Make Your Own Battery

In today’s video I'm going to show you how to make your own battery. Whether for in case of an emergency, because you want to learn more about making your own power source or just because you can! So let’s go!

First off let's be clear, this video isn't to show how to make the best or most powerful battery. No. This video is to aid you in building your own battery unit, that can house power cells of your choosing.

With this design using standard components (plumbing fittings), you'll be able to make your own battery to a uniform size and scale.

These homemade batteries are able to be used over and over in your projects and science experiments. With small adjustments you can alter the design of this diy battery to suit your needs. For example you could relocate one of the terminals to the base of the battery, so they don't come out of the same end.

You could lengthen the battery with the aid of a piece of tube and another coupling. Then of course you could experiment with the materials you make your cells from, to see what gives you the better results.

Now as you watch the video (and if you haven't then do it now) you'll notice that I put one cell together and it gives a reading of 0.7 volts. Further on I inform you that I've put 10 of these cells together, but when I take my final reading it's only something like 3.5 volts.

Why is that?

The reading should be around the 7 volts marker for this homemade battery and if done correctly it would have been. Now I included this fault on purpose, to get those interested asking questions so they could learn more. After all you learn more from mistakes.

So before I answer why it gave those readings, I want you to stop for a moment and consider why that would be? Forget the battery container for a second and think of the battery cells. [Just have a ponder before reading on and come up with your own answers.]

So the answer to the low reading from the diy battery was the construction of the each cell itself. Paper doesn't hold much fluid and dries out pretty quickly. The electrolyte was also in places that it shouldn't be - like between new cells. This is caused by splashes of electrolyte coming onto surface areas that should be left dry or by running on the outside of the washers.

All these little mistakes in your diy battery add up to to a loss of power and a lower output.

I did include using cardboard in this how to make your own battery video and even with suffering the same faults as the paper version (electrolyte where it shouldn't be) it gave a better output of 5.7 volts.

So if you make your own battery, then you can experiment with using different materials in your battery to give to varying results. If this video becomes popular enough I may go into the topic more.

On the other hand, even if you don’t build a battery for yourself you can use the fittings I shown you to make an air and water tight container. These are useful for all kinds of things from survival kits to camping or even geocaching.  So in effect this was two videos in one.

If you did enjoy this video then don’t forget to share a link to it on your favourite sites and forums with other like minded people.

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