Admitting Defeat

The rivet nuts (rivnuts) still haven’t arrived from China.  I therefore decided to admit defeat and pay the additional £1 to purchase a packet locally.  On a more positive note the usb splitter cable arrived.

Along with the waxed canvas workshop apron.

Some effort was spent sourcing this apron.  I wanted one with flaps on the lower pockets.  Without the flaps the pockets tend to fill with sawdust and iron filings.

Back to the bike project.

I had already identified there would be a problem drilling the lower battery mounting hole in the bike frame (blue arrow below).  There would be no access issues with the top two holes (red arrows).

The rivet nuts require a 7mm hole and the combination of the length of the drill bit and the angle chuck meant it wouldn’t fit into the confined space at the bottom of the frame.  My solution was to hunt though my box of old imperial drill bits and find one approximately 7mm in diameter.  The angle grinder was used to cut the end off the drill bit.

This stubby little end was inserted into the angle chuck and I was then able to drill the lower hole.

I confess I’d never heard of rivet nuts until my neighbour mentioned I should use them on our camper trailer to secure the second spare wheel mounting assembly underneath.  He even loaned me his rivet nut tool.

Not wanting to incur the cost of purchasing a rivet nut insertion tool I decided to use the nut, washer and bolt method.

Rivet nuts

They are only M5 nuts which suggested to me I shouldn’t have an issue.  Before inserting rivet nuts into each hole I smeared the shaft with a little Sikaflex just to seal the joint.  The insertion went well.

With the nuts inserted into the frame I started aligning the battery plate.

The battery manufacturer didn’t intend that this lower aluminium plate would be secured to the frame.  I’ve done it to ensure there are four points of contact with the frame along the length of the battery.

With the lower plate correctly positioned I could reinstall the cable connection

The other part of the mounting plate was then secured and the battery fitted.

The battery seems to be very secure.  The final step is to fit the usb cables for the phone and tail light.  However it’s just too hot to carry on today.

Alan the reason why I’ve decided to control the flow of water through the solar water heater panels is because the panels are normally connected to a 350 litre header tank and the water cycles between the panels and tank until they reach 60 deg.  If I pumped water through the panels unrestricted then the panels would have little time to heat the water.  You are correct.  I only have a small solar water heating system compared to the capacity of the pool.  My logic is it is better to send bursts of very hot water to the pool that a large volume of only slightly heated water.  Time will tell if I’m right.  Of course I am also looking for additional cheap panels.