Author Topic: Replica Dry Cell Battery (Read 9517 times)

Dan McEntee · « **on:** December 23, 2014, 01:00:32 AM »

On my last trip to Atlanta to go through more of my late younger brother's estate I finally came across some treasures of our youth. Some engines, pieces and parts of models, stuff I had forgotten about.We used to fly 1/2A models in the electric company transmission tower right of way behind our house. (I know, the EXACT wrong place to fly control line! We just called it, "The Field".)
We would save our pennies and pool our money to buy fuel, and every once in a great while we would have to buy a new starter battery and we could get those at the local hardware store, Brooks True Value Hardware.
We usually got the tall, round, red Eveready batteries. The more I think about it, those things used to last a LONG time. We needed something to keep all the stuff together when we went back to the field to fly. My Mom dug around somewhere and gave us an old wooden Velvetta cheese box. It held the battery, a can of Cox fuel, Cox wrenches, small screw drivers, a pair of pliers, and Cox glow clip. We learned to stuff a rag of just the right size on top of everything to help hold it all in while we walked back to the field. When we flew, we had a piece of plywood that we flopped onto the tall grass to have a decent place to pit, and catch stuff when we dropped it. It was what we now call, "The Mythical Field Of Tall Grass" that almost all model kit plans tell you to test fly your newly completed airplane over!
One of the treasures that I found was the same, fuel stained Velvetta cheese box! I only wish I had found it before I made my epic flight of my Cox Stuka last October, I would have used it during the flight! Now I am on a mission to re-equip the cheese box with the same stuff. I have Cox fuel cans, wrenches, and even some of the small screw drivers and pliers we used back then. What I don't have is a the tall red, round Eveready battery! I seem to remember reading about some one making a replica battery. I did a web search and came up with a thread about one, but none of the links work, and I'm not a member of that group so i can't look at the photos.
Does anyone have any current information about such a thing? They were made from mailing tubes and wrapped with a printed label. I would like to have mine where I could take the bottom or top off to replace alkaline batteries on the inside, or maybe even some rechargeable batteries. I have some old square Eveready or Ray-O-Vac batteries like what came with the Cox starter sets. As a last resort I will try to gut one of those to put four AA batteries in parallel on the inside.
Thanks a lot in advance!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Dan McEntee

Norm Furutani · « **Reply #1 on:** December 23, 2014, 01:57:07 AM »

A quick search brought up this link: http://www.radiolaguy.com/info/Vintage_Batteries.htm

It would be fun to build a replica with a Gates 2v. They show using a mailing tube. Maybe a piece of PVC instead?

Norm

goozgog · « **Reply #2 on:** December 23, 2014, 04:41:24 AM »

Hey Dan,
It's amazing how a box of old junk
can stir up a bunch of old guys.
I want to see pictures!
Is this Geezer porn?

I searched "Historic Eveready batteries"
and found a lot of images. These could be fun
to replicate.

Merry Christmas!

Crist Rigotti · « **Reply #3 on:** December 23, 2014, 06:53:17 AM »

Here's a ink to print the #6 dry cell battery label.

http://www.crystalradio.net/misc/batteries/index.shtml

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2014, 09:35:02 AM »

I'd use a PVC tube, with all the goodies stuffed inside. If you have a friend with a lathe and some skill, have him thread one end and make you a cap, or glue brackets inside and screw the cap on.

eBay has the batteries. Except for the one vendor who's selling what looks like new Chinese knock-offs, they're all old ones -- but they have the correct terminals and nuts. Looks like the going price is $15 to $25, plus $10 shipping.

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #5 on:** December 23, 2014, 10:05:19 AM »

OOOHHH You guys are the best!

It was late last night when I started to search and maybe I just ain't worth a darn with search words. I found some threads on some sight but couldn't get things to work. I remember the red and blue Eveready pictured and the downloadable examples that Crist posted has the yellow Ray-O-Vac that I remember. Once we get through Christmas, I'm going to get busy! Maybe even before then!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Dan McEntee

George Hostler · « **Reply #6 on:** December 23, 2014, 10:56:08 AM »

Quote from: Dan McEntee on December 23, 2014, 01:00:32 AM

What I don't have is a the tall red, round Eveready battery! [....] I have some old square Eveready or Ray-O-Vac batteries like what came with the Cox starter sets. As a last resort I will try to gut one of those to put four AA batteries in parallel on the inside.

If you are looking for a standard replacement, Tower Hobbies has a 1.5 V glow plug starter battery, cost $6:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL368&P=7

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #7 on:** December 23, 2014, 11:05:27 AM »

I'm not sure that's his point.

I could build one, but it may end up with a LiPo battery, a microprocessor controlled output, and a USB charging jack someplace.

kenneth cook · « **Reply #8 on:** December 24, 2014, 01:46:51 PM »

The fellow who was making the replicated batteries actually stopped offering them. A new battery is currently being made. The battery size is a HO-6 which replaces the old Eveready EN-6. The manufacturer says it's identical in size including terminal height with 10% more duration over the old one. The cost was about $26.

Bill Little · « **Reply #9 on:** December 24, 2014, 04:08:22 PM »

Quote from: kenneth cook on December 24, 2014, 01:46:51 PM

The fellow who was making the replicated batteries actually stopped offering them. A new battery is currently being made. The battery size is a HO-6 which replaces the old Eveready EN-6. The manufacturer says it's identical in size including terminal height with 10% more duration over the old one. The cost was about $26.

Hi Kenneth,

Merry CHRISTmas! Who is the manufacturer? Eveready? Or??

Thanks!
Bill

Steve_Pollock · « **Reply #10 on:** December 24, 2014, 04:16:05 PM »

The battery (or one of them) is made by Exell in (ta DA!) the USA.

Avaiojet · « **Reply #11 on:** December 25, 2014, 05:07:39 AM »

Quote

Here's a ink to print the #6 dry cell battery label.

http://www.crystalradio.net/misc/batteries/index.shtml

I downloaded the image in Photoshop. It's at 200 dpi's and could print nicely. Could even be sharpened a bit.

Don't remember if the original paper battery stock was treated for stains or use?

Andre Ming · « **Reply #12 on:** December 25, 2014, 07:29:47 PM »

Hi Dan:

Sounds like you have a great project to have fun with. Pics of your project as it develops would be great.

For me, nostalgia is a very big part of why I fly control line... that and I learned that I enjoy it more than R/C. (Said discovery after my foray into R/C.)

George:

Thank you much for that link. I prefer dry cell 1.5 volt "hobby batteries" over the rechargeable systems on account of the way a dry cell dies over a relatively long period of time and not almost instantly as does the rechargeable batteries. The dry cell will also hold their charge for long periods of disuse. Not so rechargeable batteries. I get my time and C/L flying inclination on short notice and I don't want to have to charge an ignition battery before I can head off to fly some C/L.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #13 on:** December 25, 2014, 08:44:34 PM »

Hi Andre!
Yeah, this is just for the nostalgia.And another sort of tribute to my younger brother Jim who passed away two years ago next month. If I had not found that actual cheese box we used to use at his house in Atlanta, I probably wouldn't be going through the effort. The round batteries fit in the cheese box and the square ones didn't! For all around flying, I use a small wooden flight box (with a Penton 250 Harescrambler sticker on it!) that uses a power panel powered by a twelve volt sealed lead-acid battery. I use it mostly for glow plug lighting only (with an occasional electric finger application), so not much draw on it and I only need to charge it once or twice a year. And I use it for everything from .020 Cox engines to .60 size stuff. Check out the video in this thread: http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php/topic,37020.0.html . I used the starter box on that flight. Whenever I fly the Stuka again, or any of the other 1/2A projects I want to do, I'll use the cheese box! My house is just off the circle of a cul-de-sac and I hope to get some flying in on it and run some Cox Prop Rods and Shrikes I have been tinkering on.
Good to see you checking in here!
Dan McEntee

Andre Ming · « **Reply #14 on:** December 25, 2014, 09:28:01 PM »

Thanks Dan. I think it's going to be good to hang out here. I see several names I recognize.

Thanks for the link to your Stuka flight video. I posted a reply there, too.

Looks like you have a pretty cool flying field, and it reads as if you still have some active fliers in your area. That's good. There's ZERO C/L action that I know of in my immediate area. (30 mile radius.) I'm it. However, just this past September (while attending/spectating their stunt contest) I became a member of the Tulsa Glue Dobbers and we have already had a Fall Fun Fly that was a lot of fun. I've known several of the TGD'ers for more years than I care to admit to, so it was a good thing to become a part of them. Don't know how much I'll able to actually participate in, but like I said, it's nice to be a part of them. The TGD'ers are really a good group of guys.

Sharon and I are making plans to attend the Garden State Circle Burners Combat Nostalgia Fun Fly in 2015. I'm just waiting to hear from Larry as to what the date is once it's set (after the GSCB and Middlesex club meet to plan their yearly schedules). Hope to find out the date for it sometime in January so I can mark off the time on the company calendar. I am hoping to get three more nostalgia combat planes built/flown before the event so I can have six to take with me. However, given my crazy work schedule of late... finding the time/energy to build three airplanes and have them thoroughly test flown before the event may be a challenge.

Well, all for now. 5:30 AM comes around awful early.

Andre

George Hostler · « **Reply #15 on:** December 26, 2014, 10:12:21 PM »

Quote from: Andre Ming on December 25, 2014, 07:29:47 PM

George: Thank you much for that link. I prefer dry cell 1.5 volt "hobby batteries" over the rechargeable systems on account of the way a dry cell dies over a relatively long period of time and not almost instantly as does the rechargeable batteries. The dry cell will also hold their charge for long periods of disuse. Not so rechargeable batteries. I get my time and C/L flying inclination on short notice and I don't want to have to charge an ignition battery before I can head off to fly some C/L.

You're welcome, Andre. I'm of the same mind set, heading out on the spur of the moment and a dry cell starter battery is always ready to go. Currently I'm using a 2 D-cell generic holder from Radio Shack with cells in parallel. It lasts me a month or two depending on how often I go out.

When I worked at an electronics lab in Hawaii while in college in the 1970's, they'd throw away the D-cell Duracells I removed from scientific equipment every time when serviced whether replacement was needed or not, as reliability was money. (Cells went in ocean bottom seismic recorders, dropped all over the Pacific Ocean. Batteries were a drop in the bucket compared with operational costs.) In my spare time, I'd solder 7 D-cells together in parallel to make a pack. I had a battery that lasted me two or more years of flying.

Andre Ming · « **Reply #16 on:** December 27, 2014, 12:39:45 PM »

George:

Your experience mirrors mine: I easily get a season out of the larger 1.5V "hobby battery" as was linked.

I have seriously thought of coming up with a way of fabricating a holder w/parallel brass strips for something like 4 D cells. D Cells are readily available at SO many locations (including convenience stores like the local "Stop n' Rob" chain). However, seeing as the large 1.5V is still available from Tower, I will probably stay with that route for now.

OH, and way back when I was running very, VERY, heavy duty experimental plugs with large diameter elements in my factory 36X engines... I would use two or more of the large 1.5V batteries wired in parallel. I would use those plugs (I think I still have one or two??) with up to 50% nitro in modified 36X engines and never blew an element!! However, even two large 1.5V batteries in parallel couldn't last more than a month or so the draw was so great. BUT... that was back when engines, engine parts, plugs, fuel, et al, flowed like water from the factory (with Duke's blessing)... so as for pushing the limit too far and blowing an engine back then? Well, my attitude was like Alfred E. Newman: "What? Me Worry?"

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #17 on:** December 27, 2014, 01:47:40 PM »

Quote from: Andre Ming on December 27, 2014, 12:39:45 PM

I have seriously thought of coming up with a way of fabricating a holder w/parallel brass strips for something like 4 D cells. D Cells are readily available at SO many locations (including convenience stores like the local "Stop n' Rob" chain). However, seeing as the large 1.5V is still available from Tower, I will probably stay with that route for now.

If your goal is to get an engine to start rather than to wow the onlookers with your equipment, then just solder brass tubing to the batteries. A pair of alkaline 'D' cells in parallel seems to have as much oomph as a plain ol' carbon-zinc hobby battery, and they're lighter and more available.

There's one size of brass tubing (I can't remember which off the top of my head) that fits banana plugs to a 'T'. That's what I use when I'm using dry cells.

Andre Ming · « **Reply #18 on:** December 27, 2014, 02:40:42 PM »

Actually, the goal would have been to fabricate/build once and then replace batteries as needed... even at the field or on the way if needed.

I was only considering the above when the supply line of larger 1.5V batteries seemed to be drying up. (Many battery mfg'ers have stopped making them.)

However, seems easier to just keep a supply of the linked battery on hand as long as they're available! Anyway, that's my thunkin' on this for now... however said thunkin' may change later... who knows?

david beazley · « **Reply #19 on:** January 04, 2015, 09:04:02 AM »

I had to try it. I found a cardboard tube off of a roll of shop towels that fit perfectly over a piece of 2"PVC pipe. Made ends out of plywood, got the knurled knobs from Lowes, did the epoxy top like the plans call for. I printed the label on photo paper and then used a sheet of laminating film over it to protect from fuel.
I got a single 5000 mAh D cell NiMh from Batteries Plus so it is rechargeable. The pic with the plug shows how it lights up.
Fun project for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Andre Ming · « **Reply #20 on:** January 05, 2015, 04:48:17 AM »

Now that is too cool.

Hey Dan? Where'ya at? (This is your thread you started.) Lookie here what this guy did!

George Hostler · « **Reply #21 on:** January 07, 2015, 06:56:54 AM »

Quote from: david beazley on January 04, 2015, 09:04:02 AM

[..] cardboard tube off of a roll of shop towels [..] piece of 2"PVC pipe [..] ends out of plywood [..] knurled knobs from Lowes [..] epoxy top [..] label on photo paper [..] laminating film over it [..] single 5000 mAh D cell NiMh [..] Fun project for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

That's neat, David. That would go good a vintage UC or even RC plane on the field. All you need now is a portable 5 tube (valve) AM radio next to your flight box.

George Hostler · « **Reply #22 on:** January 07, 2015, 07:14:56 AM »

Quote from: Andre Ming on December 27, 2014, 12:39:45 PM

George: Your experience mirrors mine: I easily get a season out of the larger 1.5V "hobby battery" [..] seriously thought of [..] a holder w/parallel brass strips for something like 4 D cells. [..] However, [..] large 1.5V is still available from Tower [..] when I was running very, VERY, heavy duty experimental plugs [..] use two or more of the large 1.5V batteries wired in parallel [..] 50% nitro in modified 36X engines and never blew an element!! [..] Well, my attitude was like Alfred E. Newman: "What? Me Worry?"

True; one got no greater than 1.5V, which helped to spare elements. Nowadays it doesn't take but a wrong tweak to blow a plug off a power panel. At over $5 a plug that can get expensive.

As cheap as alkaline D's are (on sale and outlets like Harbor Freight), I'd think one could solder say 6 or more cells in parallel. Have a battery for the whole season. Check occasionally with a VOM, redo once in a while when voltage drops sufficiently. I might even try that as 2 D's last me a couple weeks during season.

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2015, 03:08:58 PM »

Quote from: Andre Ming on January 05, 2015, 04:48:17 AM

Now that is too cool.

Hey Dan? Where'ya at? (This is your thread you started.) Lookie here what this guy did!

Well life has had me pretty busy, but I did make a couple of attempts at making the batteries. I got the files downloaded and copies made. Finding the 2 1/2" tubes and caps has been a challenge. 2" PVC pipe is a bit small, only 2 3/8" in outside diameter, but that worked well enough for the Ray-O-Vac battery art work. The neat thing about the PVC also is I found that Lowe's carries nice fitting caps that fit inside it that are for vacuum testing plumbing for leaks! Makes nice ends. I got a Cyclon battery from Batteries Plus and the hardware store had the brass stuff. I fin ally found a tube and caps in my accumulation off collectables that worked for the Eveready lable. I got those and a can of Cox fuel in the cheese box my Mom gave us as kids for a flight box! I'll be really styling when flying 1/2A stuff this year! I'm going to try and post pictures and if I fail I'll have Sean post them for me.
Thanks a lot,
Dan McEntee

Sean McEntee · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2015, 04:39:20 PM »

Here's of pics of dads batteries

Andre Ming · « **Reply #25 on:** January 17, 2015, 05:29:28 PM »

Good to see you're still kickin', Dan! That's turning out pretty cool!

Thanks for the pictures Sean!

david beazley · « **Reply #26 on:** January 17, 2015, 05:31:59 PM »

Looking good Dan! I actually made a Rayovac and an Everyready version but I gave it to my flying buddy Charlie.

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #27 on:** January 17, 2015, 06:05:12 PM »

Thanks to Sean for helping his old Dad out. This picture shows the caps I was talking about in a piece of PVC pipe. I wrapped that piece with a couple of layers of chip board to get near the correct diameter and still be able to use the plastic snap in caps.
Sean, when you get a chance, put up the pic of the cheese box.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee

Sean McEntee · « **Reply #28 on:** January 17, 2015, 10:51:13 PM »

Frank Imbriaco · « **Reply #29 on:** January 18, 2015, 02:51:54 PM »

Guys:
Really neat stuff ! I made one up using light weight PVC tube from a central vac , but it's a bit too narrow. So, I'm going buy a shipping tube and do another.

Looks awesome alongside my vintage tether cars .

Is the Ray-O- Vac label print available, too ?

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #30 on:** January 18, 2015, 05:18:50 PM »

Quote from: Frank Imbriaco on January 18, 2015, 02:51:54 PM

Guys:
Really neat stuff ! I made one up using light weight PVC tube from a central vac , but it's a bit too narrow. So, I'm going buy a shipping tube and do another.

Looks awesome alongside my vintage tether cars .

Is the Ray-O- Vac label print available, too ?

I down loaded my labels from the link posted above: http://www.crystalradio.net/misc/batteries/index.shtml. My printer isn't worth spit, so I loaded them onto a disc and went to Kinkos for a copy of each, and used them as masters for a regular color copier. The Ray-O-Vac label worked OK with regular 2" PVC pipe and it's about 2 3/8" O.D. I just trimmed the right edge a bit. A couple of wrapps of chip board glued to the pipe will get you to the O.D. that you need and you can still use the snap in caps, no need to cut anything for the ends. I intend to break out a couple of Cox Shrikes and a Prop Rod when the weather gets warm, and you are correct, they will look good next to those! I have a couple of Thimble Drome cars and a O&R Racer also.
It's a simple little project, but fun ain't it???
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee

Author Topic: Replica Dry Cell Battery (Read 9517 times)

George Hostler

George Hostler

George Hostler

George Hostler