Cabinet busbars and standoffs

[robbob2112]

sorry to sound harsh.

but like I said, I know my metals,
it is brass through and through/ full stop

I wasn't disputing you, I was answering rhino. Guess I should have quoted him. My reply was from before yours, but is posted after. Weird.

If they are selling that part as copper when it is brass I would wonder where else they are cutting corners and vote with my feet and buy something else.

 

[400bird]

If you are in the UK and those are listed as copper, but actually brass, do you have a consumer protection agency you can contact?

And do you have any pictures of these brass bus bars?

 

[rhino]

You are looking for something like this, right?

 

[Urge38]

You are looking for something like this, right?

I was looking to hear people's opinions on the size of the standoffs and more so, the distance between the busbar and the cabinet.

I was wondering if the close proximity was safe.

At the end of the day, having two lathes, two milling machines and countless other equipment I can make any standoff I choose.

Or busbar

But the price of copper does leave me thinking a email to Fogstar uk should be sent.

 

[timselectric]

I was looking to hear people's opinions on the size of the standoffs and more so, the distance between the busbar and the cabinet.

At that low voltage , any distance is fine.
Basically, just not touching is good enough.

 

[Q-Dog]

sorry to sound harsh.

but like I said, I know my metals,
it is brass through and through/ full stop

The standoffs are not an issue, but if the buss bars are brass instead of the nickel plated copper in their sales info, you need to give them a call.

 

[Urge38]

The standoffs are not an issue, but if the buss bars are brass instead of the nickel plated copper in their sales info, you need to give them a call.

perhaps Ben@fogstar might wish to comment via this thread, as he is on our forum.

Help us design a rack-mounted system for the UK

one just now,its money side of things for now,just wanted to see if that fills up first along with usual loads from house then get another!

diysolarforum.com

I will be giving them a email directly, only my last email to Fogstar regarding battery paramotors got ignored.

a little bit frustrating seeing as ive spent over £4.5 grand with this firm in the uk (Fogstar)

 

[rhino]

perhaps Ben@fogstar might wish to comment via this thread, as he is on our forum.

Help us design a rack-mounted system for the UK

one just now,its money side of things for now,just wanted to see if that fills up first along with usual loads from house then get another!

diysolarforum.com

I will be giving them a email directly, only my last email to Fogstar regarding battery paramotors got ignored.

a little bit frustrating seeing as ive spent over £4.5 grand with this firm in the uk (Fogstar)

What are the dimensions of the busbar?

 

[Urge38]

What are the dimensions of the busbar?

I will get the dimensions and a few photos when I am next at my workshop, sorry but it's the weekend and I don't like close by to where I work.

 

[Urge38]

Just a up-date

Ben was good enough to respond to my Email today (a Sunday)
he said he was happy to send me out the copper bus bars

 

[Q-Dog]

That's good, but doesn't explain why you have brass instead of the copper they advertise.

 

[Urge38]

That's good, but doesn't explain why you have brass instead of the copper they advertise.

from what I gather, fogstar used brass to help with thread stripping in the brass

 

[robbob2112]

from what I gather, fogstar used brass to help with thread stripping in the brass

I will assume you meant thread stripping in copper. In that case they should have gone more narrow and thicker rather than switching to brass and still advertising copper. Bad PR to get caught with the hand in the cookie jar so to speak. I will be interested to see the diminsions of both brass and copper and if they are the same or if they increased the size of the brass bars to compensate for the inferior metal.

 

[robbob2112]

You are looking for something like this, right?

That is what I was looking at and the only thing that is important about it is the voltage rating. With the sort of DC you are dealing with you aren't going to start an arc. Now from a pure physical standpoint a taller standoff might make it easier to reach behind to hold a nut or something if you manage to strip a threaded hole and don't have a tap handy.

The main thing is to not have the bars near enough to anything to physically short them to it. I assume your cabinet came with the finger molded plastic around them and a cover? If not I think that is a worthy investment since it only costs $20ish for 8ft.

 

[Urge38]

I will assume you meant thread stripping in copper. In that case they should have gone more narrow and thicker rather than switching to brass and still advertising copper. Bad PR to get caught with the hand in the cookie jar so to speak. I will be interested to see the diminsions of both brass and copper and if they are the same or if they increased the size of the brass bars to compensate for the inferior metal.

I am yet to go to my workshop where my cabinet is, BUT from memory, I would say the brass buss bars that I have in my cabinet are one and a half inch wide (38mm) and about 10mm thick.

as promised, I will defiantly confirm this and upload a photo.

I have been promised some free solid copper bus bars, and when I get them, I will compare.

there is a buss bar calculator floating around on the net.

 

[Urge38]

That is what I was looking at and the only thing that is important about it is the voltage rating. With the sort of DC you are dealing with you aren't going to start an arc. Now from a pure physical standpoint a taller standoff might make it easier to reach behind to hold a nut or something if you manage to strip a threaded hole and don't have a tap handy.

The main thing is to not have the bars near enough to anything to physically short them to it. I assume your cabinet came with the finger molded plastic around them and a cover? If not I think that is a worthy investment since it only costs $20ish for 8ft.

No finger plastic. I know the ones you mean though.

my brass bars are covered in heat shrink (as per the description I gave above)

 

[Urge38]

As promised

Brass bus size as per my cabinet

38mm x 5mm thick

A few photos as well as requested

 

[Zwy]

I made my own from 1/4" x 1 1/4" copper bar. Nickel plated it myself.



Cold headed in the square holes for carriage bolts.




Insulators are these from Amazon, 3 per busbar. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009SCSXVO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[robbob2112]

So, using the calculator - the brass if it was best quality was 760amp capacity and if it was cheaper quality (low copper content) it was 380amps. For the copper ones carry around 942 amps.

Much better deal with copper. They did increase the size of the brass verse copper but IMO not enough.

 

[robbob2112]

I made my own from 1/4" x 1 1/4" copper bar. Nickel plated it myself.

View attachment 201893

Cold headed in the square holes for carriage bolts.

View attachment 201894


Insulators are these from Amazon, 3 per busbar. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009SCSXVO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Calculator says yours are good for 1000amps.... does that agree with your calculations? I assume the red cable is from a battery and you intend to hook up your load to the other end of the class T fuse?

Looks like your bar to the class T is much smaller than the bus bar itself?