Thursday, August 14, 2008

Build Session 8 (4 hours): Let the Battery Rack Build Session Begin...

Jared and I stopped by Professional Plastics and Specialty Metals on the way home from work to pick up my order placed on Tuesday. Both businesses are located in Kent, WA within a few mile of each other. It seems like you can find just about anything fabrication related in Kent, Washington.

Both orders were a bit pricey...it seems like steel has doubled in price since that last time I fired up my welder!



I wasted no time as I was anxious to begin one of the installation build steps as opposed to the engine removal work. Yes, I am wearing my OSHA approved glasses, gloves, and flip flops. Actually most of this conversion thus far has been honored by the presents of my trusty old flip flops. (Don't try this at home kids...I am trained flip flop professional)


The first battery rack support is tack welded in place. I plan to complete all of the welds after most of the rack is built...just in case some of my calculations are flawed.

I hope the neighborhood dog walkers had the forethought to bring their welding helmets with them...I would hate to damage anyones retinas as they are strolling by.


The second piece of 1.5 inch tubing is positioned and welded into place. Dang...its getting dark already.



Once it became too dark to continue I decided to move into the garage and remove the clutch disc and take some measurements...both of which I will send to the machine shop in the morning. They will use the data and disc to mill out an adapter plate for mating my electric motor to my existing transmission. Man I wish I had a CNC mill...someday. :)

1 comment:

Lance Johnson said...

Kurt, This is great. I am converting an S-10 as well and following your progress has been very informative for me.

I feel motivated by your posts to try and learn some basic metal fabrication so I can build my own boxes similar to yours. As someone w/ basically no experience working w/ metal what are your thoughts on my actually being able to pull this off? I would obviously need to invest heavily into some tools but I am fine w/ that.

I see here that you are using a regular miter saw to cut this steel. Did you purchase a special saw so you could use a saw that is normally just for wood? I see most people recommend using a chop saw for this type of work but would rather invest in a miter saw as I could get more use out of it in the future.

Lance Johnson