Acrylic Lid continued:
Before adding hold-down straps I'm going to beef up the lid with some more supports. None of these might be needed but since this is my first work with acrylic I'll err on the side of caution.
Add an extra panel on each end. Since this panel fits flat against the panel next to it no need for the tedious edge sanding.
Mistake Number 1. When I first went to glue these together I used the squeeze bottle to cover the new panel with Weld-On #3 then leisurely held the panel against the lid to join them. WRONG.
Live and learn. From when the Weld-On #3 first hits the acrylic you have about two seconds to finish applying the glue and get the two pieces together. Not nearly enough time for a piece this big. No permanent harm. Clamp together the two pieces then use the capillary action method for applying the cement.
Did both ends.
Then add a brace across the middle of the lid at the location of the hose barb. Had to notch the end of the brace so it would fit over the end of the barb. In this picture the lid is upside-down. The brace doesn't go all the way to the top of the lid as so not to obstruct the airflow. Used tedious edge sanding on the brace before cementing.
The hold-down strap will be made from a bungee cord I had hanging around. Need to find it's diameter. It's close to 1/4 ".
So if its .25" and the acrylic is .2" thick then four pieces stacked together should give me a good base. Cut out the needed acrylic pieces from some scrap.
Glue together 2 pieces at a time. Since the pieces are so small the "apply Weld-On #3 on one side then slap the two pieces together" technique worked OK. The problem is that once the two pieces touch each other you have about an instant to get them properly aligned.
Next join two sets of two. Because of the quick setting nature of the cement I didn't get the blocks as even as I'd like. Here I'm about to sand a block to even the edges. This is just for looks. I'll be gluing it to the lid using the flat side, not the edge
Drill a hole through the middle for the bungee cord.
WARNING: As the drill bit exited the other side it grabbed the block and caused it to spin. This is apt to happen when drilling harder materials. I thought I had a good grip but not good enough. It spun around and gave me a right little knock on the fingers. Luckily No damage.
Cut bungee cord in two. Feed one cord through the block. Add a washer for extra support.
Fold over the top of the cord. Use three 4" cable ties to squeeze and hold closed the fold. Needle nose pliers work well at cinching up a small cable tie. Clip off excess tie ends. Do the same for other block.
Glue block to end of lid. One each end.
Add a screw hook to the base block. I've glued the bungee blocks an inch off center so the hooks won't be in the way of the bolt that should go through the center of the base block to secure the battery box to the van floor. The screw hook is where the bungee cord attaches to keep the lid shut.
Take the base outside and give it a couple coats of paint.
All done.
In this picture you can see Quality Control Engineer Bob checking where the lid meets the base to see if the closing tolerances are within agreed upon specifications. Either that or she smells fish.
Without the batteries weighted the box and lid with a bathroom scale.
And one battery.
23 + (4 x 64) = 279 pounds of house batteries.
Consider this the finish of the Battery Box build.
Next up is the sofa-bed build.
Here is a scale drawing of a small part of it.
The thing at the bottom is NOT a hand grenade but if I keep having as much trouble as the sofa-bed build is giving me it might get blown-up before it gets finished. Blown-up real good.
Open the pod bay doors Hal.
Once I exit Hal, this is what I do.
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