Dewalt and Mac cordless tools and batteries being compatible is the exception, not the rule.
Milwaukee and Ryobi are most certainly NOT compatible.
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This is mostly incorrect, I’ve talked of the Stanley Black and Decker brands battery cross compatibility at length. The short of it is 20v Black and Decker, Porter Cable, Fat Max and (Walmart) Bostitch batteries can be used with one another with MODIFICATIONS to the plastic or to tool and or battery. DeWalt and Mac are seamlessly interchangeable and 20v Bostitch (nail guns) can be MODIFIED, again by cutting plastic.
TTI brands, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Ridgid, can NOT be cross compatible. With a very minor exception with Ryobi and Artic Cove, they are completely compatible. Also I can’t confirm but I think Ridgid batteries work on Senco(not a TTI brand).
I can confirm that the Surebonder Milwaukee-to-Ryobi 18V adapter works in Ryobi’s big, 18-inch room fan. I am powering my Ryobi room fan with a Milwaukee M18 12AH battery. With that battery, the fan lasts 18 or 19 hours on Low and, if I recall correctly, about 6 or 7 hours on High. I didn’t test the battery and fan on Medium.
With the large battery, held farther from the fan by the adapter, the fan even balances better. That is, it’s less easy to tip over.
If you want to use the fan’s AC input, you’ll need to remove the adapter. But even if you were using the fan with a native Ryobi battery, you’d need to remove the battery.
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Regarding PC and B&D max, would you possibly have knowledge about the general idea that someone, (many cordless tool owners)want to act on their older tool line; they want to see if these nicad tools would take the robustness of lithium 20 volt.
So in my case, do you have any thoughts or experience with me just using a cord to feed out of the two prongs in my Craftsman 19.2 drill handle and “rigging” those ends to the lithium’s POS&neg? Or does the internal Bauer battery chip prevent the current flow entirely? And the given is,(I’ve obviously just gone ahead to buy some of Bauer’s line because that investment is my “break-in” to lithium power, and the charger that came with the whole tool deal too good to pass.
Wanted to mention Dremel and Bosch 12v are interchangeable if you pop off the plastic shoe at the base. The chargers are identical. Of course, same parent company.
I use Bosch 12v batts in an old pod-style Makita saw. The mod involved removing some of the plastic from the inside of the handle, swapping the poles in tool, and bending the posts together slightly. I’ve also done this mod for a Makita vacuum. Been running them for 2 years steadily without issue.
There is no battery that I know of that doesn’t connect the cells directly to the terminals – except for Flexvolt which has a mechanical selector switch for 20V or 60V. You can basially arc weld with the batteries and they will keep giving current until you either melt down the li-ion cells or melt through the wires or contacts.
What does happen is the battery has electronics inside the cell, anything from a thermistor to a microprocessor monitoring all the cells that will communicate with only that brands tools and tell the tool to stop running if there is a problem. Some low draw tools don’t even listen to the battery because they can’t draw enough current to damage it. .
This is why there is no battery standard. Dewalt doesn’t want to trust that Ryobi is going to do the monitoring correctly and doesn’t want to be responsible when somebody smokes their tools or batteries.
You can do what you are asking, but you need to be careful. YOU are the circuitry between the tool and the battery and you need to make sure you aren’t killing either or going to burn down your shop.
a lot of good things in this post thank you all for sharing!
I bought a populo 20v max Li-Ion Impact Driver and didn’t receive the battery with it. Does anyone know where i can get a battery for it? Or know of any universal batteries? I can’t find them anywhere.
Looks alot Black & Decker like…
Just to keep the thread going, IF anyone has a conversion of a current(get it?) Li Ion battery source to fit an older Bosch 18v Blue Core Ni Cad tool, I’d be tickled to get my hands on one or two. There are aftermarket folks making the Ni Cad knockoffs; but the efficiency of the Li Ion is very attractive to me. I have about a dozen of the old Blue Core Bosch tools that are in great shape! Hate to see them go to waste! Thanks!!!
Not sure what is your problem. Li- batteries work on all Ni-cad designed tools, as long as voltage is correct and (of course) they can be physically connected.
There are battery adapters from one make in to other, as a last option, before that you could try to change insets of Ni-cad to lithium batteries, as well as charger. Ni-cad chargers will not charge lithium batteries, but Ni-cad batteries are commonly charge with Li-ion chargers.
IF you are responding to me, you re-stated the problem…I’ve not seen any sort of aftermarket adapter to allow Li Ion batteries to be used in my older NiCad tools. I’ve seen some pretty intricate mash-ups using the older case and rewiring for the new power source; but they are “bend this, cut that, trim this”. Buying a Li Ion battery AND charger and then rigging the “hybrid” battery to work IS the problem. I happily pay for a “clean” solution. Of course, the companies make such a process very complicated so the obsolete tools need to be replaced.
IF I were using the tools on a more regular basis, I’d be diving deeper into this project. As it is, I reckon I’ll keep muddling through with the aftermarket clones of the old Blue Core batteries.
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For an adapter, you could use red part of an battery and back end of any Li-ion tool…
Could use all Li-ion batteries on all tools, connecting just two output wires to the old battery terminals, but, yes, “I hear you” its bit messy to make one or to be making many batteries changing inserts…
And no, I haven’t seen Bosch Ni-Cad adapter to none other make of Li-ion. IE Ridgid-AEG use identical connection for Ni-cad and Li-ion, depending where you are based it would be either dear or reasonably cheap. Old Bosch Ni-Cad red battery end to Riddid (drill end?)…
ANW, cheers!
I have similarly kept my collection of Craftsman 19.2 drills / impacts and knew the day would come when there would be a pairing to the more robust lithium. As such, I just purchase H.Fr.'s Bauer Lithium pack at a little more than twenty dollars. I just formed my own slim plastic adapter and met pos. To pos.with thick sufficient gauge wire/ neg.to neg. leaving the other ports alone because their bms mngmntSystem "talks"when the lithium is placed into Bauer’s charger.
Does that make sense to you? But you will need to buy Bauer’s charger. I figure this system is worth it because it brings new life to all my Crftsmn 19.2 line of tools. If you, as you said have your old line of power tools it might be worth the project, “jump
Into” per searching/ building nicad packs is counterproductive.
Wow, can you send me the picture of that vac.mod. To fit the 12 volt. ( sx, too,sx-sxhundrdSevZero,sx,sx)
So Graco makes a cordless sprayer that uses Dewalt 20V batteries. I hoped to be able to find more products like that, but to no avail. how did Graco do it? Licensing?
Kline cordless tools also use DeWalt batteries.
Craftsman apparently has to 20 volt lithium battery systems. I went and bought a Craftsman drill and it is not compatible with Black & Decker or Porter Cable at all not even close! Im taking it back. I want a brushless 1/2 drill that is compatible with my existing stuff. Guess im going with PC.IMG_20200728_152814|375x500 
More information. Craftsman V20 and Sears Craftsman 20V Cordless Power Tools and Batteries are NOT Compatible
