cordless drill as a starter?
 

My friend and i were playing around with his monster truck and i notice he used a cordless drill with a special bit to turn the engine over. Is there a bit or something that could be used to turn an engine with a cone over? Is this something alot of people do, or is there a reason my friends the only one i' ve seen do this?

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

[:@] don't do it
not enough RPMs on those drills to spin up a glow engine
ask around your club or check out FLEA BAY starters can be had on the cheap

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

So i guess im stuck with my chicken stick for now.[:o] May try it out anyway to see. My friends started up pretty quick with the drill. Who knows.:eek:

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

Some car engines have a modification on the back plate to handle #6 hex rench. This is just like the hex on heli starter extensions. But, there is no real way or point to do this on an airplane when you could simply use a starter motor. A drill is not prefered on helicopters, just doesn't turn fast enough. But you can get away with it on cars.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

I couldn't get my heli to start with a normal starter and after telling many not to use a drill because it didn't spin fast enough, I tried it out of frustration and it worked very well. It would be a pain to have to buy a starter cone and machine it to work in the drill, but it would work.

You could use a bolt, cut off the head, stick it in the drill, screw the cone onto it and walla, you have a drill starter. Should work just fine.

I have since bought a larger starter and it works very nice, but the drill did the job too.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

dude, go look around in the trucks and car forums and all your questoins will be answered:D

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

I was thinking of just putting the insert into a big enough socket. If it slips just drill some holes on the sides and screw the insert to the socket.[&:]

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

Talking from experience, get the right tool for the job. As stated earlier, check out Ebay and buy a starter. It is designed to work and it does. By the time you get through buying a socket large enough to hold a starter cone, and buy a cone, and then buy an addaptor for your drill. Try to drill holes in a socket to keep the cone from slipping, buy a couple more drills because you broke a couple trying to drill the socket and after a couple weeks screwing with the project, you get it done to find it doesn't really do the job. You go out and buy a starter off ebay.

I've been down that path more times that I should have. Experience tells me that it will be less expensive buying the right tool in the first place, and it sure saves me a lot of time for what I wanted the tool for. Now, if your enjoyment comes from modifying something to do what it wasn't designed to do, and that brings more pleasure than, say flying, by all means go for it.

Don

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXJC35&P=0
cordless drill about 100-200$ depending on quality
elec.starter-19.99
cordless drills have clutches ,starters have free spinning wheels.
then there is the RPM difference starters 4,400, cordless drill 1,400
you can burn a cordless drill with reverse torque, a starter will just spin until disengauged from the spinner

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

Why are your worried about a starter......I've never seen the need for one. And before you say for bigger glow motors......I was screw-driver starting a .75 earlier today....

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

cars didn't have starters in the old days, I bet there was someone that said "I never seen the need for one" I've seen plenty of engines that just didn't want to start with a chicken stick. especially on cool mornings. " Hey wanna borrow my starter?" engine fired right up.
Nice thing about a hobby is to each his own. If you wanna use a chicken stick then I'll defend your right to do so. As for me I'll use a starter thanks.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

Instead of destroying a good socket just the the Cone and insert from tower for $8
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXJC36&P=0
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXL401&P=0
Use a nut and bolt for an Arbor. Chuck it in the drill and see how things go.


You may want to see what you drill is capable of though. Most cordless drills trade off speed for torque since 90% of the time they are used as giant screwdrivers. My Dewalt has 2 speeds.. 600 rpm and 2200 rpm.. Even on the high speed it may not get an engine going..
Now it might work great on a gasser though..

Or just buy the whole starter for $20

For another $27 make it cordless
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXL372&P=0
Or just wire 2 6 cell car packs in series.. that works great too.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

You'll pay many hundreds for a plane and radios and then cheap out on a starter? Skip lunch and Starbucks for a couple of days and just buy one. Sheeesh.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

Ok, if the chicken stick doesnt float my boat ill just save up for a starter. Thanks for all the input.

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

shoot, if you dont want to use the power pack from tower, zip tie a gel-cell to it...

RE: cordless drill as a starter?
 

As most have indicated a cordless drill is a waste of time and money for the purpose.

Just ask around your club most who have been around a while are sitting on lots of old but functional starters. They get bartered and sold locally all the time for around five bucks.

If you don,t belong to a local club well then you are missing out on a valuable resource in a lot of ways.

John