Battery terminal extensions

[mklotz]

We've been having a spate of power outages so I bought a few twelve volt SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) batteries to handle the unexpected power loss. Since these are the same voltage as automobile batteries, it's possible to take advantage of all the electrical gadgets that are sold to be used on cars...

LED under the hood lights meant to run directly off the battery
USB voltage converters that plug into the cigarette lighter to recharge phones, radios, Kindles, NIMh batteries for flashlights, etc.

In addition, 12 V computer fans provide a nice breeze in the summer months.

Every month I use a commercial battery charger/keeper to recharge the batteries. Since the charger is intended for automobile batteries it has the giant clips needed for automobile battery terminals. The SLAs have the much smaller F1...

https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/arti...1-f2-tabs.html

terminals which the giant charger clips cannot hold securely. If a giant clip slipped off during unattended charging, it could short the charger.

To avert this I made two terminal extensions that allow the giant clips to attach securely to the F1 clips. A female F1 connector was soldered to a short length of heavy copper wire. The wire was forced into a hole in a 0.5" diameter aluminum slug (brass or copper would have been a better choice for the slug but I didn't have any). A groove turned in the slug prevents the charger clips from pulling off the slug.