New (Easy+CHEAP!)Power Source for Hot Wires!

[Kurpal]

Any of you have any old battery operated(variable speed) drills laying around?? PUT THEM TO USE!

Building your own hot wire using an old cordless drill trigger and possibly the battery as the power source seems to be the easiest(and cheapest) way for me.

The trigger controls how hot the wire is which is controled by threading a bolt either in(hotter) or out (cooler) for fine tuning the wire heat.

Check out the pictures!

I do have a couple of questions reguarding the set up: I took a close up picture of what appear to be grounding wires on the trigger. When the trigger is activated the large hunk of metal that all three wires are connected to heats up along with the hot wire.

Another question about other set ups: Does anyone know if corded drills have the motor operating on AC or DC current? If it is DC then those drills would be even better for hot wire applications.

[rick.benjamin]

Kurpal;
Great idea to reuse old battery powered drillmotor parts.

your questions:
what appear to be grounding wires on the trigger.
When the trigger is activated the large hunk of metal that all three wires are connected to heats up along with the hot wire.

That hunk of metal is a "heat sink" and attached to it is a black square that has 3 legs tied to wires. The black square is a "voltage regulator" and it gets hot because it's performing work. The heat sink draws the heat away from the regulator so it doesn't burn up.

Do corded drills have the motor operating on AC or DC current?
They operate on AC.
Regards
Rick

[ZAGNUT]

drillmotor


that reminds me of an old thread down in LTU&P...




dave