metal tools and other objects away. As I'm sure you're well aware, batteries don't have overcurrent or short circuit protection, so things can go very bad if you short them out. Meter things out good first and get a sense for where things are at and take it from there. If you have questions, feel free to ask. I'll help where I can.

LOL, nah, the only guy that could be AvE is AvE. I'll do my own thing my own way. I doubt I'll ever be anywhere close to his level. But I am a guy playing around in my own shop, which is always fun, and if I'm not mistaken, is encouraged by any of the good KZfaqrs. Did you try this conversion? It works great. I have quite a few hours on this now with no problems whatsoever. Thank you for the comment.

@TalkingHandsTools We're you doing it your own way when you took his lingo? Doing some of that is fine if you pit your own flavor on it & also have your own style to begin with. This is not that. Hell yeah! I did it's a skookum choocher nowadays. It's nice, but you gotta keep it clean. I gotta tear it apart and clean out the shmoo inbetwixed the gears.

@AsteroidRespecter you got me confused give me a time stamp. What did I say?

​@TalkingHandsTools Dude, it's a 6 minute video & it's obvious you know AvE's lingo. In fact, if you can't figure it out then you shouldn't be doing this job to begin with. FFS

Have you ever worked in industry or the trades? Guys talk like I talk in this video to each other every day. It's not like AvE invented an entire vernacular. Maybe the reason he's so popular is he's so relatable to people work and earn an honest living every day. Thanks for the comments.

I did not make a follow-up yet. I can say these knock-off batteries are hit and miss. I think I'm at about 50 percent success rate. If you buy two, one seems to fail. I have recently started to wonder if it's low voltage. It may be that they don't recover from being run down hard like the legit batteries do.

@@TalkingHandsTools Thanks for the reply. I’ve just purchased a couple of WECACHWE M28s. I’ll let you know how they do. I’m just finding it hard to drop $184 for 1 battery from Milwaukee.

I agree with that completely. I'm always looking for an alternative myself.

The 260 is an amazing meter. Rest assured the school stickers will be staying in place.

How old are those Kleins? Do you have a catalog number for them? I'd like to look them up and test them against the others.

I use QElectroTech you may have to make your own symbols but you'll always have them to use after you make them.

I'm not sure you would be able to magnetize a socket enough to hold nuts or bolts. You may be able to purchase magnets and try to modify a socket with them.

I gotta admit I didn't expect the results I got with the Klein. I was really happy with the quality of the Weller cutters for the money.

I'd have to go back and look, but I think I show some of the buffing on the straight grinder videos we did on the channel. In the future, I can show more of how I buff them. I normally do a fairly quick job, and it gets decent results. I'll try and work in a restoration in the next month or two.

That's a great idea. I might do that at I might do that myself at some point.

I agree I have a pair of Kleins that I've had at work a long time for the exact same uses.

Does your Snap-On close similar to the one I have here? I was kinda bummed to find the gap on them. I was curious if other pairs were similar.

@TalkingHandsTools if ur talking about the flush cutters having a slight gap between the blades, yeh, mine does too. My icons dont

@benjaminmasters5375 that's really a bummer considering what they cost. I like everything else about them aside from how they are ground I do believe the Snap-On has slightly better build quality over the Icon. I'm not sure it's three times better but I think it's better.

I missed that, good eye!

It's really hard to show on video, but they really are a better quality grip.

I agree. I like the feel of the snap on and newer icon handles over the first icon pair I got.

Thank you very much. I've always goofed around with things and thought it might be fun to share what I get into. At a minimum, maybe I can help someone decide what product fits their needs best or encourage them to try and take apart something that is broken and try to repair it.

I picked up an insider I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. This homemade long 1/2 is a go to for me.

Check out my community posts. I have a Jpg of thee schematic there.

I did this repair for a friend, and I never had a charger for the pack here, but I'll do the best I can to help. A lot of chargers use what's called pulse width modulation to charge batteries. Think of this as a ping of voltage. What they will do is send out a pulse and then look for a reply. If it doesn't get something back, it won't continue to send higher voltage pulses out, and it will assume there's a problem and trigger a fault. So 14v might not mean the charger is bad. You will also notice a few connections on the battery. Each of the connections is used to balance the voltage in the cells within the battery pack. Each individual connection gets a separate pulse if any one has a problem, it won't charge. You may not have an issue with your charger. You may have an issue with your battery. Do you have access to another charger? I've seen some chargers be more picky than others. The easiest way of troubleshooting this will either require another battery or another charger to rule out one or the other. I don't recommend disassembling the battery. There are quite a few hazards to make sure you are prepared for. Batteries have a lot of stored energy, and if you short them out, there's nothing to stop the fault like a breaker or fuse. I would say start basic and work up from there. I am assuming you have one battery and one charger. If you can have access to another of either, it will be easier to figure out which may have the problem. If you get access to another known good charger and your battery still faults, it's likely a battery. If it charges, you may have a charger problem. If you get access to another battery that is known to be good and it charges on your charger, you likely have a problem with your original battery. If it does the same thing as your current battery, it may be a charger. If you figure out it might be a battery problem and you want to pursue it further, let me know. I'll help where I can but you will need quite a few specialized and not cheap tools. If it's a charger problem, it's likely easiest to get another and dispose of the old one.

The listing I bought from isn't active. Search for M12 replacement shell, that should get you close. I see quite a few options to choose from.

How many watts do you intend on drawing and for how long between changing cycles? I believe I caught all the basics in this build aside from alternate charging methods. Sizing the batteries and the means of charging for the batteries will be the biggest part. Once you know the size of your components, it'll be easier to figure out what size enclosure you'll need. I'll be happy to help where I can. This was a really fun project to build.

@@TalkingHandsTools I came to have 4 deep cycle batteries (kind of ridiculous) 6v 240amphour batteries. I want to make an off grid system. Linking the batteries for a 12volt system. For simplicity Renogy solar panel charger and inverter(both have all the built in protections). I’d probably have a dc bus for 2 fans but keep the rest of it pretty basic to help myself out. Being able to still hook up a wall charger would be nice. How would I design it to have dual charging methods?

@chaseRDuey I would probably utilize some breakers to isolate your wall charger from the batteries. You could use a breaker to isolate your renogy controller also. It would require some manual operation on your end, but it would protect your chargers and eliminate any fears of reverse current damage to either. Depending on your chargers, I've found many, if left hooked to the batteries while not charging, can actually discharge your battery over time. They use voltage to establish their charging reference, and unless the charger is online, it can actually be a draw to your system. I like to either use a switch or breaker to isolate the chargers so I don't have the parasitic draw on my batteries. Size your breakers at 125% of your rated capacity of your charger, and you should be good.

My larger 2.0 version has breakers. I'm slowly building that project as I have time.

@@TalkingHandsTools That cool not lot people put breaker in them you are only one and i see put breaker inside of it i have 3000 watts need to get fixed broke some off it keep up good work

The one I'm currently designing should be about the same size as yours. I'm hoping to add quite a few features over what you see in this video series.

I believe the Weller Excellite is better quality than the Crescent. Appearance wise they are very close. Quality of cut and force required was better with the Weller Xcelite. I'll see if I can hunt down a Weller Frem to test out. Thank you for the comment!

How do the larger sizes look?

Thats good to know, I'll try and check that out. Did they change anything else on the flush cutter with the updates?

@@TalkingHandsTools nothing else was changed except the grips. They are definitely much softer now

@darin586 That's very interesting if I can figure out a good way to show that in a video. Maybe I'll pick up a pair. Thank you for the heads up!

That's funny. I'm really happy to hear you like the channel. Since I'm set up for flush cutters, I'll probably be doing a few more rounds of them. Do you have any suggestions for different makes? If you have any other types of tools in mind, let me know. I might not get to them right away, but I'll get them on my list to try and get to. Thanks again for the comment!

I think if I were to have an auxiliary battery box, I would build a charger into that box and try to make sure both boxes were at full charge when I connected them together. As far as protections on this circuit I would consider what the amperage draw might be and size my interconnect cables a size or two over what I anticipate and put either a fuse or a breaker inline with the interconnect to protect it. Batteries have a large amount of current available, so the overcurrent device sized for your interconnect wire will prevent you from melting the wire. Also, make sure all the connections are rated for the desired current of the interconnect wiring. I do not have experience with the self heated batteries, but I've read they can draw the batteries down pretty well. I guess I would want to know how many watts the integral heat consumes and try to be at 125% to 150% or so of that draw with my charging supply. Considering cloudy days for solar, etc. I am designing a slightly larger version of this project that will incorporate auxiliary boxes. It's a project with slow progress, and one of the battery boxes will likely be seen on this channel first. Hopefully I was of some help to you. Your project sounds interesting. Let me know if you have any further questions, and I'll gladly help to the best of my abilities.

@@TalkingHandsTools I had also wondered about an appropriately LARGE capacity MPPT charger that could take the input of the Aux battery and supply it to the main box as an apparent solar source, just so it was of a capacity to completely carry the load of a VERY modest inverter and still have the capacity to charge the Main box's battery.

@dannydivine7699 That is an interesting idea, I would probably experiment with that on a smaller scale before doing the actual build. I've not gotten into solar arrays yet in my own projects. This project was the small-scale test of concept for my bigger version. I would check any capacity number very carefully and put breakers or fuses on everything as an insurance policy just in case something goes wrong. I will be really interested to see what you find out trying this. It's a really neat concept if it works.

Thank you for the feedback. Is what I found on the klein and crescent similar to what you experienced? I'm mainly comparing cutting zip ties in these videos just to try and keep things more simple. I have to agree if I had Klein vs Crescent I'd go Klein. Do you think I should do additional match ups?

I’d definitely like to see the final verdict on which is best overall.

@einondarkblade you will be in luck next week!

I'm really glad I was able to help out.

So far they have been great. No casualties to report. I don't use them on impacts I think that may be a source of some people's problems with these.

@@TalkingHandsTools yeah, a lot of people I work with like to throw chrome, sockets and extensions on impacts and it drives me nuts lol thanks for replying back. There was very few videos on these extensions. I just ordered them and wanted to Get the opinion of someone who already has purchased them and has had them for a while

@mattwilson3023 No problem, they obviously have a little extra material where the socket mounts to them, but for what I do, I haven't noticed it really getting in the way. It's nice not to worry about losing a socket for most of what I do (working off a high reach or elevated areas with objects below) so the extra mass is worth it for me. Everyone has their own usage, though.

@@TalkingHandsTools I feel you man I do a lot of wrenching in both 40 and 80 foot aerial platform manlift myself

It's one of those things if you know you know.

The relays are mainly for the remote control. I want to be able to turn this on and off between fairly large intervals of time, and I did not want the parasitic draw of the inverter running all the time when it's not in use. Like with any project, there are many ways to go about doing things. This project was built around a specific use, and it does that very well. It may not be the most practical for other people's usage in its current configuration, but hopefully, seeing how simple a project like this can be might inspire other people to try and make their own.