I am trying to build a clean electric box(s) panel for the relays and some circuitry for the purpose of my R/C lawnmower. I am using 2 lead acid batteries, and salvaged many parts from the Jazzy wheelchair.
To give you an idea of what type of ugly mess I'm making, I started with this "terminal block" commonly found at Radio Shacks:
Then proceeded to drill holes into my metal box to stick the fat wires through, then thought I would just seal the holes with rubber silicone window caulk. This machine vibrates, and that setup obviously won't work since the insulation of the wires will probably rub the sheet metal and cause an unsafe short. It obviously looks terrible.
I'm confused experiencing a "designer block", asking for help please. I was wondering if anyone can share with me some of the hardware, fasteners, panel-mount wire through connectors for these large (8 gauge) wires that you use.
They come in a variety of sizes, colors, plastic or stainless steel. after installing on the panel you loosen the gland nut, push the wire through, then tighten the gland nut which compresses the rubber grommet to seal against the wire.
They make some heavy-guage stuff for car stereo wiring like [u]this[/u] or you can try a home-improvement store, or some place that sells electrical supplies (as opposed to electronic parts & supplies), or an auto-parts store.
Regular [u]rubber grommets[/u] may work where the wires feed-through (with optional RTV/caulk if you need to seal it.)
larryd:
As @pert suggests those work great and will fix all your glandular problems
A chassis mount connector works too.
The 13-amp 125v A/C voltage wires for that connector will not handle 50-100 amps of DC battery power my robot may peak and spike to on occasion. Those wires are 16-gauge at best, normally 18 gauge.
DVDdoug:
They make some heavy-guage stuff for car stereo wiring like [u]this[/u] or you can try a home-improvement store, or some place that sells electrical supplies (as opposed to electronic parts & supplies), or an auto-parts store.
I saw those. They cost more like $50 if I went to a car stereo store. It would take me about an hour to drill and tap 6 - 8 holes into a block or rail flat stock copper, with a plastic base. I've needed to use something like this a few times - wish they sold them at the same import prices since it's such a simple thing. Times like this I feel like running off 100 of them at the machine shop to sell for $10 each and see what happens.
