Just wonder how wide this “masonic conspiracy theory” is.
You can get 2 packs under $140.
With 20 sony brand cells inside.
In high quality plastic case, with original circuit and indicator.
You can find chinese case+circuit set for $20 and put any cells by your choise inside, just use contact welder and nickel plates.
Want to make 20Amp quick-change 18650 holder for cheap? Come on, you can show it.
P.S. If battery pack cost more than drill, it doesnt mean battery would cost less in future. It means that Makita and Bosch are setting lowest prices in the world to the US market. You can check how much similar drill costs in Norway for example.
Haven’t bought anything from Tool Barn in 20+ years. Forgot about them, thanks for the link. $139 for two battery packs with free shipping is a good deal.
Most of the lithium power tools have 18650s in them. Even the vacuums from dyson uses them. Newer tools packs uses 20700s.
I have seen samsung 25R and sony VTC5 in powerpack pulls from tools that are 3+ years old, so they used pretty new tech back then.
As Kiriba said, there are lots of factor that make a removable multicell holder impractical. Such as vibration, size, high current spring/contacts, preventing the user to install cells backwards and have a 6S li-ion disaster.
I bough a dewalt 20V 4Ah pack for $60, it contains at least 5S2P = 10 cells, which means less than 5 bucks per high drain cell if you take in account the casing, high amp pcb protection, copper connector, and battery level gauge.
