Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Battery Box continued :
While the glue was setting I realized that the board I inserted in the middle to counteract the bowing should be a permanent addition. Since it was too late in the build process to use biscuits I instead used glue and screws to secure it in place.
Now to the end pieces. My idea for securing the box in the van will be to bolt it to/through the floor. These end pieces will be where the bolts go. The blocks have a 1-1/2" square cross section.
Glue and screw the blocks into place.
I put four screws through the box base and four more through the side of the box into the end blocks. These screws are placed so none are in the center since that is where the bolt will go.
Since these are six volt batteries I will be hooking them together in pairs. The cables from each pair of batteries will exit the side of the box between the batteries about an inch from the bottom.
I need to transfer the location of the batteries inside the box to the outside of the box. Most people could just eyeball this and get it right but it's the kind of thing I usually mess up. So I created this from a nearby cardboard box.
Slid it down the side of the battery box and place against the side of a battery. Then just draw a pencil along the edge of the cardboard on the outside of the box. Do this for both pairs of batteries.
Now how big to make the holes? Here is an example of the cables I'll be using. This is a "0" gauge cable. When you talking about cable gauges, "0" is also written as "1/0" and pronounced as "one aught". Note that "1/0" is NOT the same as "1" gauge.
A quick lesson on cable sizes. American wire gauge (AWG) is the standardization system used for electrical cable. The AWG size is determined by the cross sectional area of the conductor. Excluding the four largest sizes, "0", "00", "000" and "0000" where "0000" is the largest, as the gauge number increase the wire diameter decreases in size. So a 10 gauge wire is thicker that a 14 gauge wire. This seemingly backwards numbering system originally referred to the number of times a wire had been drawn through a die which stretched out the wire making it longer and thinner. So the more trips through the die, the higher the gauge number and the thinner the wire. I always had trouble keeping the backward numbering straight until I read about it's true meaning.
The gauge size will tell you the conductor size but not the size of the wire including insulation. In this case it's a little under 1/2".
So let's make the holes 1"x2".
Here's my method for making a square hole. Drill a hole in opposite corners of the square.
Use a saber saw to cut outward from the holes to create your square.
Paint on a primer layer.
continued -
While the glue was setting I realized that the board I inserted in the middle to counteract the bowing should be a permanent addition. Since it was too late in the build process to use biscuits I instead used glue and screws to secure it in place.
Now to the end pieces. My idea for securing the box in the van will be to bolt it to/through the floor. These end pieces will be where the bolts go. The blocks have a 1-1/2" square cross section.
Glue and screw the blocks into place.
I put four screws through the box base and four more through the side of the box into the end blocks. These screws are placed so none are in the center since that is where the bolt will go.
Since these are six volt batteries I will be hooking them together in pairs. The cables from each pair of batteries will exit the side of the box between the batteries about an inch from the bottom.
I need to transfer the location of the batteries inside the box to the outside of the box. Most people could just eyeball this and get it right but it's the kind of thing I usually mess up. So I created this from a nearby cardboard box.
Slid it down the side of the battery box and place against the side of a battery. Then just draw a pencil along the edge of the cardboard on the outside of the box. Do this for both pairs of batteries.
Now how big to make the holes? Here is an example of the cables I'll be using. This is a "0" gauge cable. When you talking about cable gauges, "0" is also written as "1/0" and pronounced as "one aught". Note that "1/0" is NOT the same as "1" gauge.
A quick lesson on cable sizes. American wire gauge (AWG) is the standardization system used for electrical cable. The AWG size is determined by the cross sectional area of the conductor. Excluding the four largest sizes, "0", "00", "000" and "0000" where "0000" is the largest, as the gauge number increase the wire diameter decreases in size. So a 10 gauge wire is thicker that a 14 gauge wire. This seemingly backwards numbering system originally referred to the number of times a wire had been drawn through a die which stretched out the wire making it longer and thinner. So the more trips through the die, the higher the gauge number and the thinner the wire. I always had trouble keeping the backward numbering straight until I read about it's true meaning.
The gauge size will tell you the conductor size but not the size of the wire including insulation. In this case it's a little under 1/2".
So let's make the holes 1"x2".
Here's my method for making a square hole. Drill a hole in opposite corners of the square.
Use a saber saw to cut outward from the holes to create your square.
Paint on a primer layer.
continued -
