Cork Button Battery Holder

This simple project seemed like a good way to make my first instructable. I have often been frustrated when trying to measure the voltage of a button battery with a DMM as the little fellers don't often stay standing on edge and tend to roll or slide away. In the following quick steps you can see how I made a small cork into a convenient holder for equally small button batteries.

Step 1: Initial Piercing

I used a hobby knife and drill bit to make a hole from one end of the cork to the other. Simply drilling will not easily work as the faces shear off from the torque. It is necessary to make an initial cut-out with a blade and then use the bit to clear out the cut material. This initial space will be for the DMM probe to reach one side of the battery.

Step 2: Battery Space

Using the sharp hobby knife a larger area is carved out to allow the battery to fit in place. It would be possible to make the battery space deeper thus allowing for stacks of batteries. Though not necessarily useful for battery testing it could make a quick and handy battery compartment.

Step 3: Test Battery

Now the battery is ready to test and won't roll away. For larger batteries I cut a slot into a champagne cork and insert them. There are any number of ways to improve on this so I hope it provides inspiration and proves useful in a pinch as it has for me.