DIY battery cable supplier

IMO, the ultimate source for people who like to design/build/repair things:

www.mcmaster.com (no affiliation)

If they don't have it, or, can't get it, . . . . chances are it doesn't exist. Their online catalog is also a nice reference for what's available without having to drive around.

Chum lee

ktmrfs wrote:
and if your going to use cable larger than about 10ga (small wire number) look into a good hydraulic crimper, avaiable on ebay at reasonable prices. especially once you get to cable sizes from 4ga down to #0000.
crimp, cover with adhesive lined heat shrink. All of mine I used welding cable I cut to length, again cable cutters avaiable on amazon or ebay. Since welding cable is usually only available in black, I use red or black heat shrink as appropriate.

I do have a cable cutter that kinda looks like a big pair of pruning shears. I have a cheapo hydraulic crimper from I believe Harbor Freight.
Xantrex Freedom 458 feeding house batteries.
Going with 2ga stranded with 5/16 lugs finishing off with the sealant type heat shrink tubing.
Oh, on the heat shrink tubing, what size for 2ga with bell shaped lugs?

I noticed they also sell the little solder pellets but im sure crimp vs solder lugs would be another thread, subject.
I will have to google that one.

Thanks again for the reply's

Chum lee, McMasters good suggestion. I will look into them as well

GDEtrailer
Nice write up & pics. Great idea making your own lugs! I noticed those quality lugs can get up to the 5.00/pop! One pic looked like you sleeved that one end.

You guys got me thinking!
Thanks

CAST COPPER rather than stamped copper lugs are the most durable.

Sigh. I bought copper plate, cut it to convenient sizes and shapes then had it anodized.my remote alternator rectifier are 12c12 by 3/16" copper. 1600 amp 1275 PIV plating rectifiers. 1-1/9" studs, 2/0 braided leads.

mchero wrote:
Chum lee, McMasters good suggestion. I will look into them as well

GDEtrailer
Nice write up & pics. Great idea making your own lugs! I noticed those quality lugs can get up to the 5.00/pop! One pic looked like you sleeved that one end.

You guys got me thinking!
Thanks

I sleeved the entire lug end to end, mainly because I had the copper tubing on hand which happened to be the right size to slip over the other copper tubing.. In reality, most likely not needed but made for an extremely sturdy lug that could withstand many more amps than the copper wire.

Don't need solder pellets, I used good old rosin core solder for electronic/electrical work. This is not the place to use acid core or acid type flux.

As long as you have good shiny copper the Rosin core solder will work perfectly fine, the solder will wick right up between the two copper sleeves and even the wire into the copper sleeve.

The key here to soldering is to have clean copper surfaces before soldering.

Give the inside of the copper pipe a good cleaning with sand paper or a small round wire brush.

The trick to soldering my homemade lugs is to apply the heat to the outside of the lugs only, you will need a torch to get enough heat quick enough without melting the wire jacket. Applying the torch flame to the copper wire will oxidize the copper and solder will not flow between the wires.

This is pretty much the same idea as sweating copper pipe connections , heat the outside of the pipe near the connection then press the solder to the joint and when the copper gets to the melting temp of the solder it will wick right into the pipe joint..

Rosin flux is not as aggressive of a cleaner as paste flux for water pipes so you must start with absolutely clean copper. Most paste fluxes for water pipes you have to wipe and remove the remaining flux after soldering or it will start corroding the copper.. With wire, you cannot remove all of the leftover flux and the more aggressive flux for water lines will over time corrode the copper wire.

Mex, glad to see you are back!

Things have been rather boring and quiet around hear while you were absent..

Gdetrailer wrote:
Mex, glad to see you are back!

Things have been rather boring and quiet around hear while you were absent..

I’ll second that!

I have only a cell phone with micro keyboard. Laptops are dead and I am missing 2p0 dollars a .onth from Social insecurity. I even started a Go Fund Me account things are so bleak. I fight the cellular and I am going to give up posting

Mex, that's a shame.

I don't have any laptops laying around, I only deal with desktop PCs and have lots of used parts like motherboards (have a few nice micro ITX I3 system boards that are 6"x8" size) and processor, memory, HDs, keyboards and mice along with a few tower cases.. Don't have any extra Wifi cards or monitors.. Otherwise I would be happy to cobble up something for you..