Battery spacer

[Nickedemuz]

Can anyone please tell me where to find diamond shaped battery spacers for 18650 battery packs?
I am doing makita 18v 5s2p packs with 18650 batteries and thought it would be a no brainer to find the spacers but google isn’t my friend here. To fit inside the box they need to look like this:

I have done image search also but the only things that turn up are the stackable ones which is to big for my batteries.

[Alex Eisenhut]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005947869568.html

These look offset but just follow the "related items" or look at this store's other offerings.

[Nickedemuz]

Thanks. Yes, I have looked in AliExpress as well but they really does not seem to like the straight configuration ones, just the offset ones 

[voltsandjolts]

Because of the 'straight' configuration, wouldn't the ubiquitous square type supports give similar pack shape and volume? (maybe with some trimming on the outside).

[Nickedemuz]

I actually just tried that 
Unfortunately the center is too bulky. Measuring diagonally the standard battery spacer in the original makita battery pack is about 7,5mm while the standard square type (trimmed) is about 10mm. To fit the housing the batteries need to be more or less just next to each other.
The picture shows an original Makita battery pack with small white diamond shaped spacers and the black trimmed square spacer:

[voltsandjolts]

I searched for "5S2P" on aliexpress and most results don't have any carrier support at all, just cells. You could go that route, possibly wrapping each cell in wide kapton tape for extra insulation if you wished. Or just buy pre-made makita compatible 18V packs from aliexpress, be hard to beat the price of those

[Nickedemuz]

That is probably the route I am going to go. Strange that there is no “diamond shaped” spacers out there. I tried fake batteries as well. The interesting thing about them is that 6 Ah doesn’t really mean the same when it is made in China. There 6Ah means 5 2500mAh batteries in series which with western math makes about 2,5Ah 

[mariush]

Can't you just cut some square or rectangle of plastic (ex from an old CD case) and glue some separators on the plastic?  (cut some square tubes from a thicker plastic)

Could also try making a negative using wood or some soft metal and then injecting some epoxy or something in two of those shapes put back to back... as the epoxy hardens you end up with that separator shape.

3d printing is an obvious solution...

[Nickedemuz]

I was thinking of 3d printing it but I think I would have to go with ABS for that since PLA might be too sensitive to the heat? ABS is too messy to 3d print I think