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NEEDED: Quality Copper BusBars for LifePo4 cells (quickly)

Steve_S

Steve_S

Offgrid Cabineer, N.E. Ontario, Canada
Joined
Oct 29, 2019
Messages
7,816
Location
Rural NE Ontario Canada
Hi folks,

I ordered & received some Busbars to eliminate the ShunBin pack's bar stock aluminium busbars, unfortunately what I got was for Headway Cells, wrong size, thin steel and completely useless.... Refunded and going back BUT now I'm in a lurch, the new BMS arrives today (3rd try by DHL, goodness gracious, what a lost cause) and now Fed up with this to the point of using 5 languages & cursing like a drunken sailor on a Saturday night after 12 months at sea.

I NEED 23 pieces of real copper bus bars meant for linking LFP cells. I know, it is an odd number... so let's do 24 pcs.
Something I can get FAST either from Ebay / Amazon or direct (sent msg to Bay Marine with hope) but none of this slow boat from China deals... having to use the genset to top off the fla's is really starting to irritate me in the worst of ways.... meanwhile I'm out $30 in S&H over the mistake which is even more irritating, which will be worse when I pay the postage to return the junk.
 
I bought copper flat stock from 6061dude on ebay Then cut to length and drilled some holes they work well. He shipped really quickly (2 days). 2 Pieces 1/8" x 3/4" C110 COPPER BAR 12" long Solid Flat Mill Bus Bar Stock . this was the header. Good luck
 
Good tip on jus buying 110 stock but guess what... I can buy for around $25-35 usd but shipping is like $65 ! WTF !! so I looked on ebay CA / amazon CA and same shtick in various form... free shipping ones include the cost of shipping as their price... no win there,.... There is metal shop (manufacturer) that supplies the military about 50 miles away, I'll stop in there and maybe I'll get lucky. I would have preferred ones like shown below or like the ones Will uses on the sinopoly kits *they are 1 month for shipping).

Electrical-Connector-Insulated-Bus-Bar-Copper-Busbar-for-Lithium-Battery-Pack.jpg
 
Thanks Barb, unfortunately no joy...

It's incredible that something so simple & commonly used even is just not available handily !
The new Chargery BMS arrived today and sitting on my hands... ugh...
ruckus, stuckus, frickus, fruckus…
 
I hear you... (not quite).

The local Home Hardware here has copper pipe. If you know of any blacksmiths locally, they might be able to do something with pipe (or whatever) for you.

I know a horsewoman who lives in the Ottawa Valley who might know someone who could do that for you. Horsepeople know farriers / blacksmiths, many of whom do metalwork in addition to horseshoes. I could contact her if that would be any help.
 
Thanks Barb, we have quite a lot of amish here and the farriers that go with them, not to mention every second place has a horse (seems so). I can buy Copper Bar stock and use my drill press to drill the holes, seems I may just have to do that. Sent emails to TotalBattery and a few others as well, hopefully I'll get an answer quick otherwise it's making the bars. It really Is amazing that these are not easily / readily available.
 
Barb said:
The local Home Hardware here has copper pipe. If you know of any blacksmiths locally, they might be able to do something with pipe (or whatever) for you.
Click to expand...
Copper is quite soft. You could probably get away with a regular 16oz ripping hammer to flatten out the copper pipe. At most you would need a 5lb hand sledge. No blacksmith required.
 
Sorry, I thought I had replied to this thread as well on this point... No Bodging or Kludging, proper busbars or 110 copper stock (which I can get) but prefer the proper busbar interconnects.

I have sent a series of emails to various companies and only got ONE answer from a company and they didn't bother to read the email, they just up & offered CALB cells... An EU company in Prague to boot.... (although they have good pricing on their prismatic cells mind you... Winston, Calb and a couple of others.
 
Steve_S said:
Hi folks,

I ordered & received some Busbars to eliminate the ShunBin pack's bar stock aluminium busbars, unfortunately what I got was for Headway Cells, wrong size, thin steel and completely useless.... Refunded and going back BUT now I'm in a lurch, the new BMS arrives today (3rd try by DHL, goodness gracious, what a lost cause) and now Fed up with this to the point of using 5 languages & cursing like a drunken sailor on a Saturday night after 12 months at sea.

I NEED 23 pieces of real copper bus bars meant for linking LFP cells. I know, it is an odd number... so let's do 24 pcs.
Something I can get FAST either from Ebay / Amazon or direct (sent msg to Bay Marine with hope) but none of this slow boat from China deals... having to use the genset to top off the fla's is really starting to irritate me in the worst of ways.... meanwhile I'm out $30 in S&H over the mistake which is even more irritating, which will be worse when I pay the postage to return the junk.
Click to expand...
www.ebay.com

Copper Flat Bar Stock 3/16" x 1" x 6"- Knife making, hobby, craft, C110- 1 Bar | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Copper Flat Bar Stock 3/16" x 1" x 6"- Knife making, hobby, craft, C110- 1 Bar at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
I could not find busbars to fit my application ordered bar from these folks. Great quality but i had to drill the holes. Have been very satisfied.
 
Well the venture down this rabbit hole has been fun (not) but educational. Hands tossed in the air, I found a company reasonably "local" if you can say 200kms / 125 miles away in each direction is local. (It's a Canadian Thing, everything is a distance, especially for remote rural guys like me) There may be a http://www.metalpros.com/ shop or similar near you as well. Bonus with this "short trip" is I'll be able to pick up other goodies as well to finish my current leg of the ongoing project. Sometimes having a city with over a million souls not that far has it's advantages when looking for stuff...

[COPPER C110 BFT 0180A] COPPER C110 FLAT BAR ASTM-B133 0.250" x 1.500" (1/4"x1-1/2")
(7 pcs @ 4.5", 2 pcs @ 2") 57.90 $ + Cutting @ $11.00 + HST (13% tax) = $77.85

BY the time your order the parts, pay s&h and wait, the cost is on par actually. To order busbars from China (like those from Sinopoly for example) the cost would be more in the end for me.
 
jasonhc73 said:
So, do you think lamp cord can't be used as speaker wire also?
Click to expand...
Lamp cord is designed to carry voltage, so ok for most speaker setups...

Plumbing pipe is an alloy for water conveyance...
Will it work for bus bars? Sure... but it may introduce resistance not anticipated.
 
Supervstech said:
Lamp cord is designed to carry voltage, so ok for most speaker setups...

Plumbing pipe is an alloy for water conveyance...
Will it work for bus bars? Sure... but it may introduce resistance not anticipated.
Click to expand...

The COPPER in the COPPER pipe is different than the COPPER in the lamp cord and the speaker wire, how???

The OHM's on the welding cable read the same as the pipe, which is the same as connecting the OHM meter directly to itself. ?
IMG_20200102_220729828.jpg IMG_20200102_220710424.jpg
You can tin the copper if worried about corrosion with iron, or just not use iron bolts.
 
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