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Battery power for my edge grinder

Dave Marshak

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I've been using a Swix EVO edge grinder for a couple of years, but the power cord wrangling is the last wasted motion on the whole tuning process. So I decided to power it with a 20v Li-Ion drill battery. I just was going to add a plug to the battery but I found an adapter for the battery. Apparently people use these batteries to power kid's cars. I also added a 5 amp fuse inside the adapter because I don't know if the battery protection will work with the barrel jack connection.

IMG_0508.jpg

This is what it looks like all assembled:
IMG_0509.jpg

It works perfectly. The battery isn't too heavy to affect the balance much, and there's no cord to trip over. The tool draws 4 amps, and the battery holds 1.5Ah, so it should last at least 20 minutes, which is enough to do 10 pairs of skis or more. Probably not enough to last the whole season, but more than enough for me.

dm
 

Tony S

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I've been using a Swix EVO edge grinder for a couple of years, but the power cord wrangling is the last wasted motion on the whole tuning process. So I decided to power it with a 20v Li-Ion drill battery. I just was going to add a plug to the battery but I found an adapter for the battery. Apparently people use these batteries to power kid's cars. I also added a 5 amp fuse inside the adapter because I don't know if the battery protection will work with the barrel jack connection.

View attachment 135509
This is what it looks like all assembled:
View attachment 135510
It works perfectly. The battery isn't too heavy to affect the balance much, and there's no cord to trip over. The tool draws 4 amps, and the battery holds 1.5Ah, so it should last at least 20 minutes, which is enough to do 10 pairs of skis or more. Probably not enough to last the whole season, but more than enough for me.

dm
I think I need a "For ACTUAL Dummies" version of this. I'm with you as far as 20v drill battery, but beyond that it's over my head.

Pretend I'm walking into Home Depot (which is a place I enter about every three years). What are the specifics of the "adapter" and how does a fuse go "inside" it?

Edit: maybe just draw arrows and captions on the photos.
 
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Dave Marshak

Dave Marshak

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I think I need a "For ACTUAL Dummies" version of this. I'm with you as far as 20v drill battery, but beyond that it's over my head.
All I did was add a barrel plug and a 5A mini-blade fuse to a Power Wheels battery adapter. Power Wheels are toy cars with 12v batteries, but people are adding 18v Li-ion drill batteries for more power. If you have the skills to make the thing it's obvious how to do it. I didn't take any pictures of the building process because my soldering skills are ... um... basic, and in any case I won't encourage "dummies" to fool around with soldering irons and Li-ion batteries.

dm
 

mdf

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Last edited:
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Dave Marshak

Dave Marshak

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... battery adapters with in-line fuze on the cord are available.


I tIhink if I measure the size of the barrel connector I'm set...
You need to get the right adapter for the brand of battery you have. They are all different. I had to replace the 10 guage leads mine came with with 22 guage wire to fit in the barrel plug. I didn't find one with an includued fuse so I just soldered a mini-blade fuse on the positive side without a holder when I replaced the leads.

The barrel plug is 5mm OD, 2.5 mm ID. If I had it to do over I would have just chopped the plug off the original power supply and used that, but I wasn't confident enough to do that before I knew how well this would work.
The motor will run backwards if you reverse the polarity. That might ne a good thing for lefties if they want to use it left to right instead of right to left.

dm
 

KingGrump

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Tony S

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Dave Marshak

Dave Marshak

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UPDATE:
My EVO was easier to use with the battery balanced on top, but it was top heavy. So I moved the battery to the side:

new battery spot.jpg


Then I made a new jig for holding the ski:
new bench.jpg


That holds the ski about 20 degrees from vertical, which allows the EVO to balance on the edge. Still not quite as secure as a Razor Tune, but easy enough for me and way better than it was.

Still 4 weeks and 6 days to go.

dm
 

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