Tinned or Bare Copper Bus Bar Material?

[upnorthandpersonal]

Did the same nickel plating process with mine:

 

[chrisski]

Did the same nickel plating process with mine:

Always wondered what a quick electrolysis would do to the braided copper. Did you try?

I’ve also tinned copper lugs but could not get “inside the cup” where the wire goes. Inside the cup remained copper and anything outside coated

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Always wondered what a quick electrolysis would do to the braided copper. Did you try?

It actually works quite nicely, gives it a darker look. If you are not careful washing the bus bar after nickel plating, the residue will plate the copper braid over time. Putting it in the sun accelerates the process. It's quite interesting!

 

[Horsefly]

And on top of the other benefits of nickel plating, it's fun!

I had some flattened copper pipe bus bars for my tiny 25Ah 8S battery, so I plated them. I also had some bare copper ring terminals installed in my battery box, and I managed to plate them in-place by using the existing wiring in the battery box. I did have to be pretty careful and creative to get the nickel acetate in position for the plating, but it worked great.

I had to fight the temptation to plate my wife's wedding ring.

 

[chrisski]

And on top of the other benefits of nickel plating, it's fun!

Getting off topic, but next electrolysis for me will be lasting a leaf ? from a tree.

 

[HRTKD]

In post #12, the prices that I used from Metal Supermarkets was from their website. I received a formal quote yesterday that blew me away. This is pretty much a cut/paste from the quote and order sheets.

Metal Supermarkets
COF110SE/250750 Copper Flat Bar 110 (Square Edge) 0.250 X 0.750 1 PCS 247.90000 1 @ 72 IN 247.90
COF110SE/125750 Copper Flat Bar 110 (Square Edge) 0.125 X 0.750 1 1 PCS 212.10000 1 @ 72 IN 212.10
SUB-TOTAL 460.00

Midwest Steel
110 Copper Flat Bar (CFB1834) 1/8 x 3/4 $39.90
110 Copper Flat Bar (CFB1434) 1/4 x 3/4 $73.66
Subtotal: $113.56

I emailed Metal Supermarkets back to confirm the price and they said it's right.

 

[Bluedog225]

Wow. Good to know.

 

[time2roll]

I went with some bare copper from aliexpress to connect parallel cells. Same width and thickness of the included busbars.

 

[Ampster]

Nickel strips are on Amazon

I used Copper, polished it and put NoAlox between the bus bar and the Aluminum terminal top. I was going to use Aluminum busbars because they would have been easier to fabricate with my tools but I went to copper for the lower resistance and the thinner cross section that I thought would get me a better contact because of the flexibility of the thinner Copper. I seem to recall Nickel has higher resistance. It is used on lots of 18650 packs because it is easy to spot weld.

 

[Zwy]

In post #12, the prices that I used from Metal Supermarkets was from their website. I received a formal quote yesterday that blew me away. This is pretty much a cut/paste from the quote and order sheets.

Metal Supermarkets
COF110SE/250750 Copper Flat Bar 110 (Square Edge) 0.250 X 0.750 1 PCS 247.90000 1 @ 72 IN 247.90
COF110SE/125750 Copper Flat Bar 110 (Square Edge) 0.125 X 0.750 1 1 PCS 212.10000 1 @ 72 IN 212.10
SUB-TOTAL 460.00

Midwest Steel
110 Copper Flat Bar (CFB1834) 1/8 x 3/4 $39.90
110 Copper Flat Bar (CFB1434) 1/4 x 3/4 $73.66
Subtotal: $113.56

I emailed Metal Supermarkets back to confirm the price and they said it's right.

I picked up some 6" SCH80 pipe today. I had stopped by a local welding shop and it took a few days before he called me back with a price. I had him order it, everyone wanted $2400 but he was at $1800. Prices seem to have softened some here as supply is catching up with demand.

That Metals Supermarket price is crazy.

 

[ChangeMachine]

flatten copper pipe . think i should do three layers tho

If you get it for cheap and don't mind the labor it's not a bad idea. It outperforms aluminum by a long shot. 85% of the conductivity of c110 vs 63% or so for aluminum 6*** etc.