18650 Battery Boxes with Snap Lids, 1x to 4x Cells

thingiverse

These battery boxes are designed with a specific purpose in mind: you will incorporate them directly into your project's 3D design, or you can simply cut a hole and glue them in. Each box is composed of three parts: the main box, the lid section, and the catch that gets glued onto the lid. The catch is a separate piece because it needs to be printed "side on" so that the filament lies along the profile of the catch; otherwise, it would snap along the layers when used. To ensure successful printing, make sure to print the box with support touching only the build plate; printing support in the tab or catch receptacle can be difficult to remove. Each box features a 5mm lip around the edge (actually 7mm but the inside 2mm is a fillet for strength) if you want to cut or design a hole and just glue in a separately printed box to your project. For gluing the catch to the lid, CA glue (superglue) works perfectly. Note that these boxes were printed in PLA. The positive and negative terminals used are available at this link: http://sparks.gogo.co.nz/AA_-18650-etc-Battery-Cell-Terminal-Pair-528.html; however, you can find them elsewhere as well. These terminals feature a backplate measuring 13.5mm wide and 11.5mm high (excluding the leg), with a spring that extends approximately 10.3mm from the back of the backplate and compresses to 3mm fully. The terminals simply press into the provided slots. You can position and wire the terminals in any configuration you prefer, such as series or parallel. The catch and lid securely retain the cells, making it impossible to shake them out. After printing the three components, apply a drop of CA glue (cyanoacrylate/superglue) on the underside of the lid where the small indentation for the catch is located. Clamp the catch in place until the CA sets. If necessary, reapply CA glue and try again if the first application does not adhere well; this can be due to the CA wicking into the PLA. To design these boxes, I used OnShape, which you can view or copy here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/be6d5f907bc0e83693f00d8c/w/a520047eeac132c1c70471df To customize the boxes for other cell sizes, I designed them in a somewhat parametric way. This allows me to easily generate designs for cylindrical cells ranging from about 14mm to 20mm diameters. Currently, I have generated designs for: * AA (aka 14500) batteries, available in configurations of 1x to 4x * 18650 batteries, available in configurations of 1x to 4x * AAA batteries, available in configurations of 1x to 4x