The arc droid is pretty well represented in the YouTube fabricators sphere, 2 channels that use them almost daily are grind hard plumbing co (Idaho) and Mike festiva (Oregon) both build all sorts of crazy contraptions. Grind hard is my favorite of the 2 for entertainment but Mike gets a approval for utilitarian builds
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Did they beef them up at all? There were some comments on Reddit that said they had issues with them but it is reddit. 
I was trying to figure out what controller (and computer) and software they were using. I am -guessing- it is mostly opensource software. I just haven’t seen any shots of the electronics.
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To be honest I despise the fact Reddit exist. It is the STD of the internet and I won’t go there for any reason. Last time I was there I found a thread calling me a Nazi for being a white Christian male with a healthy family. Not to mention it is a known fed honey pot location where they bait extremist into felony’s. Nope.
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Some of it is okay, but they are very left slanted, and quite a few bots, and left-wing extremist moderators. I take the information as a starting point more then an answer, and with a huge grain of salt.
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For my tree planting, I have a 4" auger and it does great with a drill in loamy or sandy soil, however, when I get into clay it sucks. So I thought slowing it down would work better, and it does a little bit, but the drill loses too much torque at the lower speed and it is harder to keep a steady speed while pressing down.
I got a chuck adapter for the battery impact driver tool. I am glad I got this kit because i realized just now, that the 1/4" hex shaft is the weakest link and I have broken the I have broken the shaft on a 1/2" socket adapter before. If I use the adapter, that is easily replaceable…
Anyway, does anyone have any idea what the pins and the washers are for in the picture?
Edit: I didn’t read far enough into the description, it goes in the hole of the 1/2" adapter to strengthen the connection… but that is where the ball on the adapter goes. Maybe they make 1/2 shafts with holes all the way through it? no idea.
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On my 1” wrenches and some of the 3/4” ones, if not all, there is a hole straight through plus on the black high-torque 1/2” sockets so I would say that you are correct.
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After frequent use, the little ball will drop out first. There the pin and ring come in.
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i have never seen that before. I kind of wonder if it is throwback to the days before the spring balls. Where it might work better but switching sockets and losing the pins, was far more inconvenient for normal use.
Apparently now that I have it assembled, I just tried it and the impact taps out long before even a hole is started. In the same spot the drill actually performed better. Who wouldve thought?
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Twenty years ago the springballs wouldnt stay for a year. Necessary to use te pin to keep it mounted.
Now we are fighting with spring rings instead of spring balls😀.
Recently we started using the adapters you showed. They work and work fast. And if they dont work, you throw them in the scrap bin for recycling. But at the moment they all still work. Biggest is m10, mostly m8/ m6 that we use. We are small boys, not like Bruce and his big toys.
Edit. I will show the Bosch machines tomorrow. Very happy with them.
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For 10 bucks, I didn’t expect a miracle.
The problem isn’t the adapter, apparently my impact driver only does 100ft/lbs of torque so it is tapping out before a hole even gets started to be drilled. It really can’t turn the auger. The drill got through to the clay layer and choked. I really didn’t expect the drill to perform better.
So now do I get a better impact that can do 200ft/lbs and would 200lb/fts be enough torque? I am not hauling a equipment through the brush to use the 1/2" corded drill.
I don’t think I have anything that can drive through it.
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Left the shop early today and forgot. But this has the same feature. Slowly we change to the right machine.
You can see the spring ring missing. The same problems as with the ball springs.
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I have a Rigid battery rotohammer that would easily drive that auger. It has a drill, no hammer function. Wouldn’t be that hard to make an SDS to chuck adapter.
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Is the SDS the one on the bottom right of the photo I posted. It it about 3/8th in. I couldn’t find anything for torque specs.
This is the auger I have. It is supposed to be 3/8" hex but it is 1/32" too small.
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Yes, the farthest right in the photo. I have drill extensions that have a set screw to lock the bit in place but I think they would be two wobbly for something like an auger but an adapter could be make like that with a 3/8 sleeve over a masonry bit.
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Just an idea here , someone i know was building a real posh new workshop , roughly on the same foot print as his old one, he was trying to screw new SS posts into the ground that had auger type ends he was using a 1hp motor using a vfd to slow it down and give it torque he needed , total waste of time once it hit the hard clay it just stopped , when i saw what he was trying to do ,i said i have the very item you need to do that , its what trucks use to undo wheel nuts , i used my dewalt 18V drill with the torque converter and its screwed the post right down with no effort at all on the drill , this is what mine looks like .
Dave
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that is an awesome idea and I think exactly what i was looking for. Thank you!
It might go on order shortly.
I got new batteries for the drill because I could go just far enough down to get a 4" pot into the ground most of the time. it would only do like 8 holes and the other battery could only do a few. It isn’t totally unexpected they are 1.5a batteries and probably 8 years old now. I got some knockoff el cheapo 8a ones that probably actually have 5a, but it was cheaper then buying new batteries and replacing them in the old pack.
I was going to try them today but it was raining.
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Hi Sean , make sure of the socket size that come with it , as you might need a reducer to go down to your socket size , i bought a whole heap of different sizes allowing me to gho up or down in socket size .
Dave
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There are YT videos on how to test and replace the individual cells in those tool batteries. The cells are (were?) a lot cheaper than the finished packs. And sometimes it’s just one cell that’s causing problems. In an 8 year old though… probably every cell is in some degree of bad shape.
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Actually I was just thinking about doing this. I have an old Milwaukee 9.0ah battery that doesn’t hold charge anymore. If it is only a few cells that are bad it may be worth fixing.
But do I need one of those $40 battery
spot welders or can I get by with some make shift spot welder? Maybe even soldering?
I’ve seen videos of people making a spot welder with a battery, but I only have a 850cc car battery. Would that work for spot welding?
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You will want a spot welder. The lithium cells use nickel strips to connect to each other and the terminals. The nickel strips need to be spot welded. There are DIY spot welder plans and kits out there but the parts alone might be a good fraction of the $40 sticker price from a store/ebay/etc.
A car battery might work in a pinch, but I wouldn’t use it other than as a last resort. The spot welders that I’ve seen charge up a good-sized capacitor to a particular, selectable energy state and then dump all that current at once. The unit of measure there is “joules”, that is watts times seconds.
The strips melt and bond VERY quickly and the cell doesn’t get hot so its huge watts and short time. With a battery? each weld will be a little different based on how fast you are. Easy to under or over cook a connection.
I guess you could work backward from cold cranking amps and 12-14 volts to figure out the watts a battery will dumb into the weld and then guess at how long to apply the battery. By hand? You won’t be as fast or consistent as the spot welders.
Get a real spot welder for $40 and then fix two other people’s batteries for $20 each. Free welder.
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