Charging batteries from sources other than the recommended charger

I haven’t done it, but plan to take the works out of a dead ni-cad battery pack for one of my older 12volt drills and solder a power cord into the empty battery shell with an automotive lighter type plug on the other end. I don’t stand to loose anything here since it’s an old drill for which it has become difficult to find a replacement battery. My battery has only two contact blades to connect to the drill so this is easy to figure out. I think some of the newer batteries, with more features, have more connections and might be less simple to bypass.; but I’m not positive about that.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

I had an old old 7.2V Bosch drill that had no charger so I used alligator clips and my car battery charger with no ill affects. I also felt I had nothing to lose. I used it a long time and finally got a 12V Dewalt and gave the old Bosch to a friend that had another drill and a working charger.