Catch Up

The extra socket in the pantry has been installed

No rest for the wicked when Jan mentioned she no longer used the five ring gas hob in the kitchen.  Could it be converted to additional bench space?

I’m not going to remove the hob as that would entail capping off the gas line and filling a large hole in the granite bench top.  My alternative is to make a timber frame to surround the hob and cap it with a square of coloured acrylic sheet.  Jan selected the colour for the acrylic, red.

The frame was made from scrapes of timber

It received a coat of primer followed by a pink topcoat (surplus paint)

It’s now receiving as many topcoats of red that are necessary to give an acceptable finish.

My remaining timber project has been paused whilst I wait for some router bits.

The bits I had ordered won’t fit in the router.   My error.  They have the wrong sized shank for my smaller DeWalt router.

I’ve made a jig to go around the cutting board I’m making.   I want to use the router with a bullnose bit to rebate a draining groove around the perimeter.

The jig will ensure (I hope) that the groove is cut exactly where it should be in straight lines with nice corners

Meanwhile Jan suggested the study was too cluttered and perhaps I could make some shelving to get everything off the floor.  This would make it easier for her to vacuum.

It was cheaper to make than buy so I made it from melamine particle board and did a test fit before screwing it to the wall.  I’ve already managed to fill it.   there is a principle involved here “Stuff expands to meet the available space”.  I suspect it won’t be long before the floor is again covered with more “stuff”!

Another small job

Yesterday Jan asked whether we had a multi socket 240V power board.  She wanted one for the pantry as she now has more appliances than sockets.  A multi socket board on the benchtop would look ugly so I suggested I install another dual wall socket instead.

You may recall it’s only in the recent past that I installed the splashbacks in the pantry and I didn’t want to attempt to remove one of them!

Eventually I suggested a location which appeared suitable.  It was just above the lower splashback and almost above an existing wall socket.   I could run a cable between the existing socket and the new location.

Here looked a good spot

I marked out the outline of the socket and then the inner portion of it which would need to be rebated into the wall.   Houses in western Australia are usually constructed of double brick walls with a cavity in between.

After marking the location I scored the outline of the rebated portion with a knife cutting the top layer of fine plaster.  Doing this would prevent the edges chipping (I Hope).  Next I drilled a matrix of holes using a masonry bit and my hammer drill.  Afterwards I realised the drill was being powered by one of my recently made batteries.  Then I used a cold chisel and hammer to knock out the rebate ensuring the hole reached the cavity between the inner and outer brick walls.   I’m not going to install a socket enclosure box in the hole so I marked out the location of the mounting holes instead

I used a punch to mark the centre of each hole and then drilled with a 6mm masonry bit.  The holes were then filled by hammering in a plastic rawl plug.  Obviously I’m getting old as I can remember the days when we had to make our rawl plugs from timber.   These plastic plugs are much easier to use.

I’ve temporary stopped here as Jan is watching the TV and I suspect it is on the same power circuit as the socket in the pantry.  Years ago I would probably have just done the connections live.   But poor eyesight, shaky hands and a number of years of additional common sense means that isn’t going to happen.

Nerd Battery Post

 

Back in November I mentioned Ken had given me a old lithium battery which I disassembled to salvage the useful 18650 cells.   There were 60 cells and during the last two months I’ve been testing each cell with my special battery tester.  The tester charges, discharges and recharges one cell every 24 hours.  This provides me with the actual residual capacity of each cell.   A new cell has a capacity of 2400mA and those I’ve recovered from the battery range between 2359 to 1806mA.  No battery retains full capacity after use.  Each cell has received new shrink wrap cladding and insulated washer around the positive terminal.

 

None of the cells were dead which left me wondering how to use them.  I decided to make some batteries for my DeWalt power tools.  I have more tools than batteries and find myself swapping batteries.   This situation occurred because the batteries are expensive and obviously I don’t use all the tools simultaneously.   An 18V 4Ah DeWalt battery cost $200.

 

After searching on Aliexpress I ordered two kitset batteries (less cells) and a portable spot welder.  The kitsets were $21 each and the welder $80.  For an outlay of $140 I should be able to make two batteries which would have cost me $400 from a tool store.

 

My batteries will be 18V with 4Ah capacity.   The cells need to be configured as 5S2P (two rows of 5 cells in series).   Each cell has a voltage of 3.7V so five in series is 18.5V   It is important that each row has a similar capacity.  To achieve this I created a small spreadsheet.  By shuffling the cell capacities on the spreadsheet I was able to achieve the desired result.  The rated capacity of each battery was approximately 4.6Ah.

 

It only took 10 days for the battery kitsets to be delivered.  Interesting to note the EU and UK representatives on the package label

 

The other interesting piece of information was the naming of the battery.   One assumes this is a effort to avoid breaching DeWalt copyright.

The cases looks very similar .  Importantly, it fits my DeWalt tools

Inside each case were a printed circuit board, cell holder, screws and decals

No instructions!!

I needed to do a test fit of the cells and printed circuit board to ensure I had the cells correctly orientated.  The nickel strips were then added and held in place with a rubber band.

I then soldered the Tabs on the nickel strip to the board

I probably made a mistake here.  Before soldering the Tabs I should have soldered the battery indicator wires to the circuit board.

 

With poor eyesight and shaky old hands the subsequent soldering of the indicator wires proved to be problematic.

The board and cells were then removed from the case so I could spot weld the nickel strips to the ends of the cells.

I’ve never welded and this was a learning experience.  The spot welder is portable and powered by a rechargeable lithium battery.  Each cell needs four spot welds at either end.  It took a significant number of attempts to establish the required welding settings.  Too low and the nickel strip doesn’t weld to the cell.  Too high and a hole is blown in the nickel.  Working my way up through the power setting I established the setting 10 appeared to work.

My little spot welder

After establishing the correct settings the welding went rather quickly.

The cells and circuit board went back into the where I then tested the terminals to see if the connections were working

19.97V for an 18V battery.  Everything looks good.

The battery indicator wires were soldered and the top screwed into place

I fitted the battery to my DeWalt drill and tested it worked.   Now I need to assemble the second battery.