Electrify your car

I had been wanting to own and drive an electric vehicle for many years and when the Chinese started producing lithium ion phosphate batteries, I felt the time was right. I had two main criteria: I wanted to prove that an electric vehicle (EV) could be used as practical, everyday, work t....

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Electrify your car: The Mechanics

From memory Mike and I first seriously talked about this conversion a year before we started. Once we put the vehicle over the pit and removed the exhaust, fuel tank etc we could get a good look to measure and plan where to fit the battery cells, controller, charger and so on. Mike’s r....

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Electrify your car: The Electrics

The battery packs were connected in series to the controller which would then convert the DC battery voltage into AC three-phase voltage to be delivered to the motor. My mission was to connect this altogether.To prevent voltage drop, I decided to use 50 millimetre square welding cable fo....

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Make a stylish timber stepladder

The top shelf in my walk-in wardrobe is 2.3 metres above the floor and I need a small stepladder to access it. I used a small, double-sided aluminium stepladder for some time but decided to make one that was compatible with the furniture, from timber.The design was done by modifying the ....

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Fantastic plastic cat

Stephen Snedden has been described as the inventor’s inventor and on meeting him it’s not hard to see why. He has an infectious enthusiasm, a can-do attitude and a willingness to share his knowledge. Stephen’s latest project is a 3.9 metre-long, rotary-moulded plastic catamaran wit....

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Building a gantry crane

When I was asked to clean out my late father-in-law's workshop, I knew that it would not be an easy task. My father-in-law was not one to suffer from an iron deficiency and his workshop was proof of the amazing amount of equipment you can fit into an otherwise-ordinary, prefabricated met....

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