If you have a blow torch you could anneal metal by heating it up till it is really hot then letting it cool slowly. This rearranges the crystals in the metal to make it softer. Then it will work harden after some bashing. This can get you out of trouble with aluminium.
I want to crimp my 4/0 awg (120 sq mm) battery cables, so I was looking for some videos to see if the copper pipes are also an alternative option for the professional lugs. I think this method is good only for the cables with the section area almost the same as the pipes, otherwise, the lugs will get hot. In my country (Romania), I can only find 1 mm thick wall pipes, wich has barely a half of the cable's area in copper. I might use 2 different diameters of pipes to double the area.
My thoughts exactly... That cable in the video is a 50mm2 cable. The copper needs to also have a cross cut area of 50mm²... I will also search for some thick tubes and do some math. You basically take the outer and inner diameter, and you subtract the in from the outer area. What's left is the cross cut area of the pipe. I'm also worried about corrosion... But I will find ways to tin it. Thinking about nickel tinning maybe.
Thank you Don. It was definitely the main reason why I decided to make my own. Between the master cut-off switch, circuit breaker, shunt, bus bars, inverter and main battery posts, I needed a dozen cable lugs to connect everything together using my 0 awg cable. Being able to make up as many as I needed whenever I needed them was super handy. Far less expensive and wasteful as compared to buying lugs with various-sized opening.
Hi ! I love your channel. I have a comment regarding the crimping: I have a similar crimper and it is important to end up with a crimp that does NOT have two flat flanges on the sides. This is because usually the crimper will reach the full pressure compressing those flanges, and not necessarily on the hexagonal barrel with the wire in it. It may satisfactorily crimp the wires as well, but you won't know if the final pressure was concentrated on the hexagonal barrel with the wires or the flanges. I have found to get a satisfactory crimp sometimes requires using successive dies to make the crimp, and/or rotating the lug some multiple of 60° to ensure the flanges do not form. Thanks for making this series, I look forward to more of your travels!
Thanks Howard. Yes that is ideally the case if you are using manufactured terminals. However with my tests I have found that if I use a die larger than what is used here I actually end up with an inferior crimp. The flanges in the side is showing that the copper strands are actually encapsulated in a smaller space in the center than a die that would have needed to be larger to avoid it the flanging. These crimps are making full contact with the copper inside and is practically impossible to pull apart.
Good idea, looks like you are using hard plumbing copper which I find harder to work with. In North America it comes in 3 types M, L and K, in both hard and soft. I have been using type K (thickest wall) soft copper for all my lugs. It maybe overkill but I also clean the inside before crimping.
Nice! I was just looking at buying some more commercial lugs and didn't like the prices, but noticed that it looked like the commercial ones I have were manufactured from copper tubing and thought to maybe make my own instead. Found your video while looking for how this might already be working out for other people. Nice video. I'm going to try using 1/4" tubing for making lugs for 6AWG wire.
For short cables, there are places on eBay that will custom make them for a reasonable price. Hydraulic crimpers are great, but the "hammer and anvil" crimpers work pretty good also. You need a very solid surface for the anvil.
I've been looking at the eBay offerings, and they're full of brags about their quality, even promising suitable for marine applications. But they don't say they're using individually tinned strands, as would be the case with Marine grade cable. I expect that the eBay cables are better quality than the welding cable this guy is using, but I'd not use it on my boat. That said, I could see myself using welding cable and home-made lugs if I needed to replace a cable and I was somewhere I didn't have access to proper materials. I'd plan on replacing them, though, when materials become available.
I will be watching lots of your RU-vids now! I am a brand new Subscriber. Thanks so very much for this. I have a question: Could you just use flattened copper pipe to connect batteries in parallel and not use copper multistrand wire?? Seems like (without knowing electricity) it would make sense to just flatten a pipe, lay it across the batteries, and mark where the holes needed to be, drill, and your done. What are your thoughts on this?? Thank you!
Some people have done that, just make sure you determine if you have enough cross section of copper to match or exceed the gauge of wire you are substituting. If you are using too little copper, they would cause more resistance, and in a worst case heat up or cause a fire.
Interesting. I was thinking of using copper pipe time connect 4 lithium batteries in series. Cut to length and then flatten each end. Or making the connections with solid bar. These ideas are coming from the perspective of knowing northing about this. Whatcha think?
Ok, now, can we make curved ones? so if you need to mount into a tight space whee thick cables can't be easily bent? ie 90eg left or right. and yea, DIY is SO much cheaper then lugs.
What size copper wire were you using in this example? What size copper pipe? If I just go to HomeDepot or Lowes and purchase "Copper pipe" like for home plumbing is that correct copper content or do I have to purchase some specific "copper pipe"? Thank you!
Outer diameter is about 1/2 inch and inner diameter is 3/8 inch. Should fit a 0 AWG cable. That is my best estimate since the European measurements where I bought these from are a little different.
L copper is the most common available in box/hardware stores. Avoid M copper. K is thickest and best which mean less resistance, more expensive and harder to find. stay away from rolled, soft copper as it isn't as high a quality copper and thinner -Plumber
That exposed copper will corrode very quickly, when you buy them they’ve been tinned so that doesn’t happen. You could buy some liquid tin & do it yourself but life is too short surely?
Just wanna chime in here for anyone trying to not buy a crimper: You can achieve the same end with just metal chisels and a vice. I've had good luck with that.
@@jeffjules9157 by smushing the end with a vice, and using a metal chisel to make a valley in the center area of where the strands go into the pipe. It's difficult to describe the process.
