Sodium batteries coming into their own

[Old Rocks]

Really? Were you working in the production side of things or strictly in maintenance and repair?


Choice, it is all about choice. I can see battery tools for some situations just that around home here, I have plenty of cord. I can power up to 20 amps from 100 feet out or farther from an outlet with negligible voltage drop so, that is all I need. Thing is, batteries drain, batteries fail, batteries need replaced, batteries are expensive, batteries must be recharged--- I've never had a power cord fail (and if it did, it can be fixed or replaced by another in 30 seconds).

You just plug it in and POWER ON.

I worked as a millwright, strictly maintenance. Power cords are fine, if where you are working is not hard to get to. When you are working on and in machinery, they are a pain in the ass. Also, early in my career, working in a sawmill, I had a cord strung out, working with a 3/4" mag drill upside down, and someone tripped over the cord, disconnecting it. The drill fell and the bit made a cut at the base of my thumb that required stitches. At that time, of course, battery powered drills did not exist, so there was no choice.

At present I have a number of battery powered tools, and have had only one battery failure. One particular tool that I recently bought is a hammer drill, the kind you set anchor bolts in concrete with, that I can put in a back pack with extra batteries and take into the backcountry, using small explosive shells, and break rock. Hard to find a miles long extension cord. LOL

 

[Old Rocks]

Using a battery powered jigsaw was the difference between life or death for me in 2010 when I was cutting the 3" PVC white pipe when I saw arcing going on the 8" long blade which caused me to remove it to see that I was cutting into a power cable that was illegally installed right under the main irrigation pipe which was only 1 1/2 foot deep, if I was using the old hand saw I would have died right then the battery powered saw had given me just enough resistance in the plastic body and handle.....

It was a 230 volt 40 amp wire for an irrigation timer that only needed just 2 amps to work effectively. I reported it to the City's electrical department who went to investigate and boy were they shaken as they thought I should have died with that much power melting the sawblade through the arching. Then they got very angry as that was a massive code violation which was reported then they disconnected the wire at the sources and ran a new power line and the pipe that was laid in 3 feet deep as code requires that was appropriate for the Times set up and also installed a device that automatically shuts it down a Ground Fault device at the power source.

I still remember several electricians staring at me for weeks afterwards.

My workmate was electrocuted that required hospitalization at a job in another park around 2002 time which he barely survived.

I was employed as an Irrigation Specialist for 20 years doing virtually everything required for the job even laid out some irrigation designs to correct bad design done years earlier in my parks I was assigned to.

Using battery powered hand tools especially the Jigsaw and the drill saved me a lot of work, was able to recharge my spare battery right in the truck while I worked in the parks all day.

Similar experience. There was an electrical post with the wires going to a hammer hog near where I was using a 90 lb jack hammer to excavate some concrete for a deeper base for a vibrating conveyor. I asked the electrician where those wires were, and how deep they were. He said not to worry, they were at least two feet deep, and the concrete was only six inches deep. So I started drilling. Then the whole back of the mill shut down. And I looked down at the first piece of concrete to come up, and in the concrete was a conduit and a number of wires, beside it was conduit with 0 electrical cable for powering the hog. The electrician came out and started screaming at me, I soundly cursed him for trying to get me killed, layed the jackhammer down, and went home. The next day the mill owner came out and questioned me as to what had happened, and I showed him the hole, and stated that had I stayed, there would have been a physical altercation with that electrician. Found out later that he had been in charge of the wiring of that hog. Had I made the initial hole 2 inches to the left, I would not be here.

 

[westwall]

About 2010, I started seeing battery powered tools. They were weak, and prone to failure. By 2015, we were starting to use battery powered impact wrenches in the place of pneumatic impacts because of the convenience, no hoses to drag through the machinery. When I retired in 2020, the battery powered impacts had replaced the 1/2" and 3/4" impacts at work. This was a steel mill, and our tools took a beating. Battery powered tools have come into their own and are the equal of the pneumatics, if you are willing to pay for the good tools.

I have gone back to wired tools in most cases because I got tired of having to constantly replace batteries.