18650 cell holder

thingiverse

This is my own design, I was let down by the readily available options already uploaded with most if not all being outdated and not functional eg not fitting together or not fitting a cell once printed, also due to lockdown getting these from anywhere was proving difficult so while I have a lot of time I don't have all the parts to build more of my Powerwall. So this design allows for single and 4x5 layouts for easy building of packs, I don't use the singles but used them to prove it all fits together. The fit is tight and not meant to be pulled apart once put together although possible you might snap so don't unless you don't want it to be usable again. It doesn’t quite fit the standard ones you can buy so just print some more or use on opposite ends as the layout matches the standard distance between cells so the standard nickel strips work fine including the fused sheets which I use on both ends. The reason for 6mm holes is I'm using this design to stack directly on top of each other and bolt all the way through a stack to form a tight pack, I will also add once designed a plate/bracket to go on top and bottom of the packs and possible inserts to prevent shorting on the nickel strips top and bottom. Print it upside down and with no supports, I prefer to use a raft especially you can get flaring of the dove tails, if your printer is set up better than mine you might not need the raft but watch out for the dove tails flaring causing it to split the female sides when put together. I tested at 0.16 and the results are not very good so go lower, I'm using 0.12 without any issues but print the singles and work out what works for you. I was generous with the hole size and used a high-sided circle to prevent the flats reducing the diameter and allowing for some sticky cells to still fit reducing the time to process cells that can be often found on laptop recycled cells. Feel free to reduce the scale if using new cells if you want a tighter fit but I needed to cover all manner of variances. The print is really solid and much stronger than the cheap Chinese holders. I might look at trying to reduce the filament use and additional sizes if people want them so please add comments or any requests. I've uploaded a few photos including the one printed at 0.16 which is a bad print so you can see why to go smaller. I used Cura to print all standard settings except the bed on 60c and changed to raft, I print 2 5x4's at one time next to each other and the print time is around 8-9 hours you might be able to get 4 on one plate if your place it big enough and flat enough to not have one edge curl up. v1.0.1 uploaded of the single as I spotted a small misalignment on one of the dove tails.