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12 Volt Power Strip Project
(For my Ham Radio Gear)

Hey kids!  Here's another project that I've decided to play with.  This will be my second ham
radio project!  Ok so it's not exactly a radio or anything but hopefully when I'm done it will fill a
need that I have.

The problem for me was I needed something to 'feed' my different radios and things in the house off
of the 12 volt power supply that I have.  Unfortunately the power supply only has one set of connectors
(why do they call it a set when it's only one? lol) to feed my stuff!  I started looking around for some power
strips and they were out there from about 35 dollars (US) and up!  Ack!  Most of them not in the AMP
range that I wanted either.  :/   SoOoOoOo  I decided to make my own!

Now mind you, I haven't tallied up the cost on this yet but I'm betting it wound up costing me as much as buying one.
Mostly because I wanted it to look 'special'.  (you decide what that means when you see the final project, hehehe)
Anyway let me get to the point.... I wanted to build it so that you could see the wiring inside the box.
See-through!  CAUTION!  If you decide to duplicate this I have a number of WARNINGS first!


1.  I designed this with my use in mind, I have NO children in the house and NONE visit.  This is an open sided design and could potentially be LETHAL (DEADLY) if a child (or stupid adult) put their hand inside the box with current being fed to it!!  I am not suggesting that you build one with open sides due to this fact!

2.  This design has NOT been 'load tested' at all.  At the time of this writing the project is done but I have not applied any current to it other than just to do some tests.  Theoretically my design will handle 20A of power.  That is what the 12 gage solid copper wire is rated at.  I don't know what the power terminals are rated at though.  I think they are more likely to be the weak link in the project. (either that or my lousy soldiering!).

3.  I won't be leaving the power on, i.e. a current load, the strip when I'm not present since I don't know all of the variables.   I'll have to test it out and possibly run a continuous load on it and see if I can borrow a laser temperature gage and check the wiring and connections.

...now that you've been scared and warned on with the fun!!  :)
The meter is one of the first things that I had bought when I was playing with the idea of building the strip
but hadn't come up with a design yet.  I finally decided to build the thing out of Plexiglass (Well Lucite)!
The top left picture is two sheets of the Lucite about 8 inches by 10 inches square.  The 8 holes I have drilled
in it in the picture will hold the 'legs' between the sheets.  I've decided to go with all brass fittings!
The Meter is from China and is a 15 Volt meter.  I paid 9.80 US for it at Tanner Electronics.


Here is a shot of the 'Top' piece of plexiglass.  I measured it off in 1 Inch squares with a pencil.  The Plexiglass
conveniently had a paper coating on both sides that easily peels off.  This makes it great to work with and helps
to avoid scratching the surface!  I have most all of the holes drilled above.  The Meter slot is cut out.  To get
the meter slot in I took a piece of paper and then unscrewed the top of the meter and laid it on the paper
upside down.  I then drew around it and then used a mechanical pencil to slip through the bolt hole and make
little drill marks for the bolts.  I then just used good judgement and measured in a little bit all the way
around and left some work room for the bolt holes.
Above left:  The connector terminals.  Above right:  Brass nuts, bolts, washer and stuff.  Bottom left:  12 Gage
solid wire.   Bottom Right:  My dremel tool!   Really handy thing! (wish I had bought the variable speed one. Oh
well, I'll make that a later project!)


Test fitting the Meter.  Wow!  Got it right on the first try!  I cut out the meter hole with the dremel tool.
I started with a regular drill bit and made the hole then I used a 'scrolling' bit that cut it to shape.
Had to dig out the big drill and re-do most of the holes.  They wren't big enough for the bolts and the dremel tool
wasn't big enough to hold the drill bit that I needed to use.  The right two pictures above are of me taking apart the
connector terminals.  I decided not to use the plastic seperator that came with them since I'm mounting them right
to the plexiglass.

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