Fabrication

I've now re-installed 30 of the 36 cells in the rear battery box. I added plates at each end of the box to make the walls flat, so it will provide better compression to the cells. This is working better than with no plates (there is a lip at the bottom where the floor of the box overlaps and is spot welded to the sides, but this lip is only 10mm high), but sadly it turns out Auckland is shut in January, and the cutting department is still on holiday. I improvised with 1mm steel (old computer cases turn out to be good for something) and a plasma cutter. Many thanks to Edward for lending me his plasma cutter, it's fantastic, no home is complete without one. I need to reinforce the outside of the battery box, as it bulges a little when you swash the cells in. I realised this only after I'd put three coats of paint on it :-(

Anthony (woody on the AEVA forum) is in Auckland this week and came to have a look at what I'm up to. He was a great help, passing clamps while cutting, sanding the terminals on all the cells and helping me install the cells. He also pointed out many obvious things that I missed (things like you should hammer cells on the edges and the conical plasma cutter torch is conical, but it still has a flat face which you can use to run down the side of a guide and get a straight line).

Sadly the second battery rack was to complex to finish in time for the LCA Open Day and KillaCycle tour so I'm going to have the same 36 cells and 118v or so open circuit that the car had last time it was working.

I've mostly finished the bracket which will hold the front mount (where front is closest to the front of the car if the motor was in a north south configuration, which means it's on the left on this car). The mount is the black round thing hanging below the pipe I welded in earlier, and I've spent the evening grinding the curves on the bracket between it and the pipe. The bracket needs a bit of tidying up I'll be ready to weld it onto the frame.

In unrelated news, the KillaCycle arrived in New Zealand safely, the Tumanako VC motor controller had it's first drive yesterday in the Greenstage electric Saker (first time that has moved under electric power too!) and I have about a week left to put this car together before I'm leaving for LCA2010 in Wellington.