CD (capacitive discharge) battery welder

With all of the batteries I have around that are tab welded, I thought that having a tab welder would be handy. Looking at a commercial tab welders, I discovered that they are VERY expensive. They should be because they are meant for industrial purposes and overbuilt for heavy-duty use. I didn't need anything that large so I found this great article on the web.

How to build a battery tab welder for $100.
http://www.ledhacks.com/power/battery_tab_welder.htm

Two of the major components are a very large capacitor. Large meaning, greater than 1 Farad and also a high powered SCR (silicon controlled rectifier).

I was able to find some needed items for a great price recently. Here they are:

MakeAClamp from Breeze

In order to clamp the endpieces together for the A123 20Ah, you have two choices.

One, buy an expensive clamping tool which will apply even and heavy pressure to the pouch cells to keep the chemistry evenly distributed and working effectively. Something like the Band-It tool.

Another option is to use hose clamps. Hose clamps aren't nearly as strong as the Band-it tool, however, there are a couple of advantages. First, no expensive tools needed. Second, they are removable. The Band-It tool's clamps need to be cut off and cutting a band that is under great pressure isn't very safe. Third, they can be bought fairly cheaply.

I found the MakeAClamp system online. It's a very flexible system in that it allows you to specify how large you want the clamp to be. The system is based on clamps that can be re-positioned and bands that have notches cut in them. I bought one kit which contains 3 clamps and 10 feet of banding material.

Rust Mort - Stops Rust Dead!

I picked up some "Rust Mort" which, from reading online reviews, seems to do a good job at treating rust. It stops rust from continuing to develop on an iron piece and turns it into a grayish-black material. Hopefully, it will help rust that's on the E+ (EMS) motor.