Open Neutral
Senior Member
- Location
- Inside the Beltway
- Occupation
- Engineer
Agreed, but hardly impossible. We have heat sources, solder, etc. The shop has done some repair work on copper sculptures from time to time.
Lugs....
- Thread starter Open Neutral
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Agreed, but hardly impossible. We have heat sources, solder, etc. The shop has done some repair work on copper sculptures from time to time.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Not impossible, but the bold type below is why putting a few 12 AWG conductors together and soldering them is seen by many as more practical then doing so with 3 AWG conductors.
- Occupation
- Licensed Electrician
Solder makes good electronic connections, it makes poor electrical connections. Crimps are more reliable.
Tony S
Senior Member
- Location
- Resting under the Major Oak UK
Soldering depends on the skils of the operator.
Crimps, at least the ones we used, use ratchet tools which are regularly calibrated and tested. Just means that operator error isn't likely.
Tony S
Senior Member
- Location
- Resting under the Major Oak UK
I must be one of the dinosaurs that still can solder any sized conductor termination. I’ll admit it takes a bit longer but I’ve never known one fail.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
I agree, and to solder larger conductors like OP would be doing takes some different skills and even different equipment then what you can get by with doing 12 AWG and smaller conductors.
Maybe you're just good at it.
I think the cables connected to the bars in my picture were 185mm^2. Would you really have soldered them? All 12 of them?
I don't know what 185mm^2 converts to in US measurements = the rables I seen go up to 4/0AWG and that's 107mm^2
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
NEC chapter 9 table 8 - Conductor properties
250,000 circular mil conductor says is 168 square mm
300,000 circular mil conductor says is 201 square mm
Appreciated, thank you!
Big conductors. It's a 1250A breaker. You can see that its terminals are nowhere near big enough hence the extender bars to land the lugs on.
Tony S
Senior Member
- Location
- Resting under the Major Oak UK
So you wouldn’t fancy tackling 70 x 500mm² Cu singles? I don't know the AWG equivalent.
Not sure what you mean by 70 x 500mm²..........
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
AWG stops at 4/0 larger then that is expressed in circular mils.
Chart I mentioned before says 750,000 circular mil conductor is 505 square mm.
Ah, do you mean 70 runs of 70 x 500mm² Cu?
That wouldn't suit the nature of what we did.
And in light of the presence of products that make life easier, why????
Solder, split bolts, barrel crimps etc, all had their place decades back- simply put, its what was available at the time.
Those methods didn't fall by the wayside for no reason.
They were simply replaced by modern products that are just as reliable/more idiot proof but quicker to apply- more labor is more time and time is money.
Agree with all of that. One other point I would add is that the correct tool gets used for the job and it is correctly maintained.And in light of the presence of products that make life easier, why????
Solder, split bolts, barrel crimps etc, all had their place decades back- simply put, its what was available at the time.
Those methods didn't fall by the wayside for no reason.
They were simply replaced by modern products that are just as reliable/more idiot proof but quicker to apply- more labor is more time and time is money.
- Occupation
- Licensed Electrician
- Occupation
- Licensed Electrician
I believe that if solder connections were superior we would use them today. Sure crimps are easier but they are also a better way to make connections.And in light of the presence of products that make life easier, why????
Solder, split bolts, barrel crimps etc, all had their place decades back- simply put, its what was available at the time.
Those methods didn't fall by the wayside for no reason.
They were simply replaced by modern products that are just as reliable/more idiot proof but quicker to apply- more labor is more time and time is money.
Open Neutral
Senior Member
- Location
- Inside the Beltway
- Occupation
- Engineer
This is quite true. Ma Bell spent years and $$$ designing methods that depended less on operator skill, and more importantly, were either good or visibly bad; i.e. obvious failures. A 66 punchdown works or falls off. One of soldering's issues is the required skill and finesse of the craftsman, necessary for avoiding cold solder joints that may fail later.
And yes, your 60 watt Weller won't handle such a cable splice.
But you can rest easy anyhow, I went ahead and ordered some Morris Products 97624 Multi-Cable Insulated Connectors...
JoeStillman
Senior Member
- Location
- West Chester, PA
Most people don't know that Dante was on the original Code Making Panel for article 240.21.
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