+1 for our Spinning Star!
YES, PLEASE. THANK YOU. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, PLEASE? THANK YOU!!!
Why not buy (or just take, for free, with the gratitude of the former holders) batches of 18650s from Major, International Laptop Manufacturers like Dell or HP, since they are big enough to eat at the head of the OEM table; and their scraps keep our bellies full?
They’re plentiful, nearby, and free-to-cheap at their worst case. Colloquially AKA “Laptop Pulls”…
Yes, you’ll put a lot of them back into the waste stream from whence they came, but the Cost-Benefit Analysis works out WAY in our favor.
As Elwood said, “Whaddya want for nothing, a Rubber Biscuit?”
iirc a sanyo pocket tv i had a while back had 14500 cells.
screen was busted so i gutted the packs.funny thing was they were panasonics!
iirc i gave them to a friend for his rc stuff as i had no need.4.2v into a 1 led light with a boost converter = F.E.D
Okay, this is new to me. If I understand you correctly, a lap top battery has a bunch of 18650 batteries in it? Where would one get these ‘free-to-cheap’ batteries from? What’s a good source(s) to start checking out?
Prudence, Respect and Honor dictate I must insist that you first RTFM on LiIons. «-(click, please) because you’re about to jump in the deep end of the pool.
Yes.
Whenever I go out on a Service call, I go “all out” until I’m done; then on the way ‘home’, if I need new batteries I take a moment to stop by local PC repair shops. Most of them have taken in “dead” laptops where the Root Cause was a dead battery, which means the “dead” one is now their Hazmat Nightmare.
Don’t waste your time with the cup-pissing flunkies who can’t even decide what’s for lunch; & go straight to the Manager or Owner.
Most all of them are quite happy to hear my little tale of hot-rod LEDs and will give me as many “dead” pack( s ) as I can carry. Usually that’s “one”, but you never know. You’ll want to emphasize your commitment to properly recycle anything you can’t use!
There are as many ways to open them as there are scroungers, but essentially they are all plastic “boxes” thermo-welded together around packs of 6, 8, etc. 18650s; with a metal strip welded to the ends of the 18650s to “pack” them together. Most yield to grasping the ends & twisting the plastic housing back & forth until the cracks reveal themselves. Be careful with metal tools, but you can “nibble” away at the edges until the cracks become wide enough to see what’s inside… But before you get too carried away, try removing the label. Dell packs (my favorite) often have a wide-open “trough” covered by that label, which of course is “TOO easy”…
There will be a controller circuit board (usually by the external connectors) from which you can scrounge SMD components and a Thermocouple or two. Carefully break the welds to free the individual batteries from the buss strips & use the finest flush cutters you can afford (or a wee file or grinding ball — avoid sandpaper or anything “messy”, and hold them “upside down” so any metal scraps fall to the ground) to trim any ‘nipples’ left behind by the welders.
The Big Secret is, Dell et al. get “first dibs” on the best and brightest Sanyo, LG, etc. have to offer, which means when the circuit is the Root Cause, the 18650s are almost pristine; and even if an 18650 or two has failed, there are 4 or 6 more to choose from.
Recent rumors imply 14500s can be found this way, but I’ve not seen such a miracle YET…
Some of our more “well-heeled” participants herein, actually buy NOS (“New Old Stock” if you didn’t know) packs in order to get matched sets for multi-cell torches. If you go that route, be sure to get the packs from relatively-new laptops (balancing price vs. age) to be sure you don’t get the old “burning laptop terror” packs.
This really is best for folks like me who only use single-cell torches & chargers. If you have a two-place charger, try to make sure it’s 1*1, not 2-up, so you don’t have to worry about balancing — yet. If you want to feed multi-cell torches, this will “work”, but you’re going to have to exercise inordinate care to avoid trouble.
If this whets your appetite, use the Search box in the UL corner of this page to dredge up “laptop pulls” or just “laptop” “18650”. This forum is jamb-packed with Good Information.
Dim
Cool, thanks. There goes the afternoon 
Sorry to dump a wall of words on you, but I’m stuck here awaiting replies on Work Orders so I figured it might save you some Googling.
This is my life in a nutshell when I am trying to learn something.