Hot Rodding a Power Drill Battery

Step 5 On to the Assembly

I paried the cells and bound them with electrical tape just to make them easier to solder together. These buggers are a little hard to hold on to.

Don't forget to tin both ends of the battery before you try and attach the bars. A drop of flux and a drop of solder, not too much though.

I should mention that you will need a pretty serious soldering iron to get this job done. Don't overheat the battery...kind of a catch 22 here.

Comments

[arpruss]

I wonder if using Wire Glue would work for the tabs? I don't know how well it stands up to the temperatures batteries reach.

[motor137]

ok, been building my packs witha Weller Solder Station, pen. I can adjust the temp and the tip,usually used the screwdriver blade tip. Any idea what temp you think is ideal?

[archer6817j]

The short answer is that you should use the "right" temperature :) It's best to solder batteries hot and fast. You don't want to apply heat for a long time and "soak" the battery.

[Russell Nash]

This is the place where you're most likely to screw it up. I avoided the problem by buying the batteries with solder tabs already attached.

[Liquidhypnotic]

How powerful was the soldering iron you used here? My soldering weapon of choice is the ColdHeatPro; do you have any idea of how that would perform here?

[archer6817j]

You will need a powerful soldering iron...probably one of the gun type, dual heat beasties.

[Ian01]

I think you'll need something more powerful than a ColdHeat iron.