Show off your aux fuse panels.

If your only running wire a few feet 18 and 16awg can handle most of what you want to power with little or no voltage drop. Look up some charts for reference.

 

I'm working on designing a mounting plate for @paranoid56 to make, and I'd like a slot in it for wires to go through. Could someone who has a slot in their plate tell me approximate width? Length will be the same as the bus bar.

 

Then if you’re in a rust belt area you might want to go with marine grade wire which is tinned throughout. Heat resistant insulation is a good idea in some cases. I just followed tacozord’s recommendation for gxl cross linked wire (txl for 10 awg to fit into crimps).

 

Cool, thanks for your input!
I need to get started on this already!

 

So it's been nearly 3 years with this exact system and i've loved it. However, i got my hands on a 3D printer and not i'm trying out some new ideas.
yes i understand the age old quote of "If it aint fucked, don't fix it".

well in my case it, it did due to -40c temps.



temps shattered the connections i have from my relay box to all of the outputs (leds)
and my Blue Seas split double block seemed to have shattered as well, assuming from salt corrosion over time,






so designed something up in Fusion 360. but just working out problems and figuring out answers for them


current issues with mounting it to the fender, bolts too low and are obstructed by Fuse block. also no where to place a sort of block that allows me to connect stuff to my switches.

 

What material did you use for your print?

 

using PLA+ but these are just test prints for fitment and checks. i'm on the 4th revision atm but i'll be printing in either PETG like i did for the Induction snorkle mount
(been 2 months and no issues with PETG.)

or, now that I got my hands on ASA, so going to give that a try once the design is "finalized".


I'm fairly adamant with going with the top sided bolt method since it makes it easier to get into the OEM fuse panels if i ever need to get to them. the way i had it before, i needed a 10" long screw driver and blindly looking for the 2 screws under the panel. was a bit of a nightmare and takes a solid 30 minutes of dismantling to get just the plate out...

 

so tried printing in ASA. learned the limitations of my printer

bed adhesion was great, however the magnet and spring steel wasn't strong enough....


reprinted the panel in PETG.




the above routing of wire to A sucks ass, it's not great, gets in the way with a lot of stuff

 

STL Files on Thingiverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6179533

T-World special is the Blank STL attached below for anyone that wants to make their own base.


there is also this BlueSeas Box Panel some other guy made:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3141131

 

I finally got enough work done to show off my updated circuit setup.

BEFORE: I initially started off with a 6 gang relay box





AFTER

And now I have 27 circuitts:

15 on the Driver side - 10 Relays and 5 Fused only circuits









12 on the Passenger side - 12 Solid State Relay Box from MicTuning on a custom floating bracket






Here's a pic of both Relay Boxes. Yes I know its overkill, but now I have all the pre-made circuits readily available to use. This was 6 months in the making

 

Nice work!

 

Finally got back on my Bussman project based on the excellent writeup by @tacozord. I've been working on the powertray layout and dimensions, and finally got the part modeled in Fusion and 3D printed (paritally, the support bracket closest to the engine wouldn't fit on my printer's bed). Since I have a manual the tray needed to accommodate the relocation of the clutch reservoir, which is why the longer mounting bracket has three slots.





The print wasn't perfect, and there was deformation present that prevented one of the final bolts for the Bussman from being installed, but overall I'm happy with the fit of the components and look forward to test fitting the unit in the truck this weekend. The final shots below show the different templates I've been working with and refining using my CNC on the wood templates to refine the bolt hole patterns and component cutouts, and the cardboard templates to fit to the truck.











Next step—if the test fit goes well—will be to test cut the bolt and component cutouts on some scrap 6061 before working on the final tray.

 

Sooo just straight up redid the panel base,





So built a relay fuse block for @Saturnine using the

$30 RVBOATPAT 12V Fuse Relay Box with 6 Relays and 11 Way ATC/ATO Blade Fuses, Pre-Wired Fuse and Relay Box 12 Vlot Relay Fuse Box Block for Automotive Marine Boat

Amazoom special 6relay+5fused block thing
Its nice that it's prewired but its a bit jank. Well optimized for the least amount of wires used but it does work.

For anyone getting it; yellow is relayed power, white is powered switches, blue is fused power, and red is your positive (terminal).
Added in a 50A auto circuit breaker and all the rest just seats itself into the 3D printed plastic

 

Love the 3d prints! I'm trying ASA soon myself. I've got a Bambu X1C which I'm told should tackle that filament no problem, so we'll see.

 

3D printing is certainly the way to go, but i figured out why my ASA prints failed, too much moisture so i need to get myself a sunlu dryier

printed @Saturnine 's build with PLA+ for the "final" version, now that i know what my issue was with the ASA

 

Mine is PLA but only as a prototype/template to ensure fitment of the 3D model before I spend the time (and bits) carving the final piece in 6061 aluminum. I'm positive PLA would stand up to the heat in the engine bay where my tray needs to mount (with PLA having an upper tolerance of about 60ºC) whereas ASA would be the superior filament if this was going to be a finished part.

 

my PLA+ mount for the induction snorkel mount that i made started to deform after about (not quite fail) after 3 weeks of being in there. even with 1" fender washers to distribute the weight/ load/ forces, it just didn't support the winch control box i made it for, would have failed entirely if it wasn't for the aluminum support bar i put in.

however it was also just a test print to see what would happen. so in the end, PLA will sort of hold up, but i wouldn't keep it in there for more than a week of light driving. the PETG print i did i also lined with aluminum foil tape to give it a fighting change in hope that it reflected heat back in some way and i've not had issues in the last 2 months.

Remember PLA softens at 60 which is correct, but you might as well had it printed in TPU at that point.... cuz it aint gonna support anything

 

I'd highly recommend modeling and prototyping with 3D printing, and then just get it made out of sheet metal through sendcutsend.com. If you can model it well enough to fit perfectly to print, it should be pretty easy to set it up for laser cut metal and bending. The cost is so cheap that I was shocked the first time I got a part made through them.

 

i would *abuse* send-cut-send if it was able to send to Canada...

oh wait fuck they do
https://sendcutsend.com/canada/

since when/????

 

Cool, sendcutsend.com is remarkably cheap for 2D parts. A quote for two 4" x 8" simple fuse box panels is $15 plus shipping. Does anybody have a recommendation for relatively cheap 3D CNC parts, for a totally different project? I have used redeye.com and stratasys for fast 3D CNC but they are the opposite of cheap.