I really like having my litttle Dewalt drill around the house, but it seems that every time I go to use it the battery is dead from sitting. Well, to solve the problem, I got a new Ryobi One + 12v kit for Christmas. The drill in the kit works great, but I still want to be able to use my Dewalt. THe kit came with a flashlight that I thought I would probably never use, so I tore it apart to make this adapter 
I started with an old Dewalt battery case that I stripped to replace the cells within. I didnt get to this one, so it was just sitting there empty. I was looking at the flashlight with the empty case and it hit me- it would be really easy to adapt the two together. I really would have preferred to mold the flashlight into the empty battery case as one piece, but I wanted a kind of proof of concept first. I may eventually do this.
So here are the pictures....
What I started with- the Dewalt battery and the Ryobi flashlight....
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00732Medium.jpg
Here, I soldered new (longer and thicker) wires into the flashlight and screwed the two cases together....
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00733Medium.jpg
Another shot with the Dewalt battery connector soldered on. I couldnt find any large enough wire so I just doubled them up...
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00734Medium.jpg
And here is the finished product...
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00735Medium.jpg
It may look a little strange, but it is very functional. The drill is actually lighter with this setup that with the original Ni-Cad battery. So now I can use this drill with either the Dewalt or Ryobi batteries- and since the Lithium batteries hold their charge, it will always have a charge when I need it. The drill is actually a 9.6v drill, and the new batteries are 12v; but 9.6v batteries have almost 12v when fully charged.
I started with an old Dewalt battery case that I stripped to replace the cells within. I didnt get to this one, so it was just sitting there empty. I was looking at the flashlight with the empty case and it hit me- it would be really easy to adapt the two together. I really would have preferred to mold the flashlight into the empty battery case as one piece, but I wanted a kind of proof of concept first. I may eventually do this.
So here are the pictures....
What I started with- the Dewalt battery and the Ryobi flashlight....
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00732Medium.jpg
Here, I soldered new (longer and thicker) wires into the flashlight and screwed the two cases together....
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00733Medium.jpg
Another shot with the Dewalt battery connector soldered on. I couldnt find any large enough wire so I just doubled them up...
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00734Medium.jpg
And here is the finished product...
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/justinb3325/DSC00735Medium.jpg
It may look a little strange, but it is very functional. The drill is actually lighter with this setup that with the original Ni-Cad battery. So now I can use this drill with either the Dewalt or Ryobi batteries- and since the Lithium batteries hold their charge, it will always have a charge when I need it. The drill is actually a 9.6v drill, and the new batteries are 12v; but 9.6v batteries have almost 12v when fully charged.