Homemade battery box??

J

jammer415

Been Around the Block
So I will be removing the big clunky oem battery box from a '72 CB450 in order to house the new lithium battery, Pamco electronic ignition and rectifier/regulator.

I know people typically make the battery box out of metal, but metal is difficult to work with without proper tools... So, I'm thinking either wood or plexiglass???

Are wood or plexiglass viable options? Pros/cons?

How did you make your battery box?

Any ideas?
 
Wood will rot. It's a motorcycle. it gets wet.
Plexiglass is for windows, I think you're referring to fiberglass?

Fiberglass would work. There's a lot of writeups here and elsewhere about how to do it. The only tools you need are some plastic, tape and some sandpaper.
 
I made mine out of thick paper that I painted black. It has held up well.

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Ha, just kidding. I made a mockup out of paper. The actual box is sheet metal welded together.

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If you have the ability to draw it in CAD shoot me a PM
 
Flugtechnik, did you weld it yourself? Or did you bring your mock box to a shop? What was the total cost? Is it lightweight?

Sonic, I could see about drawing it up in CAD... How would you be creating it? Aluminum?
 
Steel.
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=73802.msg874776;topicseen#new
 
jammer415 said:
Flugtechnik, did you weld it yourself? Or did you bring your mock box to a shop? What was the total cost? Is it lightweight?
Click to expand...

A friend cut and welded it for free. It is steel so not really "Lightweight". If I was shooting for light I could remove a bunch of materials from the sides by adding holes. Or I could have had it made from aluminum.
 
I'd like to avoid using steel for the pan/box to cut weight down as much as possible.

So wood or 1/4" plexiglass would not be suitable at all?

Wood is super easy to work with and I can treat it so it doesn't rot.

Plexiglass would be easy to work with as well and super light weight... It just needs to hold the battery and electricals in place, so wouldn't need to be metal... Correct?

Hard advice to not use either wood or plexiglass?
 
jammer415 said:
I'd like to avoid using steel for the pan/box to cut weight down as much as possible.

So wood or 1/4" plexiglass would not be suitable at all?

Wood is super easy to work with and I can treat it so it doesn't rot.

Plexiglass would be easy to work with as well and super light weight... It just needs to hold the battery and electricals in place, so wouldn't need to be metal... Correct?

Hard advice to not use either wood or plexiglass?
Click to expand...


Batteries are heavy and the bike is going to vibrate and take hits when you hit pot holes and curbs. Plexiglass is not structural.

You can make one out of steel that will probably weigh less than a fiberglass one if you do it correctly and you CAN make one yourself. Get some sheet metal, a 4" grinder and maybe a small break from HF. You can even use a mallet to form the sheet metal over a 2 x 4. You can rivet it together and add some speed holes to save weight.

https://t.harborfreight.com/18-inch-bending-brake-39103.html
 
I bought thin sheet of stainless from Home Depot, find a bandsaw to cut it in a rectangle, bend two edges into it on the edge of bench, or a two by four, drill two small mounting holes inside frame rail, I riveted mine in with very small SS rivets but you could also tap. I bought some rubber edging to give it a finished look. I left mine open front and back for air flow, and it was only 45 mm deep, but you can make it deeper depending on your bends. If you really can't find a band saw you can use tin snips, and perhaps copper instead of stainless. You only need 1 or 2 cuts. Sorry I don't have a pic.


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You don't even need a band saw, a angle grinder with a cut off wheel can make a really decent cut in sheet metal if you take your time.

You can pick one up at Harbor Freight for $14


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Tinner's snips and offset snips go a long way too. You can get sets of three different snips for under $20.
 
You can also find a nice old coffee box out of metal or ammunition box and reuse it for your battery box.
 
Ok thank you fellas for officially inspiring me to try to take this on using metal... But why steel rather than aluminum?
 
You can build the thing too out of aluminium, but many people can´t weld aluminium.Aluminium is a nice material, which is howver when bent more prone to break than steel.
So when you build it out of aluminium and can´t weld it you have to think about bolt joints.

I will go a different more experimental route on my XS cafe racer and will 3D print my battery box (will see if the 3d printed plastic will hold up to the vibration.
 
Don't use the wood or plexi, you'll regret it. You can easily and accurately cut thin steel or aluminum with a jig saw. That's what you would probably need for the wood/plexi anyways, and it's a useful tool to own. I have a lot of different metal cutting options in my shop, and my jig saw still gets a lot of use. Make a paper pattern first, and try to make the box from one piece. Bend it by clamping along a table edge or any other straight edge. Then use pop rivets where needed. 18-22ga steel, or .063-.080" aluminum is plenty. You can message me if you get stumped. If you take your time it should be a breeze. A jig saw and rivets is how I started.

Good luck.
 
Awesome, these posts are exactly what I needed... Thank you!

I'm on the hunt for a used grinder and jig saw, then off to Home Depot for some sheet metal...
 
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