Power Inverter to run Drill?
 

For those of you who are electrically inclined, what type of power inverter would I need to run a drill? Since I'm in an apartment. and don't have access to outside electricity, I figured the inverter would be the best way to be able to run my power tools.

Any thoughts?

This post should help you, I was just enquiring about it awhile back.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...&threadid=6866

In the link there in the post is a chart to how much wattage you need to run an appliance.

What kind of a drill do you have? I'm assuming it's not a battery powered one. Assuming it's one you plug in the wall, then you need a 12V DC to 110V AC 60Hz converter.

An inverter reverses the polarity of DC (swap +12V with ground).
Correct me if I'm wrong.

It might be cheaper to buy a battery powered drill.

Good Luck
Andy

I tried it just for kicks, I have a 600 watt and it did not run my 1/2" drill

I have a 800/1100 watt inverter. It all depends on how many amps the drill draws. I used to have a 400/800W model, and it could run a drill that uses no more than 3.0 amps. My new inverter can supply up to 7.0 amps.

In reply to Andys post about an inverter.....

The term inverter can have a number of different meanings in the electrical/electronic world.

In this case an inverter is a device that converts DC voltage into AC voltage so you can run a regular AC appliance or whatever from a battery. (Nominally 12VDC to 120VAC for US autombiles and standard electrical gadgets.) The quality of the AC voltage can vary quite a bit depending on the inverter. Some devices apparently don't work too well unless the AC is a pretty good sine wave. Others, and I think most hand tools that use universal motors are in this category, aren't too fussy about power quality as long as the voltage is right and the inverter can supply enough current.

I'm not sure just why they are named inverters and not converters which would seem to be more appropriate. The only thing that comes to mind is that most power supplies convert AC to DC to power electronic devices, so the opposite action (DC to AC) may be considered the inverse or an inverter.

In the digital logic world, an inverter converts true on the input to false on the output and vice versa. The actual voltages vary all over the place depending on the type of electronic devices used.

Link
 

Excellent info on this subject here:

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/inv...l#what_it_does

Great info guys, thanks! I was thinking about building a storage area in the back (along the lines of what JALABER has), and thought it'd be great to build it with the inverter/converter and a couple of outlets.

Sounds good.
Did you see that inverter/converter I picked up at Sam's Club?
It's in the Tech section.

But 400 watts is not really enough to do hand tools.
You would want one bigger.
The biggest one Sam's had was the 400/800 peak one that I have.

You could probably get bigger ones at GI Joe's.

I've seen them at Target as well, but can't remember what they were rated. I may do some shopping around this weekend and see what I can find.