Anti-rattle battery tubing???

[recDNA]

Many of us sometimes use 16340 sized batteries in body tubes designed for 18660 sized batteries. Of course the 16340 sized batteries will rattle. I've read suggestions I'm not crazy about like wrapping batteries in tape or purchasing expensive tubes designed expressly for this purpose like the eagletac anti-rattle tubes.

I wonder if anyone has ever found any kind of less expensive pvc, aquarium, or commercial tubing that has the right dimensions to work? I don't like sticky tape coating on my batteries and I'm too cheap to buy the eagletac battery tubes.

[Ardillakilla]

Would O-rings work? It's easy to find them in metric versus plastic tubing--16 mm I.D. and 18 mm O.D. Or perhaps slightly smaller.

[TooManyGizmos]

~

I use colored/clear plastic divider pages used in school notebooks.

Cut to any size you need - roll to fill any size gap you have .

It's slick plastic - so batteries slide in and out real easy .

Also protects the inner body walls if you have a battery leak .

I don't think you can find anything simpler or better for the purpose .

~

[recDNA]

The ones I've seen are very thin (almost like cellophane) and look like they could easily melt?

[TooManyGizmos]

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Remember the thick colored sheets with alphabetic TABS ?

They are much thicker than cellophane - I don't think they would melt .

Or see what else you might find at a School/Office supply place .

Give em a try ..... and find out ..... I think it works great .

~

[recDNA]

Oh, OK..if there are no tubes available in the right size I'll go look at Staples. The only ones I've seen are made of paper with plastic tabs or thin plastic used to protect a paper rather than separate parts of a notebook. It's been a long time since I've been a student.

I'm thinking of visiting an aquarium supplies store because I know there are several sizes of hard plastic tubing used in various filters.

[ElectronGuru]

There are several things at play.

The most important is physical - thickness. Adapting from 16mm to 18mm means a tube thickness of only 1mm. Unlike most other (thicker) applications, a tube made to these specs would not hold up to any practical liquid or air pressure. There's so few other things that need be so thin and needn't handle 300psi.

The second is economic. Since some company isn't making it a mile at a time that can be just sliced to length, anything good has to be made from scratch, in small batches, less than a foot at a time. Eagletac is the cheaper of two 'made for' options currently available.

The third is alternatives. Tape is slow/annoying but practically free. And even so, some setups and uses have strong enough springs not to even need it. And even with none of that, its not a functional problem (won't keep operating) but an irritation one (wont stay silent).

What you're after is an economists solution to a perfectionists problem.

[recDNA]

Yes actually the Eagletac product is very inexpensive. With a CPF discount they're only $1.80 each! Adding the shipping cost is the problem Stiff plastic aquarium tubing as is used in undergravel filters for the air stone would be perfect since it is only one mil thick but nobody makes one with 2/3" (17 mil) ID. I should have known if there were such a thing it would be in common use and well-known here already. duh

[beerwax]

...........

[EnduringEagle]

I know tape might not be the ideal solution but wouldn't a strip of black electrical tape toward the top and bottom get the job done?

[richpalm]

I use high grade typing paper and wrap it around batteries-if I get it right, the battery will slide into the tube easefully without slamming down on the driver. Works great!

Rich

[lctorana]

I just roll the cells in a strip of cloth.

[march.brown]

You can buy lengths of plastic tubing that are used to cover the pipes that connect to central heating radiators ... They are readily available to fit 15mm pipes ... Possibly other sizes are available ... They can be easily cut to length and will simply just clip round a battery.

You can also use "Spirabind" which is used to neatly hold several cables together.

A "Plumbing" shop will also have several different diameters of plastic tubes ... I use this method to fit a 18650 battery into 3AA torch bodies.
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