Charging Station - No more worries

I read one too many stories about over-heating batteries during re-charging. Went out to the shop the other day and realized I forgot to take a battery off the charger. It was extremely warm! I didn’t want to burn down the house, not to mention the cost of replacing batteries, so I made this station. I found the timer switch on e-bay for about half the price of a local purchase. I had everything else left over from other projects so my total (new) investment was under $15. Had the recepticles & covers, boxes, an old extension cord with a missing female end, a couple feet of #14 wire, a small pieces of plywood, some 1x poplar and pine and this is what I came up with:

I didn’t like the way the batteries sort of “smacked” onto their storage part of the station so I added some small pieces of weather stripping to absorb the weight of the batteries. That’s the grey you see under the batteries

The chargers I have are the one hour type, so that’s the timer I got, there’s a number of other timers available. Luckily both size batteries I use, 14.4v & 19.2v have the same size base so the storage holes, sort of a oval with one flat side, work with either battery. The chargers accept either battery as well.

I attached the extra cord with velcro under the base. No more cords all over the place! Each charger only pulls 65 watts, the switch is rated at something like 1850 watts, so no worries there. A couple coats of poly and I was done! Will probably build a small shelf on the wall to get it off the work bench at some point. Works great and a little compensation for my forgetful nature as well!

-- Sawdust looks better in the garage than cars, explain that to your wife!