Soldering to an 18650 battery

[MattB101]

I am working on designing a box mod. I was wondering, in order to save space I would like to solder the wires directly to the battery rather than use a battery carrier. Is it possible? I was planning on roughing up the terminal ends of the battery, applying flux and using a small butane torch to melt the solder and attach the wire. Planned on the torch to keep from overheating the battery. I think I could solder the wire to the battery rather quickly. There are two things I am concerned about... 1. Cold solder joints and 2. Overheating the battery. Comments and thoughts/guidance please. Thanks in advance.

Sent while presently sitting on my .... watching mind numbing prattle on the TV. 257 Channels and nothing on.

 

[pnyc]

Bad idea to solder directly to the battery. Heat from the soldering iron may melt or deform the plastic seal in the +ve end of battery. It only takes approx.90 degree Celsius to deform the seal and cause structural damage and leakage. Use tabbed cells instead or buy a spot welder for the job.

 

[MattB101]

Bad idea to solder directly to the battery. Heat from the soldering iron may melt or deform the plastic seal in the +ve end of battery. It only takes approx.90 degree Celsius to deform the seal and cause structural damage and leakage. Use tabbed cells instead or buy a spot welder for the job.

I think tabbed cells are the cheaper alternative!

Sent while presently sitting on my .... watching mind numbing prattle on the TV. 257 Channels and nothing on.

 

[rhelton]

Its no prob with a soldering iron. Scuff the surface and apply flux, tin the iron and apply, add solder when you see the solder start to flow. Obviously anything you overheat while soldering is a problem with electronics and battery cells. Check youtube I have seen more than one tutorial on what you are wanting to do.

 

[Norrin]

Loads of tutorials on this, but it's unsafe and potentially dangerous. Buy tabbed cells or if you live in a large city you can probably find someone that can weld tabs on for you.

 

[WharfRat1976]

Get a Keystone battery sled or custom build your pickups and coil..

 

[rhelton]

Welded tabs is that like what they do for cells in a laptop battery? I did not know you could do that, good advise there.

 

[Norrin]

Welded tabs is that like what they do for cells in a laptop battery? I did not know you could do that, good advise there.

Yes it's spot welded similar to how you join res to non res wire for some coils.....in fact you might be able to make one the same as you do for that only you would need more capacitors.

 

[MattB101]

I saw a link to some spot welders for the purpose. 2000 bucks is a little high for my mod building budget! Think I'll just stay with a battery sled.

Sent while presently sitting on my .... watching mind numbing prattle on the TV. 257 Channels and nothing on.

 

[rhelton]

Holy cow 2000 bucks, were not putting up telephone power lines are we . Norrin said there that its possible to make one and I agree with that. There are schematics for wire welders here for joining res/nores wire, that would probably be not enough power, will need some larger caps or something, ill look around and see what I can find.

 

[TheRac25]

dont use too much heat, dont use an iron with a low thermal load capability, work quickly, its not as big a deal as some people make it out to be

 

[Norrin]

dont use too much heat, dont use an iron with a low thermal load capability, work quickly, its not as big a deal as some people make it out to be

Heat damages batteries and it's hard to be sure if you have done any damage, also batteries are heatsinks so you need a really good soldering iron or it will cool down too much when trying to heat the battery. It is unsafe and shouldn't be done, but loads of people do it.
If you want to do it then go do it, but you should at least know why it is unsafe and that there are other safe options out there.

 

[MattB101]

Guys! I have already said I'm not going to do it. Not worth the risk. There are other options I'm looking at now.

This fine print is a not so subtle reminder to always read the fine print before signing anything.

 

[TheRac25]

It is unsafe and shouldn't be done

then you should go tell that to every RC lipo pack manufacturer they all solder directly to the battery terminals
follow the ecf heard, moo!

 

[MattB101]

They solder with a spot welder though as far as I know. It really isn't safe but, if done properly it can be done.

This fine print is a not so subtle reminder to always read the fine print before signing anything.