The new batteries arrived on Wednesday:
These batteries were the cheapest, and also had the quickest delivery time, so after some deliberation over the many options I placed the order last weekend.
The range of products Amazon returned for the search term “605080 battery” ranged in price up to $49, and some had delivery estimates out to late October. Some had UL marks, others had CE. Most of them came with a battery management board already attached, which I did not need or want, but bare cells were all in the long delivery time category. I ordered these in the hope that the circuit board could be easily excised, leaving enough tab to easily solder, and it appears that I was lucky:
Spot-welded, not soldered … interesting! I wonder what the tab material is. Nickel ribbon? Stainless steel? There might be solderability issues; I’ll need to make a test or two before proceeding.
Another thing I wondered about was the quality question. Is a 49 dollar battery better than a 17 dollar one in terms of capacity, or longevity? Hard to know for sure in the absence of any data.
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp! More on this topic coming soon!
A couple of bonus pictures
Sawzall Time! (well, the Harbor Freight equivalent … )