scratch building a scale car battery?

[charlzrocks]

Does anybody have any ideas on what to use in the way of household type items to make a 1.25 scale car battery? Plastic stock is out of the question as I can't get any locally. Any ideas at all guys and gals??

[Casey]

If you disassemble a small electronic device (radio, DVD player, etc.), you'll find a few shapes and pieces inside that work well for replicating items in scale. I used a rectangular something I removed from inside an old radio to make a 1/16 scale battery and the size was perfect in all three dimensions.

Edited May 10, 2010 by Casey

[highway]

You could maybe use pieces of an old credit card or something similar in thickness for regular square batteries and a short length of thick wire, maybe coat hanger thickness, for terminals. If you want Optima style batteries, use the credit card pieces for the top and bottom, and the tube for the ink inside an old used up ink pen for the battery body, and again thick wire for the terminals.

[Harry P.]

Does anybody have any ideas on what to use in the way of household type items to make a 1.25 scale car battery? Plastic stock is out of the question as I can't get any locally. Any ideas at all guys and gals??

Ever heard of that crazy new invention called the "internet?"

Tons of online sources for anything and everything you would possibly want, including plastic stock.

[charlzrocks]

Ever heard of that crazy new invention called the "internet?"

I posted to the forum to get ideas from the other members, sarcasm I can get anywhere.

Tons of online sources for anything and everything you would possibly want, including plastic stock.

If you read, I mentioned none LOCALLY. I would like to make it out of found items/materials. I would rather not wait for the plastic stock and to pay for shipping when all I need is one lousy battery. But thanks for your concern Harry, sorry to have bothered you.

[Ben]

Several aftermarket suppliers offer detailed car batteries such as the Optima and others. There not expensive at all and look great!

[charlzrocks]

Thanks for the tip on the radio/electronic device. I got nothing that I can take apart here, but will keep it in mind for the future!!

The credit card idea is a good one for small amounts of flat stock. I could maybe use an old dept. store giftcard and cut that up, glue it together and add posts to it. Thanks for another good suggestion!!

[charlzrocks]

Several aftermarket suppliers offer detailed car batteries such as the Optima and others. There not expensive at all and look great!

thanks, but again, I would like not to have to buy it from the web. There has gotta be something here in the house that would work.

[Harry P.]

You could use an index card or some thin cardboard and make a box shaped like a battery. Caps and terminals could be thin slices of solder or copper wire, terminal connectors also cut out of thin cardboard or an index card.

[charlzrocks]

You could use an index card or some thin cardboard and make a box shaped like a battery. Caps and terminals could be thin slices of solder or copper wire, terminal connectors also cut out of thin cardboard or an index card.

Now THAT'S a great idea Harry! I could actually fold the index card stock into a rectangular box shape and glue it shut! I would have to test the stock for paint absorption, but otherwise a great idea!!Thanks!

[charlzrocks]

Make a trip to your local hardware store, discount store or any other establishment that sells plastic signs, i.e., "Beware of Dog," "Absolutely No Credit," "Sorry, We're Closed," or whatever. Doesn't really matter what it says because you're going to use the back side of it anyway. What you have purchased is a piece of sheet plastic stock. Cut pieces from it with scissors and use them to build a simple box shape.

For caps, the best thing to use would be heated, stretched plastic sprue. If you're unfamiliar with that technique, here's how it works ... hold a piece of sprue over a candle flame until it softens, then, grasping both ends in both hands, stretch it until the middle portion is the approximate thickness you need it to be. This is a very useful technique that has numerous applications. Glue six slices of the stretched portion of the sprue onto the box you've already built, taking care to space them equally, to represent your caps.

Terminals and connectors should be easy enough to carve from scrap plastic.

Hope this helps!

I really like the "Streching Sprue" idea! Thanks!!

[RJWood]

I save these bread bag clips, found on most bakery items. and if I needed to scratch build a battery, this is probably what I would use:

You can use it for a variety of things, its plastic, its cheap, and abundant,

some are even larger in size, look around at the grocery store.