I'm not quite sure this qualifies as "fabrication" or anything more than a little ad hoc MacGuyvering at best, but it's proved useful as hell and yielded one of the best yet bangs for my garage buck - so I thought I'd share.
I've been wrestling with the best way to implement trickle chargers to maintain the batteries in vehicles I store upon lifts for relatively long periods and often without starting as often as the car batteries naturally deplete. The task is simple in concept but executing it elegantly becomes much more complex with as many as eight vehicles and not wanting extension cords strewn all over or dangling from ceiling outlets which aren't conveniently accessible.
I decided upon 2-bank chargers which simultaneously can maintain both vehicles parked on and under each lift and effectively integrate battery maintenance into each lift's basic functionality. But the question remained of where and how to place each battery maintainer and secure the various cords each requires rather than letting them run all over and invite injury or damage.
Adhesive magnets, either disks or tape, came to mind first but none seemed to be sufficiently secure without doing something permanenty irreversible the lift or the maintainer - which I hoped to avoid if possible. I thought about mounting each maintainer to a nearby wall, but that reintroduced the challenge of wires to avoid and so forth. The solution I found, which easily also may be adapted to suit countless other purposes, occurred to me after an odds-and-ends visit to my local Harbor Freight store upon noticing the following item.
HF sells sets of four Magnetic Hooks (Item 98052) which are discs about 35mm in diameter, each with its own wire hook. (See attachment) The beauty part of these little gems beyond their price is that each hook actually is an M4-.70 screw which can be replaced by any such equivalent from a local hardware store. Using some M4-.70 x 10 Panhard screws and washers, I created magnetic feet for each battery maintainer which I now can secure to any convenient location upon each lift without any irreversible or permanent marring. And it sticks like an absolute mother.
I then turned to the issue of cord and wire management which I solved similarly by using 6mm M4 panheads and washers and 3/8" nylon clips which will keep these, or any other, wires as tidy as can be upon the lift or any other surface to which magnets are drawn.
Bearing in mind my earlier disclaimer, I don't claim to have split an atom more efficiently or cured anyone of anything. Nor do I claim to be the first person to do something similar. But given how incredibly versatile this combination of hardware can be and its ludicrously low cost, I thought I'd take a moment to share for the sake of saving someone else a few hours or dollars.
I've been wrestling with the best way to implement trickle chargers to maintain the batteries in vehicles I store upon lifts for relatively long periods and often without starting as often as the car batteries naturally deplete. The task is simple in concept but executing it elegantly becomes much more complex with as many as eight vehicles and not wanting extension cords strewn all over or dangling from ceiling outlets which aren't conveniently accessible.
I decided upon 2-bank chargers which simultaneously can maintain both vehicles parked on and under each lift and effectively integrate battery maintenance into each lift's basic functionality. But the question remained of where and how to place each battery maintainer and secure the various cords each requires rather than letting them run all over and invite injury or damage.
Adhesive magnets, either disks or tape, came to mind first but none seemed to be sufficiently secure without doing something permanenty irreversible the lift or the maintainer - which I hoped to avoid if possible. I thought about mounting each maintainer to a nearby wall, but that reintroduced the challenge of wires to avoid and so forth. The solution I found, which easily also may be adapted to suit countless other purposes, occurred to me after an odds-and-ends visit to my local Harbor Freight store upon noticing the following item.
HF sells sets of four Magnetic Hooks (Item 98052) which are discs about 35mm in diameter, each with its own wire hook. (See attachment) The beauty part of these little gems beyond their price is that each hook actually is an M4-.70 screw which can be replaced by any such equivalent from a local hardware store. Using some M4-.70 x 10 Panhard screws and washers, I created magnetic feet for each battery maintainer which I now can secure to any convenient location upon each lift without any irreversible or permanent marring. And it sticks like an absolute mother.
I then turned to the issue of cord and wire management which I solved similarly by using 6mm M4 panheads and washers and 3/8" nylon clips which will keep these, or any other, wires as tidy as can be upon the lift or any other surface to which magnets are drawn.
Bearing in mind my earlier disclaimer, I don't claim to have split an atom more efficiently or cured anyone of anything. Nor do I claim to be the first person to do something similar. But given how incredibly versatile this combination of hardware can be and its ludicrously low cost, I thought I'd take a moment to share for the sake of saving someone else a few hours or dollars.
