The Peristaltic Testator

Several years ago, I had a quite adequate cordless drill set I got for Xmas one year. That was, I must repeat, several years ago. Then, I bought a heavily discounted cordless drill set with a removable head that could convert from drill to jig saw to sander, and all with the same battery pack that my first one used! This gave extra life to my first, now fading battery pack.

Then, with none of the battery packs working, I picked up another drill and battery pack in a pawn shop for ten bucks. The pack it came attached to was working better than the others in my collection, and my charger kept it running for a few more years.

Then, I had a drawer filled with three dead drills and a collection of potential toxic nickle cadmium batteries just waiting to poison a landfill. Dope that I am, I was determined to prevent that from happening. I bought a mediocre corded drill and resigned myself to packing extension cords for the rest of my drilling days.

Then, a glimmer of hope. solarbird posted a small lead acid gel cell from a UPS unit for sale, cheap. Soon thereafter, I inherited a cordless string trimmer from my sister that needed nothing but a new battery.

After I disassembled the string trimmer battery holder, I noticed how darned small the thing was. Why, it was almost as small as the little batteries that used to power my drills. And it put out the same voltage.( This got me to thinking, which is most always bad. )

X-Posted to home_effinomic.

I have books. I am, however, a cheap bastard, so I've never invested in "nice" bookshelves. As a result, I sometimes fashion plywood shelving and not bother to finish it because it is, after all, plywood, or out of desparation I spring for some Ikea monstrosity and call it good. Sadly, because these are Ikea monstrosities, I never buy enough shelves for my books, leaving most of them in boxes in the attic. I vowed long ago to actually do as my sister and brother-in-law do, buy nice wood and take some time with all the power tools I have cluttering the garage, but I don't. Why? Again, I am cheap.

Almost a year ago a solution ( was literally dumped on my lawn. )