Brass stock for electrical connectors

[SailRedemption]

I'm hooking up my battery system and I need to connect bus bars to ANL fuse blocks and other connections alike. I have some brass plates from a old throttle shifter assembly that I was going to cut up to use as the connectors instead of wire, as I wire with lugs will need too much room. They will of course be cleaned very well.

Is using brass alright for this application? It's about 1/8", at least, thick and I'm making them about 3/4" wide.

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[Dsanduril]

There are lots of different formulas for brass, but in general brass has about 1/4 the conductivity of copper (differences in brass conductivity mostly depend on how much zinc is in the mixture). But, the bottom line is you need about 4x the cross-sectional area in brass to carry the same current with the same losses.

You might find this interesting:

https://www.bluesea.com/resources/10...y_of_Materials

And the conclusion:

One should not conclude from this, however, that brass should never be used in electrical applications. There are instances where the superior tensile and machining characteristics of brass make it a better choice than copper as long as the sectional areas are increased proportionately to achieve the conductivity that a copper part would have in the application. Size for size, however, copper is exceeded only by silver among the materials commonly used for electrical applications.

[Cheechako]

Brass was commonly used in hand wired electronic gear. And is commonly used on purchased terminal strips also.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by SailRedemption

I'm hooking up my battery system and I need to connect bus bars to ANL fuse blocks and other connections alike. I have some brass plates from a old throttle shifter assembly that I was going to cut up to use as the connectors instead of wire, as I wire with lugs will need too much room. They will of course be cleaned very well.

Is using brass alright for this application? It's about 1/8", at least, thick and I'm making them about 3/4" wide.

See more @ redemptiverepair.com

===

.750 x .125 equals about 94,000 sq mils, about half way between 0 and 00 gauge copper wire. Assuming clean connections it will have a resistance of about .00009 ohms/ft and a current carrying ability of around 190 amps without excessive heating. After cleaning to a bright shine, I'd coat the connection areas with something like Thomas & Betts Kopr-Shield to prevent corrosion.

CP16 Thomas & Betts Kopr-Shield Compound, 16-Oz

AWG Copper Wire Size Table and Data Chart @ 100 Degrees F | Engineers Edge

[Terra Nova]

Copper is what you want to use.
https://www.bluesea.com/resources/10...y_of_Materials

[jimbunyard]

Don't know if this will help, but I have some 2" X 42" x 1/4" thick silver plated copper bus bar from an industrial distribution panel. They are drilled with pairs of 1/4" holes 1" apart across the width, and 1 3/8" apart down the length. I'm in Slidell, so if you're in the area and you can use one or a piece of one, let me know.

[Jim Cate]

Pure Cu, while having better conductivity, is quite soft. For applications where the screws must be removed frequently or where there is much strain on the wires , the chances of buggering the threads is significant. For those applications, brass has been the common material... with the appropriate cross section increase.

Jim

[SailRedemption]

Originally Posted by wayne.b

===

.750 x .125 equals about 94,000 sq mils, about half way between 0 and 00 gauge copper wire. Assuming clean connections it will have a resistance of about .00009 ohms/ft and a current carrying ability of around 190 amps without excessive heating. After cleaning to a bright shine, I'd coat the connection areas with something like Thomas & Betts Kopr-Shield to prevent corrosion.

CP16 Thomas & Betts Kopr-Shield Compound, 16-Oz

AWG Copper Wire Size Table and Data Chart @ 100 Degrees F | Engineers Edge

OK great, I figured they would be enough. I'll look into that coating as well.
I measured them out with calipers and they are. .96 x 7/8".

As soon as they all fit I'm going to run them in my vibrator tumbler to clean them up and polish then a quick hit on the buffer wheel.

See more @ redemptiverepair.com

[SailRedemption]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

Don't know if this will help, but I have some 2" X 42" x 1/4" thick silver plated copper bus bar from an industrial distribution panel. They are drilled with pairs of 1/4" holes 1" apart across the width, and 1 3/8" apart down the length. I'm in Slidell, so if you're in the area and you can use one or a piece of one, let me know.

Hey Jim, I think I have it but had this not worked I would definitely give you a shout.

Side note I'm also in Slidell!

See more @ redemptiverepair.com

[Hilbert]

After adding up the costs for Blue Sea components, I went with my own ANL fuse block assembly. I used a silver coated copper bus bar (1/4" x 1") from McMaster-Carr (#88865K21).