Built a battery box for my BB02 ride!

lutefisk

1 mW
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
10
Howdy all,

First off, a HUGE thanks to all of endless-sphere for being such an incredible community :)

I decided to build a battery box for my recently completed BB02 powered Giant NRS. This is actually version 2 of the box--the original was designed to hold 4 5000mAh Zippy 7s lipos, and had a steel base. Loaded up with batteries, it weighed almost 10lbs! For this build, I decided to halve the battery capacity, and use all aluminum for the construction, shooting for a weight closer to 5lbs.

Started off with a trip to Home Depot for some 2" wide 1/8" thick aluminum bars, and some 1" angle bars.. Also picked up an aluminum door kick plate. The 2" aluminum is for the box sides, it's nice and sturdy but a little hard to bend. I drilled some holes where I wanted my bends and used a bench vise to bend it into shape.
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Next step was cutting out the base and top, which is what the door kick plate was for. Quick work on the scroll saw. I also sanded down the edges in preparation for epoxying the pieces together.
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Chopped up some of the 1" angle bar to join the side and bottoms, using Loc-tite metal epoxy. Thought I took a picture of everything clamped up, but I can't find it, so here's what it looked like after the epoxy bonding.
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I decided that the front of the box would be a good location for my watt meter, which had previously been ziptied to the seat post (which was ugly, and I had to get off the bike to look at it. This was the hardest part of the build, but I managed to carve a nice rectangular window out of the 1/8" aluminum.
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Used another piece of the 1" angle bar to mount the watt meter, and used silicone to seal around the edges. Also gave the outside of the box a few coats of Plasti-dip.
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Here's how it came out, all cleaned up and ready to mount on the bike. The watt meter looks like its upside down, but it'll make more sense when it's mounted. The weight came in at just under 2lbs with the watt meter. Batteries are another 3.5lbs, so pretty close to my goal. Gives me 5Ah of 14s lipo power, with a spare pack I can take along in a bag if I want more range.
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And here's how it looks on the bike. The second image gives you an idea of what I can see from the driver's seat :)
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I've been working on a build post for the bike itself, but haven't quite finished up. Hopefully I'll have some more good pics of the overall bike.

Thanks for reading!
 
That's badass dude. Nice work and no welding. Your pics don't show it, but I assume there is good padding inside to prevent rattle, and chafing on the angles.
 
Thanks for the comments! I have a thin strip of foam which covers the sharp edges and gives just enough padding to squeeze the battery in the box when I strap down the lid.
 
Yea nice work lutefisk you are damn handy.

Now wondering if my local home depot has that same aluminum. I have found some nice thick acrylic .220 been wondering what I could use it on.
 
Hey Ohzee, thanks. Every Home Depot I've been to has carried this 2" aluminum, it's in the "hardware" section. Handy stuff, I've used it for all kinds of projects.
 
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