Replacing the motor on my Bosch cordless drill

A few days back, I replaced the motor on my Bosch GSR 1080-2-Li cordless drill. I bought the new replacement motor at the Bosch spare servicing shop at Ang Mo Kio. It cost me slightly less than $20, which is a real good price. When I got back, I disassembled the cordless drill and this is what greeted me. The old motor had remnants of the old brushes outside which meant that the carbon brushes had totally disintegrated. No wonder it was smoking and sparking so much. In any case, I unsoldered the leads to the old motor, put in the new ones and soldered the leads back in. Assembled the drill again and it was as good as new after that!

As for the old motor, I tried to disassemble the brushes at the back but it was quite hard to remove the rear of it. I packed the old motor in the box the new motor came in and decided that I would try to do it another day. But I am quite happy with this. It took me a very short time to change the motor and the feeling of satisfaction cannot be replaced.

Motor for cordless drills

Remember in a previous post, I said that the motor on my Bosch cordless drill was gone? Like I said in that post, I suspected that the brushes may have worn out. This is a pic of the motor which includes the brushes. Apparently, you have to buy the whole motor and it looks like that is something I have to do. But I have a plan. I plan to take the spoilt motor home after repair and check to see if I can change the brushes by ordering some spare ones online. From then on I will know if I can salvage the rest of my drills. Sadly, we live in a throwaway society. I feel the motor is perfectly good, just that the brushes are worn out.

Angled cordless drill adapter

I bought this angled drill attachment a week back and it just arrived a couple of days back. This will come in very handy for those places where I cannot fit a cordless drill/screwdriver to fasten some screws. It was being sold for about $5 in Shopee and it is really worth it. I felt it and the build felt solid. Plus, there were a lot of positive reviews on the sellers site and I must say that this will be a very welcome addition to my tool inventory. Everyone should have something like this in their tool arsenal. Get one today!

Bought a Bosch GSR 120-Li cordless drill

I bought a Bosch GSR 120-Li a few days back. I went to my usual Bosch dealer and got it for a very good price. There are a few reasons why I bought this, even though I have a GSR 1080-2-Li at home. The first reason is it is at my Mum’s place and it cam be of some use there when I need a cordless drill. Secondly, this 12V GSR 120-Li is more powerful than the other drill. Thirdly, I can share the batteries in this drill with the Bosch impact driver that I have as both of them run on 12V. This is what the drill has, in a nutshell, according to their website:

• Power and durability within reach for screwdriving and drilling
• 2-speed gearbox enables high productivity and excellent torque
• Electronic Cell Protection for longer battery life and more durability

The product comes with 2 batteries. That will be very useful indeed when I am using one and charging the other. The charger however, I am not to crazy about. The charger is a GAL 1210 CV Professional and it comes with a non-removable wall-wart that looks rather fragile. But it is not too bad because the drill comes with a very nice carrying case, And that is not all. It also comes with a 23-piece drilling and screwdriving bit set with holder.

I am very pleased with it and cannot wait to put it through its paces. That day will come soon enough!

h holder 

GSB 120-LI Professional

I have a Bosch GSR 2 1080-li cordless drill but I am thinking of upgrading to this Bosch GSB 120-li cordless combi. While the GSR 1080-2-Li is still very good, I feel that it lacks some power when it comes to screwing in some stubborn screws and even drilling. This GSB 120-li has the flexibility to even do masonry drilling. This flexibility in applications is due to an impact mechanism with a single-sleeve keyless chuck, according to Bosch. Plus, it comes with a charger and two batteries, something that will be very useful. So shall I get it? Looks very tempting. It will really help with jobs I need to do around the house, and also for projects.

Akaido AK12EC cordless drill

A few days back, I saw one of the workmen at a client’s place working with this cordless screwdriver, made by a company named Akaido. It looked totally different to the Makita and Bosch ones that I see in many different worksites so I got quite curious about it. Apparently, it is made for the Malaysian market and is relatively inexpensive. It reminds me a bit of the Ingco brand that is being used here. For the approximate price of RM115, you get 1 x AKAIDO 12v Cordless Drill, 3 x 12v 2.0ah Li-ion Batteries, 1 x Charger, and 1 x Case. That was a cut-and-paste from one of the sites in Malaysia selling it. The specs of this drill are:

• Model : AK12EC
• Unit Weight : 1.1 kg
• Battery Voltage : 12V
• Load Speed 1st Gear : 0-400 r/min
• Load Speed 2nd Gear : 0-1500 r/min
• Chuck Diameter : 3/8″ (1-10 mm)
• Maximum Torque : 25 n.m
• Torque : 19+1
• Battery Capacity : 2.0mah
• Charging Time : 2h
• Warranty : 6 months

I would have expected the warranty to last at least a year but I think this tool does not last that long, given the relatively inexpensive price tag it has. But however, I saw the workers using it having no isues with it and it seemed to be functioning well. I think this is worth a look if you are just a DIYer and want to get a cordless drill for a good price.