A second battery

Since my new lithium battery seems not to be lasting too well on dark days I decided to up the ante a little with a second lithium battery. It could be that my first lithium battery is failing. That is under the Ecoworthy brand. Since I bought it in October for $150 that is a really poor show. It cannot be abused because it has a built-in battery management system. All I have running on it is a door lock controller and occasionally, lights when I go in the bus. 

So, a few days ago I ordered another, similarly priced battery of the same capacity. I bet that there's some guy in a grass hut in the middle of Communist China making these between puffs on his opium pipe. The dealers in the USA probably just slap their own labels on them. "Ecoworthy" definitely sounds like a Chinese attempt at a "Western-Sounding" name. This one seems to have an even less spectacular attempt at a "Western-sounding" name. "To Battery" just sounds about as daft as "Idgy squidgy battery.

Having got a new battery I had to make a cradle for it and then a battery clamp. The battery clamp I made to hold down a U1 lead-acid battery because that's what I have on both of my battery hangers. The other hanger has a better-designed battery clamp because I didn't skimp on materials. On the one I'm replacing I'd used what I had rather than buying more. It worked for lead-acid batteries but not for lithium. The new clamp will take both.

Having welded the cradle and the clamp, it was time to clean them up for painting. On this occasion I used my sandblaster head with the air tank. That worked really well though the Harbor Freight sandblaster trigger jammed on me. Eventually I found wiggling it got it free. 

Speaking of Harbor Freight I bought one of their sandblasting hoods. That worked a treat and kept the sand out of my hair. I kept my welding jacket on while sandblasting and wore my welding gloves. I had zero problems with sand. That was most welcome and a very pleasant change from my previous attempts at sandblasting. 

Having sandblasted the metal, it was bright and shiny. That gave me a very clean base to spray primer. I have to say this Harbor Freight stuff is pretty good. It seems trendy to roll one's eyes at Harbor Freight and decry the tools for being cheap. The fact is, even professional mechanics have Harbor Freight tools. 

So, having sand blasted, I sprayed one side with primer. When that has cured - probably overnight since the temperature is the kind of balmy 45F (6.7C) weather that would have bikini clad ladies definitely not heading to the beach, I'll spray the other side. Then I'll have to see if I need to trim the ends of the battery cradle and I'll have to drill the holes for the stays in the battery clamp. That will involve another round of priming.

Finally, it'll all get a good coat of topcoat and when that's dried, it'll be installed with the new battery in place. 

As far as the other battery is concerned, I might have to undo the screws in the top of the battery, take it apart and see whether I have dead cells. It might even be worth doing a battery capacity test by letting it charge fully then running a 50W lamp together with a relay to a clock so that when the battery management system turns the battery off, the clock will stop at that time, allowing me to estimate pretty accurately the actual battery capacity.

The two short pieces of brake line under the hood are on hold for right now. I really want a warmer day though having said that I did all this on a particularly cold day. Come back summer, all is foregiven!