Solar Postive Battery Connection
Hey guys. I'm in the process of putting the final touches on my 5er solar project. 4 Kyocera 130 watt panels, Morningstar TM-45 Charge Controller, Bogart TM-2030 Battery Monitor, Magnum MMS1012 invert...
Forum Discussion
The issues I ran into when using copper tubing, is that unless it has been thoroughly flattened and through fasteners are able to be torqued and maintain that torque for extended periods of time, connections will loosen and cause catastrophic failure to perform. Wrench a through-bolt tight enough and the copper will compress to the point where only annealing by resistance heating can cause fastener loss of torque. Hence a loose terminal.
Flatten copper tubing by pounding on an piece of steel used as a die to render a satisfactory finish. The copper will work harden doing this. Anneal the copper by heating it -very hot- with a propane torch, then plunge the copper into water. Finish flattening the piece. Then steel wool it to brightness. Dielectric grease works well to ****** oxidation.
I had to go through this nonsense repairing State of Nevada highway department trucks back in the 1970's. They would not invest in bussbars. It was this four month stint, that caught Jay Adams, attention in the District 9 CalTrans office (Tonopah and Bishop gossiped).
Nevada had an Oshkosh rotary snowplow that had more electrical failures than seemed possible. I proceeded to make buss bars out of schedule 80 copper pipe. I purchased the 3/8" and 1/4" silicon bronze bolts myself. I then soldered the bolt heads on the reverse side of the buss bar. A kind employee, by the name of Willie Manzini, jumped through hoops to get a two foot long branch of "Mountain Mahogany" an unidentifiable wood that I suspect was actually light colored ironwood. I cut it on a bandsaw and drilled holes. Talk about a home-brew setup. The wood cut like it was metal I had to spray the bandsaw blade with water.
Well, it worked. The rotary engine kept running, gauges and lights did not flicker off and a simple welding job of a monster transfer case shift fork with my own personal stash of Allstate 275 welding rod put the rotary back in service. It had been down for nearly a year "waiting" for a back-ordered shift fork. The mechanic's staff in Tonopah was not amused. Jay Adams told me the story went all the way to Carson City. Tough.
I like do-it-myself projects. For instance...
Smaller buss bars. Forget screws, they are a PITA to start the threads. Remove the screws. Remove the bussbar plate. The screws are usually #8 on USA bussbars. Purchase 3/8" long phillips head screws. Tighten the snot out of them. KEPS nuts with integral star lockwaher can now be used on the working side. Ring terminals can be hung on studs. an 11/32" hollow shaft nut driver can be used to tighten the keps nuts.
The final touch can be had by sourcing DOG POINT #8 screws. They are hard to find but eliminate the process of starting the keps nuts onto the screw threads.
Flatten copper tubing by pounding on an piece of steel used as a die to render a satisfactory finish. The copper will work harden doing this. Anneal the copper by heating it -very hot- with a propane torch, then plunge the copper into water. Finish flattening the piece. Then steel wool it to brightness. Dielectric grease works well to ****** oxidation.
I had to go through this nonsense repairing State of Nevada highway department trucks back in the 1970's. They would not invest in bussbars. It was this four month stint, that caught Jay Adams, attention in the District 9 CalTrans office (Tonopah and Bishop gossiped).
Nevada had an Oshkosh rotary snowplow that had more electrical failures than seemed possible. I proceeded to make buss bars out of schedule 80 copper pipe. I purchased the 3/8" and 1/4" silicon bronze bolts myself. I then soldered the bolt heads on the reverse side of the buss bar. A kind employee, by the name of Willie Manzini, jumped through hoops to get a two foot long branch of "Mountain Mahogany" an unidentifiable wood that I suspect was actually light colored ironwood. I cut it on a bandsaw and drilled holes. Talk about a home-brew setup. The wood cut like it was metal I had to spray the bandsaw blade with water.
Well, it worked. The rotary engine kept running, gauges and lights did not flicker off and a simple welding job of a monster transfer case shift fork with my own personal stash of Allstate 275 welding rod put the rotary back in service. It had been down for nearly a year "waiting" for a back-ordered shift fork. The mechanic's staff in Tonopah was not amused. Jay Adams told me the story went all the way to Carson City. Tough.
I like do-it-myself projects. For instance...
Smaller buss bars. Forget screws, they are a PITA to start the threads. Remove the screws. Remove the bussbar plate. The screws are usually #8 on USA bussbars. Purchase 3/8" long phillips head screws. Tighten the snot out of them. KEPS nuts with integral star lockwaher can now be used on the working side. Ring terminals can be hung on studs. an 11/32" hollow shaft nut driver can be used to tighten the keps nuts.
The final touch can be had by sourcing DOG POINT #8 screws. They are hard to find but eliminate the process of starting the keps nuts onto the screw threads.
