Haven't really done much for 2 weeks, didn't have that much time and I've been busy with some other things. But this weekend I continued again. It won't finish itself ofcourse.

I'm busy making the clamps (and the fastening points for the covers) in the battery boxes. They're all small parts so it's not really easy making them on the table saw. But it's going pretty well. These I made today for the 2 smaller battery boxes. Everything's glued, sturdy enough.

Just have to reinforce them a bit (partitions) en then drill all the fastening holes. Then these 2 are basically done. Just still have to file, sand and spray.

Tomorrow I'll continue with the 2 bigger battery boxes.

Made some progress again.

These past few days I've been busy with epoxy glue on the battery boxes. Works pretty well, is very strong and fills reasonably good. Just not everywhere since the grooves are rather deep in some places. But might be able to just use filler for that before it gets sprayed. In any case it's sturdy enough now.

Today I tried fitting the batteries in all the battery boxes again. I got some green plastic straps from someone of the China Quad forum during a club meeting but unfortunately these were just a bit too thick (0,9 mm). But coincidentally I received a package today with some smaller gray plastic straps around them (0,65 mm). It were 2 straps with just the right length to make 4 pieces out of them.

In the biggest and smallest battery box they fit perfectly without having to modify anything. In the bigger one which has 6 batteries I had to file the top of one of the batteries a bit. The plastic enclosure is thick enough anyway and the top part kind of sticks out a bit on them all. Ofcourse I first put some tape on the terminals. Accidentally causing a short circuit with the file doesn't seem fun to me. But it worked, the strap fits in this battery box as well now, can still get the battery out with a little force.

But then the battery box with the corner in it. Been messing around with this box since the beginning and ofcourse it gave me some more problems now. Without a strap the batteries barely fit. There just wasn't enough space for a strap so I also filed the top of the batteries quite a bit. But unfortunately the problem isn't at the top but at the bottom of the battery box. There's just no space left there at all for a strap and I can't file the bottom of the batteries. So I have no idea what to do with this. For now I just left them in without a strap. Can still get them out by placing the battery box upside down but ofcourse this won't work once it's fitted onto the quad bike. I will try and find a solution for this later.

For the rest I also temporarily fitted the hall sensor and placed the throttle cable on it. This is only for the testride which will be soon, eventually I'll make something different for this and also in an enclosure so there can't get any dirt or water in there.

Now I just need to wait for the controller mounts, if all goes well they should be done wednesday and then I can finally attach the controller to the frame.

Was a bit bored meanwhile so I tried to replicate the controller in SketchUp. Think it turned out pretty good. I just can't get it to shine so it's very gray now.

And here on the mounts. Hopefully it actually fits this well.

That was it for today.

The battery boxes are all put together again. And most important, the batteries fit well now. They're firmly held together but it's also still possible to remove them pretty easily. I just still need to get something else for pulling the batteries out, one of the cotton ribbons already teared while trying to pull a battery out (before I pulled the boxes apart when the batteries were in way too tight). I just want some of those plastic straps that get used for packaging, I just have no idea where I can get them. But they have to be very small (0,5 mm or less) otherwise the batteries won't fit again.

Now I have to see if I'm going to weld them again or maybe try something different to make them sturdier.

Meanwhile I also got the clamps for the brake fluid hose so I placed this on again as well and filled the system with brake fluid. Have to wait and see now if this hose is resistant to dot 5.1 brake fluid but it should be.

Today sadly a big setback. Was really happy that I was almost done with the battery boxes, but I'll have to continue with them a bit longer. Was planning to start with the clamps for the batteries today. For this I had to place all of the batteries back in the boxes. I only came to the conclusion that they didn't fit anymore. Apparently the boxes bent just a little while welding. Might have been my stupid mistake, should have just left the batteries in while welding. But I thought it could be done like this and I wasn't really sure if the batteries would like the heat so much. I only need like 1 mm or something to be able to fit them but there just isn't enough space. I've been lucky with one battery box though (in the last picture), they do still fit in this one. But the other 3 I've already torn apart to start over again with glueing and welding. It's only a bit hard to do since the plates are all bent.

Here's what they look like now.

Think I'll be busy with these 3 boxes again for a while. The welds also weren't really strong enough so I'll have to see what I'm going to do with this.

Meanwhile battery box #1 is put together again. I melted the plates together at a lot of places with a soldering gun and glued on the inside again.

Tomorrow the other 2 boxes.

Continued again with the battery boxes. Yesterday I still glued the other small pieces, today the square plates. Now I just need tidy it up a bit and then the outside of the battery boxes will be all done. It's really starting to look like the drawing I made.

Today I was also finally able to bring the adaptor with front sprocket and both the rear sprockets to a metalworking company. These will hopefully be done quickly now.