welding battery boxes

I tried a wood/metal-brakets version which was okay, but the wood thickness used up valuable space plus it would have to be bolted to the brakets and bolts use up more space poking themselves into the box area.  SO I decided to try the metal approach.

Here is some physical progress on my 3 week brainstorm of a new battery location. 

After finding possibly the best supplier of sheet metal a guy could hope for, I used my brand new MIG welder to tack weld up this box out of 16 gauge sheet steel, which looks shiny like stainless but it is not stainless and will need to be painted.  (Powder coating would be nice, but I think I'll just go with paint for now).

I'll try to get the 2nd box, which holds 1 row of horizontal batteries done tomorrow.

And yes, the auto darkening welding mask is worth 10 times what they cost!