FJ Cruiser: Platform Details...

Well, I've got two coats of orange paint on the platform parts, but they're not dry enough yet to work with.  That means I can't yet install the structural parts into the FJ, and I can't put the rubberized deck coating on the horizontal parts.  To (hopefully!) speed up the drying process, I've placed all the parts on a “rack” (sawhorses and beams) in the middle of our front yard, where they can bake nicely in the sun.  We'll see how dry they are after today, which is forecast to be hot and dry...

Meanwhile, in between dog emergencies (Race got a sudden case of the hives; we're still working out why and he's got a vet appointment today) I spent the rest of the day fabricating a couple of power distribution blocks.  I need these inside the platform to distribute up to about 200 amps of 12 volt power, to (especially) the 2KW inverter, the refrigerator outlet, and the air compressor.  I also want some room for adding devices in the future.

Power distribution blocks are common commercial devices, but I couldn't find one that could handle 0 gauge wire and small wire that was of nice quality.  Plus they were outrageously expensive.  So I decided to make mine, starting with 12" of 3/4" square brass stock.  That story is told in the photos below, but the bottom line is that they came out great!

The photos:

Platform parts baking in the sun...

Clamping rig for boring into the end of the brass stock (these are the big holes for the 0 gauge wire).  The limited travel of my drill press, plus the fact that the table can't rotate more than 40°, made this a little awkward.  A nice, square piece of oak 2x2 solved the problem nicely...

Boring a 7/16" hole into 3/4" inch stock doesn't leave much room for error...

After boring brass for a while, the shavings under the drill press were kind of pretty and sparkly in the bright sunlight...

Boring some of the smaller holes.  There were a total of 16 holes in each of the two distribution blocks that I needed to drill.  Nine of these holes needed to be threaded (for 7 set screws and two mounting screws).  That's a lot of holes to bore!  The holes for the wires and the holes for the matching set screws had to match up exactly, so precision was important here...

The finished result.  The left-hand one shows the top, with all the set screws ready to clamp down on the wires (the wires go in from the sides and ends).  The right-hand one shows a side view, with one of the 0 gauge holes showing on the end, and three of the 8 gauge holes showing on the side.  You can also see the nylon mounting screws (nylon so that the +12V isn't exposed on the mounting screw).

A slightly different view, showing the 0 gauge hole and the set screw poking into it (right-hand unit).  The 8 gauge holes were where the most precision was needed - if the wire hole and set screw holes were offset by more than about 1/32", things wouldn't have worked out well.  They all matched perfectly, with the set screws going right through the middle of the wire holes...